Tears and disappointment flowed Monday after newly sworn-in President Donald Trump cut off a mobile app that allowed migrants to apply to enter the U.S. legally as asylum-seekers. All pending appointments made with the app have been canceled, too.
The CBP One app was set up under the Biden administration as a way to curb people crossing the southwest border illegally to request asylum. Once it went into effect, it was the only way for people to get an appointment to request asylum.
Monday afternoon, Customs and Border Protection posted on its website that the app was no longer available for that purpose and “existing appointments have been canceled.” Some 280,000 people were logging into the app daily to secure an appointment as of Jan. 7, according to Reuters.
In Juárez, Mexico, a woman cried, “Oh God!” as she wailed against a post at the border fence, Noticias Telemundo reported.
Another migrant, Julio Alberto Hernández, originally from El Salvador and waiting in Tijuana, told Noticias Telemundo that his appointment was three or four days away.
“I was so happy because I was going to get to enter to support my children,” Hernández said in Spanish. “But with this, we’re left sad because they erased it.”
The news was delivered to CBP One users through pop-up notifications in different languages saying CBP One appointments “are no longer valid.” Nearly 1 million people entered the U.S. through the CBP One App on two-year permits that also gave them work eligibility, according to The Associated Press.
Trump had previously telegraphed his plans to end migrants’ use of the app. The Biden administration said the app helped organize a chaotic asylum process, marked by numerous people crossing the border illegally and surrendering to Border Patrol agents.
But the app also was criticized for technical glitches and the long waits for initial screenings to determine if migrants qualified to apply for asylum. Trump and others also disliked the number of people granted entry.
Christian Martinez, of Honduras, said he had sent an application and just gotten a response that applications were no longer being accepted.
“Right now I’m feeling a sentiment as if something just vanished. That hope that I could enter legally, that just got cut off, and it’s very difficult,” Martinez said.
The wait has been a year-and-a-half long for Melanie Mendoza, who called the cancellations unfair. “Now they tell us, ‘No, your appointments are not valid,” she said wiping away tears.
In Matamoros, Mexico, a group of migrants from the central Mexican state of Zacatecas arrived at a legal border crossing at midday, but were turned back by border authorities who said all appointments were now void, they told Reuters.
Honduran Denia Mendez, sitting in the courtyard of a migrant shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico — across from Eagle Pass, Texas — stared at an email for several minutes, before her eyes welled with tears.
“They canceled my appointment,” she said.
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