(23 Aug 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico – 23 August 2024
1. Migrants in the streets applying for an asylum appointment
2. Laydi Espinosa, a migrant from Venezuela, applying for asylum appointment through the CBP One app
3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Laydi Espinosa, migrant from Venezuela:
"We have to wait now. We asked for an appointment from here, and we cannot move anymore. We cannot move until the app tells us what to do."
4. Varios of migrants applying through the CBP One app
5. Various of Espinosa helping fellow Venezuelan, Heriberto Antonio, to apply using the app
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Heriberto Antonio, migrant from Venezuela:
"I have to wait here. I cannot go anywhere anymore because I asked for an appointment from here. To move elsewhere it’s like playing cat and mouse. I prefer to wait, it’s God’s will."
7. People in street
8. Various of tents and makeshift shelters
9. Various of migrants in streets
STORYLINE:
As soon as they stepped onto Mexican soil, Venezuelan migrant Laydi Espinosa downloaded the U.S. government’s app to apply for asylum appointments.
As of Friday, migrants in Mexico’s southernmost states bordering Guatemala were able to apply for appointments via the CBP One app. Previously, they had to be in central or northern Mexico.
Mexico has been asking the U.S. to expand the app’s access to the south to relieve the pressure migrants feel to continue north to at least Mexico City.
In recent years, the Mexican government has tried to contain migrants in the south farther from the U.S. border, but the lack of job opportunities and housing in southern cities like Tapachula have pushed migrants north.
Mexico hopes that if migrants can wait for their appointments in the south, they might not risk getting snagged by authorities without papers or by organized crime groups that prey on migrants traveling north. With an appointment, they could, in theory, move without interference.
Espinosa says they left Venezuela because they are a member of the LGBTQ+ community and told the Associated Press they will wait for the appointment from Tuxtla Gutierrez, in the Southern state of Chiapas.
Others, however, still felt the pressure to get farther north. Many migrants often carry big debts and need to start paying them off as soon as possible.
CBP One has been one of the measures of greatest impact on U.S. efforts to bring order to the growing demand for U.S. asylum along its southwestern border.
Since the app was launched in January 2023, more than 765,000 people have scheduled appointments to request asylum.
When the Biden administration temporarily suspended the asylum process for those who crossed illegally in June, the app became one of the only ways to request asylum. The U.S. handles 1,500 appointments daily.
The number of migrants crossing the U.S. border illegally has fallen significantly since peaking in December 2023.
Washington attributes much of that decline to Mexico’s enforcement efforts, which include nabbing migrants in the north and sending them south again.
AP video shot by Raúl Mendoza
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