Mexico City. President Joe Biden’s administration will add the Mexican states of Chiapas and Tabasco to the areas where migrants can request appointments online to enter the United States, U.S. officials announced Saturday, potentially easing pressure on the Mexican government and reducing risks for people trying to reach Mexico’s northern border to seek asylum.
Migrants will be able to schedule appointments through the CBP One app from those two southern Mexican states, which will expand the area from the north and center of the country, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP). The measure satisfies a request from Mexico, an increasingly close partner of Washington in attempts to control migratory flows of extraordinary proportions.
The change will prevent migrants from having to cross the country north to get one of the 1,450 appointments available daily, CBP said. It said the change will take effect soon, but did not provide a date.
“We are constantly working with our partners in the Mexican government and working together to adjust policies and practices in response to the latest migration trends and security needs,” CBP said in a statement.
The statement confirmed statements made a day earlier by Mexico’s Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena, who said that closer bilateral relations had drastically reduced migration since the end of last year.
U.S. officials say Mexico’s increased enforcement led to a sharp drop in the number of migrants apprehended in the United States for crossing the border without authorization during the first half of this year. Mexican officials increased their presence at checkpoints on highways and railroads leading to the U.S. border and turned most migrants back to the south of the Latin American country.
In June, Washington temporarily suspended asylum processing for those entering the country without authorization, making appointment scheduling through CBP One one of the only avenues through which migrants could enter the United States to request asylum, further reducing the number of unauthorized border crossings. According to U.S. officials, the number of unauthorized crossings fell 30 percent in July from the previous month, the lowest level under Biden’s presidency and the lowest since September 2020.
“We have managed to significantly decompress the (northern) border and I think that has helped… our relationship with the United States to be very, very dynamic and very positive,” Bárcena said on Friday.
More than 680,000 people have scheduled appointments through CBP One at eight land crossings on the U.S.-Mexico border since the app was first implemented in January 2023 through June. Most of these migrants are from Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti. U.S. authorities recently limited the number of slots available for Mexicans due to the high number of applicants from that country.
The risks of crossing Mexico — including kidnapping and assault — have led many migrants to fly to cities along the country’s northern border, such as Tijuana, to meet with CBP One once they reach the southernmost site from which they can apply, which until now was Mexico City.
Migrants typically enter Mexico via Chiapas or Tabasco from Guatemala. Mexico City may offer more employment opportunities and relative safety, but the cost of living is higher, forcing some migrants to live in informal camps in the Mexican capital.
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– 2024-08-05 05:47:23
