Hundreds of migrants have waited on the U.S. bank of the Rio Grande for days to be apprehended. Others say they want to follow the rules to enter legally — if they could just get the government phone app to work.
Joseline Decaires Jimnez, a migrant from Venezuela, tears up as she sits on a bus headed from El Paso to a shelter in Denver leaving her family behind in Mexico. Jimnez was separated from her husband and two daughters while trying to apply for asylum through the CBP One mobile app., The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
The family is among thousands of migrants who have waited in Mexican border cities for a chance to legally enter the U.S. as the federal government prepares to end the use of Title 42, the pandemic public health order that immigration officials have used 2.7 million times since March 2020 to quickly expel migrants at the southern border without allowing them to request asylum.
The app wouldn’t let her add the rest of her family to the appointment. So she took a bus to Arizona and crossed into the U.S. there without her family two months ago. U.S. officials are expecting up to 13,000 migrants to cross the southern border every day once Title 42 lifts — more than double the current average. Already, shelters on both sides of the border are overcrowded, and countless migrants are sleeping on the streets in both El Paso and Juárez.
A woman near El Paso's Sacred Heart Church — where hundreds of migrants gather each day — shows the CBP One app on her phone. Many migrants say the app, which the U.S. government wants migrants to use rather than seeking asylum in person, crashes constantly as too many migrants try to use it during the 10-minute window for making asylum appointments.The Biden administration ordered 1,500 federal troops to the border to help immigration agents on the ground as Title 42 ends.
They have been waiting in this no man’s land between the border fence and the river to surrender to Border Patrol agents in hopes that they’ll be allowed to claim asylum rather than be returned to Mexico under Title 42.One woman said she had been waiting a week on the U.S. side and is now making trips back to Juárez for food and water.
He said he bought a bus ticket back to Juárez and does not want to try requesting asylum again because he’s worried he’ll get deported. Since arriving at the border, Hernandez has been trying to follow the rules and make an asylum appointment through the app. Every morning, she types in her biographical information, snaps a photo of herself as the app requires and presses the button. Then the app says there are no more appointments left and bounces her to the homepage.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
PolitiFact - Title 42 expiration: What's next for migrants applying for asylum at US’ southern border?Title 42, a public health policy that has blocked many migrants at the southern border from seeking asylum, expires May 11. The U.S. government is preparing for a migration spike, as people return to using a 1996 legal exception to seek asylum.
Read more »
PolitiFact - Title 42 expiration: What's next for migrants applying for asylum at US’ southern border?Title 42, a public health policy that has blocked many migrants at the southern border from seeking asylum, expires May 11. The U.S. government is preparing for a migration spike, as people return to using a 1996 legal exception to seek asylum.
Read more »
Migrants waiting to cross the border say government’s app for asylum-seekers is a messHundreds of migrants have waited on the U.S. bank of the Rio Grande for days to be apprehended. Others say they want to follow the rules to enter legally — if they could just get the government phone app to work.
Read more »
Diocese of Oakland Files for Bankruptcy in Wake of Hundreds of Sex Abuse LawsuitsThe Roman Catholic Bishop of Oakland filed for bankruptcy protection Monday in the face of 330 child sex abuse claims going back decades, church officials announced.
Read more »
Diocese of Oakland files for bankruptcy in the face of hundreds of sex abuse lawsuitsThe Diocese of Oakland announced Monday it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the face of hundreds of potential sex abuse lawsuits against the diocese.
Read more »