US expands asylum-seeking zone on Mexico border in hopes of slowing northward advance
CIUDAD HIDALGO, Mexico: As soon as she arrived on Mexican soil this week, Venezuelan migrant Yuri Carolina Melendez downloaded the U.S. government's application to apply for asylum.
The CBP One app has been rolled out, but starting Friday, migrants in Mexico’s southernmost border with Guatemala will be able to apply for appointments. Previously, they had to be in central or northern Mexico.
“I have to wait and see if it really works,” the woman said as she rested under a tree with her two daughters, ages 16 and 18, along a border highway leading to the city of Tapachula this week.
Mexico has been asking the United States to expand the app’s reach southward in an effort to ease pressure on migrants to continue their journey north, at least to Mexico City. In recent years, the Mexican government has tried to contain migrants southward, away from the U.S. border, but a lack of jobs and housing in southern cities like Tapachula has pushed migrants northward.
Mexico hopes that migrants will be able to wait for their appointment in the south, otherwise they risk being caught by undocumented authorities or organized crime groups that exploit migrants traveling north. In theory, if they get an appointment, they can move without interference.
Jermaine Aleman, a 31-year-old Honduran man traveling with his wife and three children, planned to register as soon as they arrived in Tapachula. “We’ll file here, and we’ll wait for the appointment,” he said as they walked from the border toward Tapachula.
But others still feel pressure to move north. Many migrants carry huge debts that they need to start paying off as soon as possible. Melendez, for example, said she plans to keep moving to improve her chances of finding work.
The move has been one of the most influential in U.S. efforts to restore order to the growing demand for asylum in the United States along its southwestern border.
In fiscal year 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported more than 2.4 million migrant encounters along the southwest U.S. border.
Since the app launched in January 2023, more than 765,000 people have made appointments to apply for asylum. Immigration has become a central issue in the U.S. presidential election.
When the Biden administration temporarily suspended asylum processing for those who crossed the border illegally in June, the app became one of the only ways to seek asylum. The United States is processing 1,500 appointments a day.
The number of migrants crossing the U.S. border illegally has dropped sharply since peaking in December 2023. Washington attributes much of the decline to Mexico’s enforcement efforts, which include arresting migrants in the north and sending them back south.
However, Mexico welcomes the expansion of CBP One.
“This will help us a lot,” Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena said earlier this month when she announced the expansion. Immigration is a key issue in relations between the two countries.
But for the dozens of NGOs advocating for migrants and human rights, there is little to celebrate.
In an open letter to the Mexican government on Thursday, the government called the first CBP move a “violation of international law” because it allows the United States to restrict access to its territory for people in need of protection.
Many migrants end up stuck in Mexico for months, waiting in overcrowded shelters or camping in unsanitary conditions, the groups say. While they wait, they are vulnerable to kidnapping, sexual assault, torture and extortion by criminals and authorities, they say.
In theory, Mexico's National Migration Institute allows migrants who have appointments with the first CBP office to travel freely to the U.S. border, but groups said authorities still sometimes detain migrants and send them back south to prevent them from reaching the border.
The institute did not respond to a request for comment on these allegations.
In southern Mexico, migrants have long been a target for smugglers and criminals, but the area was once quite peaceful for the rest of the population. Now that’s changed. The southern border region is caught in a territorial conflict between Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels, who want to control the smuggling routes for drugs, weapons and migrants. Violence is part of daily life in many border towns.
Among the migrants waiting in the central square of Ciudad Hidalgo near the Suchiate River that divides Mexico and Guatemala, the question remains whether to wait or continue moving north.
As the group of migrants debated the answer, the most influential factor was money. The migrants had heard that the chances of finding jobs were higher in central and northern Mexico, and that they needed money to wait months for an appointment.
“If there are jobs we will stay, and if not we will keep applying until they give us an appointment,” said Yulidi Pank, a 28-year-old Venezuelan who just arrived in Mexico with her partner and 7-year-old daughter.
“My daughter is not doing well… She is being fed through a feeding tube. We need help,” Bank said.
The UNHCR has expressed caution about the expansion of CBP One.
This could mean fewer risks for migrants heading north, said Giovanni Lepri, head of the UNHCR office in Mexico. But he added that dealing with migration requires a variety of measures, “such as stabilization in countries of origin, protection in transit countries, and regularization and asylum options in countries of destination.”
For Naomi Ramirez, a 47-year-old woman from El Salvador, hearing that she could begin her asylum application in the Mexican state of Chiapas prompted her to set off immediately with her 19-year-old daughter to Tapachula.
“We will wait until we get an appointment,” she said as she walked with her daughter, worried about the violence she might encounter along the way. “I am not thinking of going any further. I will not risk it with my daughter. We are alone.”