Venezuelan Yasmelin Velazquez, 35, with sons (from left) Jordan Velazquez and Jeremy Velazquez on Saturday (Jeremias Velazquez) sits selling souvenirs in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Velasquez is one of a growing number of immigrants living in Juárez trying to make appointments through the CBP One app while working.
NPR’s Paul Ratje
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CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — The city center is alive with music, cars and people walking the streets with street vendors selling tacos, traditional and second-hand clothing and aguas frescas.
It’s a hot summer Saturday morning, and children are running around Juárez’s main square and nearby streets.
Yasmelin Velazquez, 35, sat behind a table covered with earthenware vases in the shapes of frogs, skulls and body parts. Her two children, ages 3 and 2, were with her.
The Venezuelan immigrant fled the country’s dictatorship nearly five years ago and has been living in Mexico for more than eight months.
“It wasn’t difficult, but it was stressful,” Velázquez said in Spanish.
Because she wanted to protect her children, she decided she didn’t want to enter the United States illegally. She decided to stay until she could get an asylum appointment using the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol CBP One app, a platform created by the U.S. government in 2020.
“I’ve been waiting for months for an appointment, and we saw how other immigrants showed up and they got an appointment very quickly,” Velázquez said. “And we’re still here.”
Like Velazquez, many migrants in Mexico have traveled long distances from Central and South America and must wait months for asylum appointments because appointments are allocated through a lottery system.
Thousands of migrants in this border city face a choice: wait a long time for an appointment or try to cross illegally.
But since last month, the latter option has become more difficult.
President Joe Biden has issued executive actions that severely limit asylum applications at the border, making migrants who cross the border more likely to be quickly deported.
Under the new policy, most asylum application processing at the U.S. southern border will be suspended when the seven-day average number of unauthorized crossings exceeds 2,500. The restrictions may be suspended after 14 days, after the seven-day average drops to 1,500 people per day.
As a result of this rule and increased enforcement by Mexico, the number of unauthorized crossings in June reached the lowest level since President Joe Biden took office in 2021. A wait-and-see period, but intersections tend to pick up eventually.
The Biden administration is encouraging immigrants to use the app. Officials claim this is the safest way to apply for asylum.
María Alejandra Amaris, 30, from Venezuela poses with her daughter in a plaza in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on Saturday, June 29, 2024. is working at a store selling graduation gifts that help her pay for school and meet her daily needs while waiting for an appointment through the CBP One app.
NPR’s Paul Ratje
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María Alejandra Amaris, 30, had planned to cross into the United States with her husband and daughter, join the Border Patrol and seek asylum.
Instead, as she approached the United States, she encountered large numbers of immigration agents and barbed wire at the border.
So she and her family decided to stay in Ciudad Juárez and keep trying to get an appointment.
“I got a direction and they told me it would be better for my daughter’s future,” she said.
Challenges Facing the CBP One App
But the app isn’t a sure choice.
“These CBP One app appointments are not necessarily your golden ticket,” said Carla Angulo-Pasel, who teaches border studies and immigration at the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley. “It basically gives you an appointment to have someone see you, interview you … and notify you to enter the system.”
But making an appointment to enter the U.S. through CBP One also allows immigrants to apply for a temporary work permit, which could change their lives.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection told NPR in a statement that more than 680,000 people have successfully made appointments since January last year. It’s unclear how many of those people were allowed into the U.S. CBP said only that they had processed more than 41,800 people with appointments last month.
According to 2023 data released by Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., chairman of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, 96% of immigrants who self-appointed between January and September 2023 were allowed into the country.
But there has been no surge in registrations since Biden took action last month, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
In a statement to NPR, Greene acknowledged that the numbers have declined, adding, “But illegal crossings between ports of entry remain crisis levels and do not undo the damage that has been done. More importantly, It does not take into account the unprecedented numbers of people coming through our ports.
It’s unclear how many people are currently registered on the CBP One app. A CBP spokesman would not provide the number to NPR despite repeated requests.
On a recent hot day, the border area where migrants crossed to seek asylum in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, was deserted.
NPR’s Paul Ratje
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“U.S. Customs and Border Protection encourages immigrants to utilize legal processes rather than taking dangerous journeys to illegally cross between ports of entry, which can also carry serious consequences under U.S. immigration laws,” the spokesperson said.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the majority of immigrants processed through the app are from Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti.
But a big challenge for immigrants is the app’s geography. In order to apply for an appointment, they must be in central or northern Mexico.
Appointment slots are very limited; only 1,450 appointments are available per day. It’s a lottery system in which a certain percentage of appointments (CBP won’t release specific numbers) are allocated to immigrants who have waited the longest for an appointment.
Immigration appointments can only be made between noon and 11:59 p.m. Those who have not made an appointment must try again the next day.
That’s what 25-year-old Emanuel Nava has been doing since arriving in Mexico a month ago.
“I came here with the intention of crossing the border and turning myself in because I really need asylum,” Nava said, adding that he was fleeing organized crime in his country. “But since I can’t find a job now, I’m staying here to look for work.”
He now works in construction in Ciudad Juárez and has been trying to secure an appointment since mid-June.
According to CBP, non-Mexican citizens wait an average of eight weeks from signing up on the app to getting an appointment.
But many immigrants wait much longer than that.
Venezuelan immigrant Grebi Suárez has been trying for nine months.
“I’m confident,” Suarez said. “If other people get an appointment, I’ll get one at some point.”
Grebi Suárez, 40, from Venezuela, stands in front of a barber shop working in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on Saturday, June 29, 2024. To make an appointment, the app is part of a growing number of immigrants in the city doing so.
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After getting a CBP One appointment
Suarez has seen people close to him lucky enough to get appointments.
He was a barber and his shop was behind Velázquez’s pottery stall.
This week, Velazquez traveled more than 700 miles by bus to Tijuana, Mexico, to attend an asylum appointment at a port of entry. The trajectory wasn’t easy – in a small town near Nogales, Mexico, Velázquez’s bus was stopped by local police. She said the police stole all her money and sexually assaulted her. Her children were not injured, she said.
On Wednesday, Velazquez had an appointment. A dozen hours after she showed up at the port of entry, she was released to the United States on parole. That gives Velazquez temporary immunity from deportation until she must appear before an immigration judge.
On Thursday, she told NPR that she woke up in a shelter in San Diego and thanked God.
She said it was worth the wait. But she told her cousin (who also had children and was considering doing the same trip) to reconsider.
“I’m not selfish – they’re my family,” Velázquez said. “I don’t want them to go through the same thing I did.”
However, she said she recommends using the app if they want to enter the United States.
“The best thing to do is wait and make an appointment,” Velázquez said. “Then go in through the front door.”
