When Jes heard the news, he was halfway through his shift as a cook at a Houston sports club. Newly elected President Donald Trump had shut down the app that his wife, 13-year-old daughter, and 14-year-old son had been using for five months in Mexico to make an appointment to enter the United States.
A year earlier, Jes, who is only being recognized by his first name while his asylum case is still pending, arrived in Houston after scheduling an appointment via the same government smartphone app, CBP One. The app has become the main method for asylum seekers to enter the United States since the Biden administration established a policy in May 2023 mandating its usage for the majority of asylum seekers.
The Venezuelan immigrant came first in order to save money for his family’s trip throughout Central America and the Colombian-Panamanian rainforest. Until Monday’s revelation, their reunion appeared imminent.
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According to Jess, the problem is that I’m spending more time apart from them and they’re spending more time away from me.
Nearly immediately after Trump took office, the app’s discontinuation was announced Monday, shattering the expectations of migrants like Jes’s family who believed they were moving in the right direction. After traveling thousands of miles, they are now in a state of uncertainty, not knowing whether to wait for another legal alternative, enter the country illegally, or return to a country experiencing a political and humanitarian crisis.
Jess wants the family to be together no matter what they decide.
They are my children.”I can’t leave them,” Jess remarked.
Trump border policy
Monday’s rush of executive orders to limit immigration and declare a national emergency at the border marked the end of CBP One. By prohibiting the majority of people from applying for asylum between ports of entry in June 2024, former President Joe Biden already curtailed access to asylum. Asylum access was partially preserved by the CBP One app until Monday, when it was shut down.
Advocates for immigrant rights warned that the app’s shutdown and other border security and immigration measures announced Monday will only increase the risks of migration rather than halt it.
Abby Maxman, president and CEO of Oxfam America, a global organization that fights poverty and inequality, said in a statement that these policies will destroy families, criminalize people who are already marginalized, put asylum-seekers back in danger, and directly benefit the criminal cartels that take advantage of the vulnerability of asylum seekers at our southern border.
The American Civil Liberties Union promptly contested the app’s closure in court, calling for a meeting with the judge right away and urging judges to take swift action to reestablish asylum access.CBP One’s termination is only the first of Trump’s intended border reforms. On Monday, Trump also promised to reinstate the Remain in Mexico policy, which made asylum claimants wait for their court dates in perilous border cities in Mexico.
However, putting this idea into effect can be challenging. The Biden administration’s decision to terminate the program was previously upheld by the Supreme Court. Additionally, the policy depends on Mexico’s cooperation, which is dubious.
Everything comes crashing down
According to R, 54, who fled with her daughter more than a year ago from gang threats in her Honduran coastal hometown, migrants at a shelter in Reynosa sobbed when they heard the news. They spent over a year waiting for an appointment.
Consider how long you wait, and then everything suddenly falls apart. “It hurts us,” R remarked. Due to the danger of kidnapping and violence in Mexico, migrants who are still there are only identified by their initials.
For five months, my 12-year-old son and I, a 38-year-old Salvadoran woman who left her violent boyfriend, had been waiting for an appointment at the same shelter.
“We hope that God touches the president’s heart and he sees everyone who is here at this shelter with children,” she said. I think he understands that we’re going for the opportunity to work while avoiding several threats.
Although they expressed gratitude for the possibility to enter the United States, migrants who received some of the final CBP One appointments expressed their wish that other migrants be given the same opportunity.
After waiting in Mexico for a year and a half, 44-year-old writer Carlos Duarte, who escaped threats for his work in Honduras, recalled how relieved he was to have an appointment with CBP One in December.
We’re heading out. That day, as he gave his wife a hug, he declared, “Our suffering has ended.”
Duarte, who is currently in Houston, contacted friends who were still waiting for appointments in Mexico on Monday. Many of them were distraught and found it difficult to explain the shift to their children.
Dreams have been dashed by the cancelation of CBP One, according to Duarte. Official details regarding how these families, who have been waiting for so long, might be given priority for legal entry are scarce.
Days before the inauguration, Delmy, 40, entered the United States through a CBP One appointment after escaping threats from gang members in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Delmy, who is only known by her first name while her asylum application is still ongoing, said, “It breaks my heart to know that so many people who we were there with are all waiting for the miracle of an appointment.”
At the end of his shift on Monday night, Jess tried to hold onto his faith in this miracle by talking to his wife.
“If the president decides to open another program for those who remained in Mexico, we’ll wait and see what else he does,” Jess said.
His family’s top objective is to be back together, wherever that may be, but he hopes they will get another opportunity to visit the United States.
Jess remarked, “It’s difficult to justify being here without them.”
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