Online system for asylum started
New app and website consolidate exemption patchwork
SAN DIEGO — The Biden administration launched Thursday an online appointment system to replace a patchwork that exempts individuals from a pandemic-era restriction on asylum-seekers.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection began allowing migrants to make appointments up to two weeks out using its website and CBPOne, a mobile app. CBPOne is consolidating the exemption process to a 2020 public health order known as Title 42, which has limited migrants’ ability to claim asylum in the U.S.
Until now, the agency has arranged exemptions through advocates, churches, attorneys and migrant shelters, without publicly identifying individuals or saying how many slots were available.
Under the new system, migrants apply directly to the agency and a government official determines whether they get in. Their appointments will be at one of eight crossings in Texas, Arizona and California.
Despite having previously signaled that it would introduce CBPOne for people seeking asylum at land border crossings with Mexico, advocates were caught offguard by the speed of change brought on by the Biden Administration.
U.S. officials told advocates Friday they expected the app to be ready in a month, said Priscilla Orta, an attorney at Lawyers For Good Government’s Project Corazon in Texas. Then, advocates were informed Monday the rollout had been moved up to this week.
Since March 2020, the month Title 42 was enacted, the U.S. has expelled migrants 2.5 million times on grounds of preventing the spread of covid-19. To qualify for an exemption under CBPOne migrants must be pregnant, have a physical or mental illness, be disabled, lack housing, face a threat of harm, or be under 21 years old or over 70.
The app is currently available only in English and Spanish.
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Florida Democrat and Haitian American, expressed concern that the app wasn’t available in Haiti’s primary languages, Creole and French. Officials say a Creole version will be added soon.
The Homeland Security Department said the app will be available to migrants in central and northern Mexico. Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement it allows people “to seek protection in a safe, orderly, and humane manner and to strengthen the security of our borders.”
U.S. authorities stopped migrants 2.38 million times in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, up 37% from 1.73 million times in 2021.
Some advocates welcomed the new system for seeking exemptions, saying it the old one was rife with favoritism and prone to corruption.
Albert Rivera, director of the Agape Mision Mundial shelter in Tijuana, said he previously didn’t have the connections to help migrants get exemptions, but a Mexican woman at his shelter was able to sign up Thursday for an online appointment.
“We feel excited,” said Rivera said. “Everything was a monopoly.”
Under the new system, migrants apply directly to the agency and a government official determines whether they get in.