Mexico City – The first underground effects of President Trump's sweeping immigration reforms were seen Monday on the Mexican side of a U.S. port of entry, where hundreds of asylum seekers have been stranded. Applying for asylum.
In the early hours of Monday morning, the day of Trump's inauguration, scores of people lined up at ports of entry for scheduled interviews with U.S. inspectors — only to hear that their interviews had been canceled and that the cellphone application program, known as CPB One, had ended.
The demise of CBP One leaves tens of thousands of migrants in Mexico without legal means of entry into the United States. Some waited six months or more for an interview with CBB One. Many people were waiting in line facing each other.
“We don't know what we're going to do,” said Aliana Armenta, 22, from Cuba, speaking from the Mexican side of the border bridge between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso over the Rio Grande.
She, her husband, Fidel Jimenez, 23, and the couple's 1-month-old daughter, Carla, were scheduled for a CBP One interview Monday in El Paso. The family arrived on the Mexican side of the bridge at 5 a.m., along with asylum seekers whose application had been canceled, their hopes dashed.
“Maybe we'll go back to Mexico City,” Jimenez said, noting that they had been waiting months to confirm their CBP One interview in the Mexican capital. “We really don't know.”
Hundreds expressed their frustrations at the border crossing points. Some hugged and cried when they learned that CBB One was cancelled.
CPB One was originally created to prevent backups of travelers entering the country legally. After downloading it to their phones and entering their passport information, foreign nationals can use the app to smooth their way through border crossings and airports.
In 2023, the Biden administration expanded use of the app in an effort to help crack down on asylum seekers arriving at the Southwest border. CBP One has facilitated the entry of nearly 1 million people, mostly asylum seekers, into the United States through ports of entry along the US-Mexico border. Most were given notices to appear in US immigration courts for adjudication of their cases.
The Biden administration hailed the app as part of a solution to the border crisis. Immigrant advocates complained that CBP One was bogus and reduced asylum eligibility to a lottery.
Trump and Republican leaders have condemned the use, an “open borders” policy that encourages more immigrants to enter the United States without proper background checks.
The cancellation of the plan was among several immigration-related measures announced Monday. At his inauguration in Washington, Trump said he would Declare a national emergency Sign executive orders on the southern border and to combat illegal immigration.
In addition, Trump has said he plans to resettle in Mexico, a controversial program launched in his first administration — and ended by Biden — that forced asylum seekers arriving at the Southwest border to wait for U.S. immigration court dates in Mexico. Critics have called Mexico inhumane and a boon to drug traffickers who prey on stranded migrants, but supporters say it's an effective deterrent to bogus asylum claims.
Special correspondents were Cecilia Sánchez Vidal in Mexico City, Gabriela Minjares in Ciudad Juárez and Gabriela M. Cordova contributed to this report..
