A group of Venezuelan men, including Luis Suárez and Carlos Carrillo Zambrano (pictured in the foreground) at the Paso del Norte International Bridge in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. They are among many migrants who say the CBP One app is still riddled with problems despite a recent update.
Joel Rose/NPR
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A group of Venezuelan men, including Luis Suárez and Carlos Carrillo Zambrano (pictured in the foreground) at the Paso del Norte International Bridge in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. They are among many migrants who say the CBP One app is still riddled with problems despite a recent update.
Joel Rose/NPR
Ciudad Juárez, MEXICO — At the foot of the Paso del Norte International Bridge, half a dozen young men are glued to their cell phones. They are trying to sign up for a desired interview appointment at the US port of entry just over the bridge in El Paso, Texas.
One by one, they look up in disappointment, their screens showing a familiar message: “system error.”
“When you enter, the app kicks you out,” said Luis Suárez, a 37-year-old man from Venezuela, while holding the phone. “The app opens at 9 am, and at 9:01 you can’t register.”
For migrants like Suárez, the CBP One app is now the primary authorized gateway to seek asylum at the US-Mexico border. US Immigration authorities have made a major overhaul of the app that went into effect last week, in response to widespread complaints.
But migrants in Ciudad Juárez said the app still isn’t working for them. NPR observed many people making repeated and unsuccessful attempts to log into the app on Thursday.
Luis Suárez, a 37-year-old man from Venezuela, has been repeatedly suspended from the CBP One app, days after officials announced a major upgrade. He said he could not schedule an appointment on the platform for about six months.
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Luis Suárez, a 37-year-old man from Venezuela, has been repeatedly suspended from the CBP One app, days after officials announced a major upgrade. He said he could not schedule an appointment on the platform for about six months.
Joel Rose/NPR
Back to the beginning after months of waiting
“It’s a waste of time,” said Suárez, with frustration in his voice, “even now that it’s been updated.”
“He just puts on the logo,” he said in Spanish. “It sends you back to the beginning and when you try again, the appointments are over. You have to wait until the next day.”
Suárez knows this from experience. Since arriving in Juárez six months ago, he’s been trying to get an appointment on the app — with no luck.
Suárez is tired of waiting for the app to work, he said. So, he crossed the border and turned himself in to Border Patrol this week. He was detained for four days, and deported back to Mexico on Thursday. His eyes are bloodshot from exhaustion. But he is not giving up — he wants to come to the United States to find a job that will allow him to support his wife and two children in Venezuela.
CBP says it’s working on ‘minor issues’
The immigration authorities were try to make improvements for the CBP One app. They have increased the number of appointments available from 750 to around 1,000 per day across the entire border. Those appointments are now available throughout the day, instead of at one specific time.
“We believe the changes have been working well,” Blas Nuñez-Neto, the assistant secretary for border and immigration policy at the Department of Homeland Security, said on a call with reporters on Friday.
“We fully appreciate that there is a strong demand for the thousand slots that will be available every day. And so individuals may need to wait,” said Nuñez-Neto.
He added: “As with any kind of new process or technology roll out, we expect there may be some minor issues along the way, and we’ve been addressing those as they’ve been brought to our attention.”
Immigration authorities said they changed the CBP One scheduling system to give priority to migrants who have been waiting the longest for an appointment.
But that is not what the migrants in Juárez say they are experiencing.
Weighing whether to cross illegally – again
Carlos Carrillo Zambrano said he has been trying to get an appointment through the app since January without success. Carrillo, 23, is originally from the Venezuelan state of Carabobo.
“We live with rumors from the news, Instagram and TikTok,” he said in Spanish, “that the border will be opened and Venezuelans will be allowed to enter – that we will welcome. But it’s lies. Even those who make it through. they are often deported”.
Carrillo also grew frustrated with the CBP One app, joining the group of migrants who turned themselves in to the Border Patrol this week. They were deported back to Juárez under Title 42, the pandemic border restrictions that expired late Thursday night.
Now that Title 42 has ended, they are afraid to try to cross again because they fear they may be subject to longer detention. People who cross the border illegally could face a five-year ban on re-entering the United States under the border policies now in place.
For now, they say they will keep trying the CBP One app.
Denise Hernández, an asylum seeker from Maracaibo, Venezuela, said she and her husband had their shared phone stolen on their trip to the border after being deported from the United States. Without one, they have no access to the CBP One app.
Marisa Peñaloza/NPR
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Denise Hernández, an asylum seeker from Maracaibo, Venezuela, said she and her husband had their shared phone stolen on their trip to the border after being deported from the United States. Without one, they have no access to the CBP One app.
Marisa Peñaloza/NPR
Scrape together money for a phone when it is the pivot of an asylum
That’s not even an option for Denise Hernández, another asylum seeker from Maracaibo, Venezuela.
She said she and her husband also surrendered to the Border Patrol earlier this week and were deported. He was returned to Juárez but she was sent to Piedras Negras, almost 500 miles away.
Hernández said she took a train to Mexico to reunite with her husband in Juárez, but was robbed on the way. The thieves took everything, she said, including the only mobile phone the couple had.
“We have to wait to get another phone and try through the app,” she said in Spanish. “Otherwise, we’ll be back again. I’m afraid,” she said in a whisper.
Hernández, 52, says she was a political activist in Venezuela and can’t go back. Her 22-year-old daughter and 5-year-old grandson made it to the United States, and she is hoping to join them. But her son has also been fired, and she doesn’t know where he is.
“It’s a lot of suffering,” said Hernández, “but I don’t blame anyone, we made our own decisions.”
Hernández watches from a distance, perhaps wondering if they made the right choice.
“I would never have imagined [the journey] it would be so hard,” she lamented. “It was a lot, and now my family is separated.”
Hernández and her husband hope to earn enough money to buy a new phone so they can try the CBP One app again. For now, they are sleeping in a tent on the road near the Paso del Norte Bridge, with the El Paso skyline clearly visible across the Rio Grande.
