14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico City, August 5, 2024 — The United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed last Saturday that “soon” migrants will be able to schedule appointments through the CBP One application from the states of Tabasco and Chiapas, in Mexico, to obtain one of the 1,450 appointments available daily, according to the AP news agency. The measure “will reduce the risks of people entering through the southern border of Mexico,” the statement clarifies. Last Friday, Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena said that, as part of the agreements with the United States, “from now on, CBP One appointments can be obtained in Chiapas and Tabasco,” along with the rest of the states where they are already available. She also mentioned the reduction in the number of migrants crossing Mexico, from 12,498 arrests in December 2023 to 1,941 in August of this year.
Bárcena specified that these numbers correspond to “migrants who try to enter the United States without an appointment and are processed .”
Aledmys Morell, a 27-year-old Cuban who is in Tijuana waiting for a response after requesting an appointment, tells 14ymedio about the difficulties of staying in Mexico while waiting for the U.S. authorities to respond. “Life is hell here. This place is full of gangs, robberies and extortion, but my cousin tells me to wait, not to cross illegally because I’ll be deported and will no longer be able to enter the United States.”
Morell, from Santiago de Cuba, explains that he filled out the application last June. He did it from Tijuana because he could not complete the procedure when he was in Mexico City. “You have to keep trying and then wait.” The CBP One application designates appointments every day at 9:00 am in Tijuana, Mexicali and Nogales; at 10:00 in Ciudad Juárez and Mexico City; and at 11:00 a.m. in Piedras Negras, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros.
Jaiver Rodríguez, a Venezuelan who shares a room with Morell, points out that he has been waiting for the appointment for four months “and it hasn’t arrived.” Some of his compatriots got it in one month, but “I don’t know what their problem is with me.” Two of his relatives caught up with him in Tijuana because they were not allowed to leave Tapachula (Chiapas).
The Cuban photographer Ginle Cubillas Arriola, who is in the United States, tells this newspaper that one of the mistakes that migrants make is that, in their desperation over the delay of a response, they end up submitting more than one application, which “lengthens the wait,” and the request, sometimes, is rejected. “I know of people who asked for a group appointment, mistakenly thinking that this was the best way.”
Rodríguez says that since last July, the CBP One application “requests, in addition to the migrant’s data, a selfie and a geolocation tag.” The Venezuelan hopes that the request for appointments through the application will not be affected by these requirements or by the recent temporary suspension of travel permits for those who have received the humanitarian parole – because of alleged “significant levels of fraud.”
For his part, Morell managed to get a job in an inn (restaurant) washing dishes in exchange for food and 480 pesos (24.88 dollars) per week, which allows him to share a room with Venezuelans and Colombians. ” At least I’m eating. There are plenty of migrants living on the street,” laments the Santiaguero.
Since its launch in January 2023 and up to last June, the CBP One application has been used by more than 687,000 people who have managed to successfully schedule their appointments to present themselves at one of the eight points of entry into the United States.
According to official data, the United States processed more than 44,500 people last May through these appointments, using the information on the application.
The border entry points in Tijuana and Matamoros recorded 400 appointments per day, according to an official report by the Strauss Center of the University of Austin, Texas. In Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo and Piedras Negras they reported more than 200 appointments a day.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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