Hours before sunrise, migrants at one of Mexico\u2019s largest shelters wake up and go online, hoping to secure an appointment to try to seek asylum in the U.S. The daily ritual resembles a race for concert tickets when online sales begin for a major act, as about 100 people glide their thumbs over phone screens.
\nNew appointments are available each day at 6 a.m., but migrants find themselves stymied by error messages from the U.S. government\u2019s CBPOne mobile app that\u2019s been overloaded since the Biden administration\u00a0introduced it\u00a0Jan. 12.
\nMany can\u2019t log in; others are able to enter their information and select a date, only to have the screen freeze at final confirmation. Some get a message saying they must be near a U.S. crossing, despite being in Mexico\u2019s largest border city.
\nAt Embajadores de Jesus in Tijuana, only two of more than 1,000 migrants got appointments in the first two weeks, says director Gustavo Banda.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re going to continue trying, but it\u2019s a failure for us,\u201d Erlin Rodriguez of Honduras said after another fruitless run at an appointment for him, his wife and their two children one Sunday before dawn. \u201cThere\u2019s no hope.\u201d
\nMareni Montiel of Mexico was elated to select a date and time for her two children \u2014 then didn\u2019t get a confirmation code. \u201cNow I\u2019m back to zero,\u201d said Montiel, 32, who has been waiting four months at the shelter, where the sound of roosters fill the crisp morning air at the end of a rough, dirt road.
\nCBPOne replaced an\u00a0opaque patchwork of exemptions\u00a0to a public health order known as Title 42 under which the U.S. government has denied migrants\u2019 rights to claim asylum since March 2020. People who have come from other countries find themselves in Mexico waiting for an exemption or policy change \u2014 unless they try to cross illegally into the U.S.
\nIf it succeeds, CBPOne could be used by asylum-seekers even if Title 42 is lifted as a safe, orderly alternative to illegal entry, which reached the highest level ever recorded in the U.S.\u00a0in December.\u00a0It could also discourage large camps on Mexico\u2019s side of the border, where migrants cling to unrealistic hopes.
\nBut a range of complaints have surfaced:
\n\u2014 Applications are available in English and Spanish only, languages many of the migrants don\u2019t speak. Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said authorities failed to take \u201cthe most basic fact into account: the national language of Haiti is Haitian Creole.\u201d U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it plans a Creole version in February; it has not announced other languages.
\n\u2014 Some migrants, particularly with darker skin, say the app is rejecting required photos, blocking or delaying applications. CBP says it is aware of some technical issues, especially when new appointments are made available, but that users\u2019 phones may also contribute. It says a live photo is required for each login as a security measure.
\nThe issue has hit Haitians hardest, said Felicia Rangel-Samponaro, director of The Sidewalk School, which assists migrants in Reynosa and Matamoros, across from Texas\u2019 Rio Grande Valley. Previously, about 80% of migrants admitted to seek asylum in the area were Haitian, Rangel-Samponaro said. On Friday, she counted 10 Black people among 270 admitted in Matamoros.
\n\u201cWe brought construction lights pointed at your face,\u201d she said. \u201cThose pictures were still not able to go through. … They can\u2019t get past the picture part.\u201d
\n\u2014 A requirement that migrants apply in northern and central Mexico doesn\u2019t always work. CBP notes the app won\u2019t work right if the locator function is switched off. It\u2019s also trying to determine if signals are bouncing off U.S. phone towers.
\nBut not only is the app failing to recognize that some people are at the border, applicants outside the region have been able to circumvent the location requirement by using virtual private networks. The agency said it has found a fix for that and is updating the system.
\n\u2014 Some advocates are disappointed that there is no explicit special consideration for LGBTQ applicants. Migrants are asked if they have a physical or mental illness, disability, pregnancy, lack housing, face a threat of harm, or are under 21 years old or over 70.
\nStill, LGBTQ migrants are not disqualified. At Casa de Luz, a Tijuana shelter for about 50 LGBTQ migrants, four quickly got appointments. A transgender woman from El Salvador said she didn\u2019t check any boxes when asked about specific vulnerabilities.
\nThe U.S. began blocking asylum-seekers under President Donald Trump on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19, though Title 42 is\u00a0not applied uniformly\u00a0and many deemed vulnerable are exempted.
\nStarting in President Joe Biden\u2019s first year in office until last week, CBP arranged exemptions through advocates, churches, attorneys and migrant shelters, without publicly identifying them or saying how many slots were available. The arrangement prompted allegations of favoritism and corruption. In December, CBP\u00a0severed ties\u00a0with one group that was charging Russians.
\nFor CBPOne to work, enough people must get appointments to discourage crossing the border illegally, said Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney and former aide to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat.
\n\u201cIf these appointments start dragging out to two or three or four months, it\u2019s going to be much harder to keep it going,\u201d he said. \u201cIf people aren\u2019t getting through, they won\u2019t use the program.\u201d
\nCBP, which schedules appointments up to two weeks out, declines to say how many people are getting in. But Enrique Lucero, director of migrant affairs for the city of Tijuana, said U.S. authorities are accepting 200 daily in San Diego, the largest border crossing. That\u2019s about the same as the previous system but well below the number of Ukrainians processed after Russia\u2019s invasion last year.
\nJosue Miranda, 30, has been staying at Embajadores de Jesus for five months and prefers the old system of working through advocacy groups. The shelter compiled an internal waiting list that moved slowly but allowed him to know where he stood. Banda, the shelter director, said 100 were getting selected every week.
\nMiranda packed his suitcases for him, his wife and their three children, believing his turn was imminent until the new online portal was introduced. Now, the Salvadoran migrant has no idea when, or if, his chance will come. Still, he plans to keep trying through CBPOne.
\n\u201cThe problem is that the system is saturated and it\u2019s chaos,\u201d he said after another morning of failed attempts.<\/p>\n