JAfter risking everything to flee Venezuela, Orje Luis Jiménez and his wife spent months trying again and again to book crossings, doing exactly what the U.S. government asked them to do.
Even though they currently live and work legally in the United States, they could become easy targets for President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant crackdown.
People still waiting in even more peril on the Mexican side of the border struggle daily to secure coveted appointments with U.S. immigration officials, offered through a government mobile phone app called CBP One. I am doing it.
President Trump has repeatedly promised to abolish the CBP One appointment system almost immediately after taking office. And in an interview with Fox News, he said he would also revoke legal permission for people already in the United States.
“Get ready to go,” President Trump said.
For Jiménez, home in Venezuela is a beautiful place. However, life was paralyzed under the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro.
So Jimenez and his wife Milexa left for the United States last summer. They trudged through the dangerous Darien Canyon, which connects South and Central America, traveling from town to town until they reached Mexico City. There, a friend took them into a crowded two-room apartment and found them jobs in the local market.
Mexico was a necessary transit point. Only if Jimenez and his wife were within the geofence could they participate in a virtual lottery for one of the 1,450 daily reservations offered by the U.S. government through the official CBP One app. The name CBP One is trademarked. Obtaining an appointment allows immigrants to legally enter the United States through designated ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border and begin the asylum process.
Mr. Jimenez risked the crossing on his own accord, by crossing the river that separates Texas and Mexico, through deserts and other locations, and often relying on human smugglers, and then returned to the U.S. He said turning himself in to Border Patrol was never an option. Him and Milexa.
It took four months to mull over the app in Mexico City, but the couple finally made a reservation and took a bus to the southwestern U.S. border.
They witnessed people like them being kidnapped by organized crime gangs at the border and paid 3,000 Mexican pesos (about $145) in bribes to avoid detention. By the time they arrived in Texas last October, they were left with nothing but permission to live and work in the United States.
But soon after, they received work permits and found a new home in the Midwest. They have obtained jobs at plastics factories, while legal permits give them time to apply for asylum and other legal remedies in the United States.
If President Trump repeals CBPOne, “it will end a lot of people’s dreams,” Jimenez said, thinking of those still waiting south of the border.
And what if his own permission to live and work in the United States is suddenly revoked?
“That would be, no, a really serious, serious, serious thing to do to someone,” he said solemnly.
Like Jimenez and Milexa, more than 900,000 people have used CBP One to receive appointments to appear at official ports of entry in the past two years. The app, named after the agency that runs it, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), was launched in 2020 during President Trump’s first term. However, it was not until January 2023 that authorities incorporated the ability for individual migrants to apply for entry by pre-scheduled appointment.
The Biden administration had hoped that through this highly limited appointment system, CBP One could provide a more orderly process for people to apply for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. The stipend includes a one- or two-year “parole,” or legal permission to remain in the United States temporarily, with immediate leave to apply for a work permit.
The carrot Biden held on to was just one part of a new border regulation that would disqualify almost anyone who crossed the border without an appointment from asylum status. Such a controversial policy likely violates U.S. and international law.
“It is important that people realize that if they enter the country through CBP One, they are entering the country legally,” said the Mayor’s Office of Denver, Colorado, which has been working with local communities to support CBP One. Spokesman John Ewing said. Immigrants apply for work permits.
But Trump and his allies disagree. In addition to President Trump’s comments about shutting down the app, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance has called CBP One a “facilitator of illegal immigration” and considers U.S. residents on parole “illegal aliens.” This is contempt for illegal immigrants. To be deported.
Still, delegitimizing people’s immigration documents and subjecting people who are legally in the United States to deportation is “a disgrace to this country,” said a refugee advocate with the Border Witnesses group. said one Tom Cartwright.
“For the United States to take in vulnerable people and revoke their parole when they have acted with integrity and complied with all the requirements of this country would be the most heinous act of betrayal I can think of,” he said. continued. That’s what they should do. ”
Many of those who passed through CBP One had already tried to “get in line” for visas in their home countries and faced serious threats in Mexico before being forced to flee immediate danger. Nevertheless, he patiently waited for an appointment to legally appear in court. Jesús de la Torre, deputy director for international migration at the Hope Border Institute, said:
De la Torre added that those still in Mexico are “not safe.” “And they’re literally not safe until they cross over to the U.S. side of the border. We’ve seen people being kidnapped while waiting in line for appointments.”
In a group of more than 100 migrants surveyed for the Hope Border Institute report, four out of five reported experiencing violence at the hands of criminal gangs or state agents while traveling to Mexico, de la Torre said. said. Other human rights groups have documented people suffering kidnapping, torture, extortion, and sexual assault while awaiting appointment to CBP One.
“After all that they’ve done, all the pain they’ve endured, all the suffering they’ve endured, you’re telling them they don’t have a choice anymore?” de la Torre said. spoke. “Or are you going to prioritize deporting them if they cross the corridor that you have directed them to?”
Earlier this month, 140 people from Mexico, Venezuela, Honduras and Colombia were admitted to the Casa de Esperanza migrant shelter in Sonoita, a small, dusty Mexican border town in Sonora state facing Organ Pipe National Monument in Arizona. I was waiting to enter the country. CBP One Reservations. Some have already been waiting eight months, and others are hopeful that President Trump won’t follow through on his threat to shut down the appointment system.
The family fled their home in June last year from the once peaceful state of Guanajuato in central Mexico, where organized crime and murders have been on the rise in recent years.
“There are a lot of rumors about the app being shut down, but we have spent so much time and money getting here that we can’t give up hope. Our goal is to help my husband’s family… “From there, I’m ready to work anywhere and do anything. I have faith in God that we will succeed.” the 55-year-old mother told the Guardian.
Requiring the use of the CBP One mobile application as almost the only accepted means of seeking asylum in the United States has been condemned by Amnesty International as a “violation of international human rights and refugee law.” Still, while it brought some order and relief to some asylum seekers and a boost to the U.S. economy, some advocates believe claims are too costly to reduce. There is.
“CBP One is a Machiavellian system that has changed the dynamics of immigration, guaranteeing cheap labor and taxes for the United States, but giving immigrants few rights,” said Aaron, co-director of Casa de Esperanza.・Mr. Flores Morales said.
“Trump will deport people to project his power, but I don’t think he will cancel CBP One because without a steady flow of cheap immigrant labor, the U.S. economy will collapse. Immigration was a major part of Mr. Trump’s campaign, but as president he faces much bigger challenges.”
Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the New York-based Migration Policy Institute, doubts the Trump administration could revoke legal protections for people who have already entered the U.S. through CBP if officials choose. No, he said. But the law suggests that the process at least needs to proceed on a case-by-case basis and allow for some form of rebuttal, and even if a routine parole revocation notice is issued, it probably won’t happen overnight. Probably not.
But Trump could stop using the CBP One app from day one if he wanted, which could mean a legal limbo for those with dates secured after the Jan. 20 inauguration. do.
Regarding future appointments, Chishti said, “I think the conventional wisdom will tell you that the government has to respect that,” adding, “but that’s what this administration is going to do.” I can’t say,” he said.
In Denver, Ewing said his community is gearing up for more work permit legal clinics this month and next. To date, we have assisted approximately 4,400 people with work permit applications, of which approximately 3,700 have entered the United States using CBP One.
This is also thanks to the approximately 1,100 volunteers who have already given more than 13,000 hours and are still here to help.
Ewing believes that if President Trump were to deny all of that, perhaps in the blink of an eye, it would be “contrary to our values.”
For those who took such risks and bravely tried to enter the country legally, “we made them a promise, and it must mean something,” he said.
