After newly sworn President Donald Trump shut down a mobile app that let refugees register to lawfully enter the United States as asylum-seekers, tears and disappointment were shed on Monday. Additionally, the app has canceled all pending appointments.
During the Biden administration, the CBP One app was created to prevent people from unlawfully crossing the southwest border to apply for asylum. It was the sole means for applicants to schedule an appointment to request asylum when it went into force.
Customs and Border Protection announced on its website Monday afternoon that previous reservations had been canceled and that the app was no longer available for that use. As of January 7, 280,000 users were using the app every day to make an appointment, according to Reuters.
Noticias Telemundo reported that a woman in Ju rez, Mexico, screamed, “Oh God!” while sobbing against a post near the border fence.
Julio Alberto Hernndez, a fellow immigrant who is currently waiting in Tijuana and is originally from El Salvador, informed Noticias Telemundo that he has an appointment in three or four days.
In Spanish, Hernndez remarked, “I was thrilled because I was going to be able to enter and support my children.” “But with this, we re left sad because they erased it.”
Users of CBP One were informed that their appointments were no longer valid through pop-up messages in various languages.According to The Associated Press, nearly 1 million individuals entered the country via the CBP One App on two-year licenses that also allowed them to work.
Trump had already hinted at his intentions to stop allowing migrants to use the program. According to the Biden administration, the app facilitated a disorganized asylum procedure in which many individuals crossed the border illegally and turned themselves in to Border Patrol officers.
However, the lengthy wait times for preliminary screenings to ascertain if refugees were eligible to petition for asylum and technological issues with the app also drew criticism. The amount of people admitted was also a source of disapproval for Trump and others.
According to Christian Martinez of Honduras, he just received a notification stating that applications were no longer being accepted after submitting one.
I feel as though something simply disappeared right now. According to Martinez, “that hope that I could enter legally just got cut off, and it’s very difficult.”
Melanie Mendoza, who has been waiting for a year and a half, said the cancellations are unjust. As she wiped away her tears, she remarked, “Now they tell us, ‘No, your appointments are not valid.”
A group of migrants from the state of Zacatecas in central Mexico reached a legitimate border crossing in Matamoros, Mexico, around noon, but were turned away by border officials who informed Reuters that all appointments were now null and invalid.
Sitting across from Eagle Pass, Texas, in the courtyard of a migrant shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Honduran Denia Mendez gazed at an email for a few minutes until tears filled her eyes.
“My appointment was canceled,” she remarked.