Just hours after taking office, the new Trump administration shut down CBP One, a Biden administration app that allowed migrants to request appointments to apply for asylum in the U.S., closing one of the key avenues for migrants to come into the country legally. But despite the new hurdle, asylum-seekers remain determined to make their way up north and start a new life.
That was the case of Dayana Castro, a 25-year-old migrant from Venezuela whose appointment was canceled after the app shut down. Her, her husband and their 4- and 7-year-old children had made their way through the dangerous Darien Gap jungle, escaping extreme weather conditions and criminal gangs that prey on migrants like them.
Castro and her family waited a year in Mexico for their asylum appointments, which were scheduled for February. Now, with little options, she's still determined to enter the U.S., she told The Associated Press.
"We're going to keep going. We can't go home after all we've been through, after all the countries we've fought our way through, only to give up now," she said from a small shelter in central Mexico beside a freight train line they were riding north.
The CBP One app facilitated the legal entry of nearly 1 million migrants, many seeking asylum, to legally enter the U.S. since January 2023. But that all came to an end when Trump, right after taking office, not only called for the shut down of the app, but also when he declared a national emergency at the southern border, announcing plans to send U.S. troops in efforts to halt illegal entry.
The new directive has left tens of thousands of migrants in a legal limbo. For many of them, with valid asylum claims, returning to their home countries, like Venezuela, Cuba or Haiti, is not an option, given the economic, social and humanitarian crises underway there. Not being able to easily return home, the recent shut down may leave them floating around the Americas "completely unprotected," Adam Isacson, defense oversight analyst for the human rights organization Washington Office on Latin America, told The Associated Press.
While the demise of the app essentially led to the end of one of the key legal pathways to enter the country, some experts believe the decision may backfire, leading to an increase in undocumented migration.
Matthew Hudak, who retired last year as deputy chief of the Border Patrol, said the demise of CBP One could encourage people to cross illegally. To be effective, it must be coupled with something like "Remain in Mexico," a remnant of Trump's first term that forced about 70,000 asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court, he said.
"The message with CBP One being shut down is basically, 'Hey we're not going to allow you to show up; the doors are not being open.' For that to be meaningful, there has to be some level of consequence if you bypass any lawful means and you're doing it illegally," he said.
The app's end is just one episode in a series of executive orders the president enacted in hopes to curb illegal immigration. Other plans in his agenda include sending troops to the border, expanding powers to enact rapid deportations and taking aims to end birthright citizenship.
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