Migrants in Mexico have used CBP One app 64 million times to request entry into U.S.
By Camilo Montoya-Galvez
Updated on: February 12, 2024 / 5:36 PM EST / CBS News
Migrants in Mexico have made more than 64.3 million requests to enter the U.S. using a smartphone app that the Biden administration has tried to establish as the main gateway to the American asylum system at the southern border, internal federal government documents obtained by CBS News show.
In the first year of the program's implementation, migrants used the phone app, known as CBP One, tens of millions of times to apply for a coveted appointment to be processed by U.S. immigration authorities at an official border crossing, according to the internal documents. So far, nearly 450,000 migrants have been allowed into the U.S. under the process, the documents show.
The documents cover a 13-month period between January 2023, when the Biden administration started allowing migrants to request appointments using CBP One, and Feb. 8, 2024. On average, migrants have made just under 5 million appointment requests per month.
The number of requests does not represent unique individuals, since the total includes repeated attempts by the same people. Nonetheless, the figure illustrates the extraordinarily high demand among migrants to come to the U.S. and the desperation that leads many to try again and again to secure a chance to enter the country.
"It's a staggering number," said Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former U.S. immigration official during the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. "There's a lot of people who would love to migrate to the United States. In essence, they see CBP One as sort of a self-petitioning mechanism that we've never had before."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/immigration-cbp-one-app-migrants-mexico-64-million/
