Migrants from Africa and Haiti reportedly cannot utilize app to accept their photos, which is now required to apply for asylum
\nThe US government\u2019s new mobile app for migrants to apply for asylum at the US-Mexico border is blocking many Black people from being able to file their claims because of facial recognition bias in the tech, immigration advocates say.
\nNon-profits that assist Black asylum seekers are finding that the app, CBP One, is failing to register many people with darker skin tones, effectively barring them from their right to request entry into the US.
\nPeople who have made their way to the south-west border from Haiti and African countries, in particular, are falling victim to apparent algorithm bias in the technology that the app relies on.
\nOften disparaged within the already-marginalized population of people trying to migrate into the US, Black people within that group are now confronted with yet another hurdle.
\nAdvocates are protesting that since the app\u2019s rollout by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) last month, the algorithm problems are sharply reducing the number of Black asylum seekers who can fill out their applications.
\nThe app is working for some migrants but blocking others, especially those who are most vulnerable, said Felicia Rangel-Samponaro, co-director of the non-profit Sidewalk School, which provides educational programs for asylum seekers in the Mexican cities of Reynosa and Matamoros, near the eastern end of the Texas border, where many Haitians are living in makeshift camps. It also runs a shelter in Reynosa with the church group Kaleo International.
\n\u201cThere are about 4,000 Black asylum seekers waiting in Reynosa and at least another 1,000 Haitians in Matamoros. Hardly anyone is getting an asylum appointment. Neither population is being represented as it should,\u201d she said.
\nWith the public health law Title 42 still in place as a result of the latest court ruling, and expanded last month to add Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans alongside Venezuelans as restricted nationalities, in yet another controversial turn in the Biden administration\u2019s immigration policy, options for seeking asylum at the border have narrowed further.
\nThe government announced in early January that the new CBP One mobile app would be the only way migrants arriving at the border can apply for asylum and exemption from Title 42 restrictions, saying it would \u201creduce wait times and help ensure safe, orderly and streamlined processing\u201d.
\nIn the Mexican city of Tijuana, at the opposite end the US-Mexico border, near San Diego, another large community of Haitian asylum seekers is waiting and experiencing the same problems with the app, according to non-profits that are assisting them, as are people from African countries and other Black migrants trying to enter.
\n\u201cThe facial recognition is not picking up [images] if people have darker skin tones,\u201d said Erika Pinheiro, a staff attorney at Al Otro Lado, a binational legal and humanitarian aid organization.
\nPinheiro\u2019s organization held a workshop for Haitians in Tijuana on how to use the app a day after it went live on 12 January. But with the app unable to map the features of many darker-skinned asylum seekers, they cannot upload their photos in order to receive an asylum appointment with the US immigration authorities, Pinheiro said.
\n\u201cThe Haitians at the workshop were getting error after error message on the app,\u201d she said.
\nRangel-Samponaro noted that others are being blocked, too. \u201cWe\u2019ve also seen it affect Venezuelans who are darker-skinned,\u201d she said.
\nRacial bias in face recognition technology has long been a problem. Increasingly used by law enforcement and government agencies to fill databases with biometric information including fingerprints and iris scans, a 2020 report by Harvard University called it the \u201cleast accurate\u201d identifier, especially among darker-skinned women with whom the error rate is higher than 30%.
\nEmmanuella Camille, a staff attorney with the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a non-profit that aids Haitian and African asylum seekers, said the CBP One app has helped \u201clighter-skin toned people from other nations\u201d obtain their asylum appointments \u201cbut not Haitians\u201d and other Black applicants.
\nBesides the face recognition technology not registering them, there are other barriers, too. Many asylum seekers have outdated cellphones \u2013 if they have cellphones at all \u2013 that don\u2019t support the CBP One app and often have limited or no access to the internet.
\nAll three of the non-profits told the Guardian they have been in daily contact with US CBP about issues with the app. Last week, CBP introduced a Haitian Creole version of the app, Camille said. Before that it was only offered in Spanish and English.
\nCamille said migrants are \u201cbeing told by CBP that the only way they can cross the border is by using this app \u2026 [It\u2019s] the only source of hope for them right now.\u201dRangel-Samponaro said advocates were experimenting with ways to get the technology to work for darker-skinned asylum seekers. One fix they\u2019ve come up with is installing bright construction lights at the shelter in Reynosa, which Haitians and others shine on their faces as they take the photo to upload to the app.
\n\u201cSo far it seems to be working, so the adults can get past that,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it\u2019s still not working for children under the age of six.\u201d
\nThis prevents families from applying for asylum.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve yet to speak with a white asylum seeker who has had the same issue,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we help everybody in both cities.\u201d
\nAnother solution is that Black asylum seekers buy brand new cellphones. \u201cIf you can afford to spend $1,000 on a new cellphone, then you can upload the image no problem. But who can afford that?\u201d Rangel-Samponaro said. \u201cNot anyone living in a migrant camp.\u201d
\nCBP did not reply with comments before publication, after being approached with questions by the Guardian.<\/p>\n
Theguardian<\/p>\n
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