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TIJANA (Mexico), May 15 (AP) — Few among the tens of thousands of migrants who gathered at Mexico’s border with the United States were discussing the pandemic-era asylum restrictions known as Article 42.
Their eyes were, and are, on a new U.S. government mobile app that offers appointments for 1,000 people a day to transit and seek asylum while living in the United States. With demand far outstripping available time slots, the app has been a frustration for many — and a test of the Biden administration’s strategy to combine new legal avenues with access for those who don’t. people will face serious consequences.
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“You start giving up hope, but it’s the only way,” said Teresa Muñoz, 48, who gave up her life in Mexico after a gang killed her husband and beat her. Home in Michoacan. She had been trying to gain entry clearance through an app called CBPOne for a month while living in a shelter in Tijuana with her two children and two-year-old grandson.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Border Patrol made 6,300 arrests on Friday, the first day after Proposition 42 expired, and 4,200 on Saturday. people. That was down sharply from more than 10,000 in the three days of last week, as migrants rushed in before new policies limiting asylum took effect.
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“It’s early days,” Mayorkas said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We’re on day three, but we’ve been planning for this transition for months. We’ve been executing on our plan. And we’re going to continue to do that.”
Border Patrol Deputy Commissioner Matthew Hudak said in a court filing on Friday that despite the drop in recent days, authorities are predicting arrests will surge to 12,000 to 14,000 a day. Authorities cannot estimate with confidence how many people will cross the border, Hudak said, noting that intelligence reports failed to quickly indicate a “single surge” of 18,000 mostly Haitian immigrants in Del Rio, Texas, in September 2021.
Hudak said more than 27,000 migrants were detained at the border in a single day last week, and that number could exceed 45,000 by the end of May if authorities fail to release migrants without an order to appear in immigration court.
The government plans to ask an appeals court on Monday to allow the migrants to be released without an order to appear in court. Authorities say it takes between 90 minutes and two hours to process an adult in court — which could suffocate a Border Patrol holding facility — and much longer to process a family. By contrast, it takes only 20 minutes to release people instructed to report to immigration within 60 days, a common practice since 2021 to ease border overcrowding.
The Justice Department even raised the possibility of refusing to detain people if the migrants were not released quickly, saying it was a “worst-case scenario.”
The administration is touting new legal avenues in an effort to stem illegal crossings, including parole for 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans a month who apply online and arrive at airports through sponsorship.
Hundreds of migrants, mostly from Colombia, waited to be processed in the sweltering heat near Jocumba, California, on Saturday, sleeping for days in thatched tents east of San Diego, living off a limited supply of cookies and water from the Border Patrol. Some said they had crossed the border illegally after trying unsuccessfully to use the app or hearing stories of frustration from others.
Ana Cuna, 27, said she and other Colombians paid $1,300 each to be guided across the border when they arrived in Tijuana. She said she set foot on U.S. soil hours before Proposition 42 expired on Thursday, but like everyone else, Border Patrol gave her a numbered wristband that, two days later, has yet to be removed. deal with.
Migrants have been denied asylum under Rule 42 of the Public Health Rule to prevent the spread of COVID-19 more than 2.8 million times (2.8 million times). When it expired, the administration rolled out a policy of denying asylum to people traveling to the U.S. through Mexico and other countries, with a few exceptions.
“We want to come and be welcomed according to the law,” said Kuna, whose thatched tent includes Colombian women and families hoping to reach Chicago, San Antonio, Philadelphia and Spartanburg, South Carolina.
In 2021, the practice of releasing immigrants without a court order but requiring them to report to immigration offices within 60 days has become common. When migrants report to the agency’s office, directing the processing work has created additional delays for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — the ICE office in New Jersey in York has delayed scheduling an initial court appearance until 2033.
U.S. District Judge T Kent Wetherell of Pensacola, Fla., ordered the practice halted in March, when the government had effectively blocked it. It opted not to appeal the ruling, but reactivated the policy last week, calling it an emergency response. Florida protested, and Wetherell ordered the government to avoid a quick release for two weeks. He scheduled a hearing for Friday.
Since CBPOne began serving asylum seekers on Jan. 12, it has riled many with misinformation, difficulty taking pictures and a daily habit of frantically pressing thumbs on phone screens until they run out in minutes.
In Tijuana, Munoz considered smuggling through the mountains east of San Diego, but decided it would be too costly. She’s still haunted by the week-long trek she made through the Arizona desert in the mid-2000s. After working double shifts at a supermarket near Los Angeles to save money, she returned to Mexico to raise her children.
Last week, the government increased the number of slots granted by apps from 740 to 1,000, began prioritizing those who have tried the longest, and released slots gradually over the day rather than all at once, causing Mad rush. So far, Munoz says she’s not convinced. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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