Illegal border crossings hit Biden-era low as migrants wait longer to enter

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — The city center is bustling with music, cars and people walking the streets, browsing the many street vendors offering tacos, traditional and second-hand clothing and frescas aguas.

It’s a hot summer Saturday morning, and children are running around Juarez’s main plaza and surrounding streets.

Yasmelin Velazquez, 35, sits at a table filled with ceramic vases in the shapes of frogs, skulls and body parts. Her two children — ages 3 and 2 — are with her.

The Venezuelan migrant has been in Mexico for more than eight months, since fleeing the country’s dictatorship almost five years ago.

“It wasn’t difficult, but it was stressful,” Velazquez says in Spanish.

Because she wants to protect her children, she decided she didn’t want to cross the U.S. border illegally. She decided to stay until she could obtain asylum through the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol CBP One app, a platform created by the U.S. government in 2020.

“I’ve been waiting for so many months for an appointment, and we’re seeing other migrants show up and get an appointment right away,” Velazquez said. “And we’re still here.”

Like Velazquez, many migrants in Mexico who made the perilous journey from Central and South America have had to wait months for their asylum applications to be processed because applications are granted through a lottery.

Thousands of migrants in this border town face a choice: a long wait for an appointment or trying to cross the border illegally.

But since last month, the latter option has become more difficult.

President Biden has issued executive orders that have severely restricted asylum seekers at the border. Migrants who cross the border also face a greater chance of being quickly deported from the country.

Under the new policy, processing of most asylum applications at the U.S. southern border is suspended when the seven-day average of unauthorized crossings exceeds 2,500. The restriction can be suspended 14 days after the seven-day average falls to 1,500 per day.

Because of the rule and Mexico’s stepped-up enforcement, illegal border crossings in June hit their lowest level since President Biden took office in 2021. Immigration observers say migrants traditionally go into a “wait and see” period after such rules go into effect, but crossings have tended to increase again.

The Biden administration has encouraged migrants to use the app, which officials say is the safest way to apply for asylum.

María Alejandra Amaris, 30, planned to cross the U.S. border with her husband and daughter, turn herself in to the Border Patrol and ask for asylum.

Instead, as she approached the United States, she encountered a heavy presence of immigration agents and barbed wire along the border.

Therefore, she and her family decided to remain in Ciudad Juarez and continue trying to obtain a visit.

“I went through orientation and was told it would be better for my daughter’s future,” she says.

Challenges with the CBP One App

However, the app is not a sure thing.

“It’s not like these CBP One app appointments are necessarily your golden ticket in,” says Carla Angulo-Pasel, who teaches border and migration studies at the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley. “They’re basically giving you that appointment so someone can look you over, interview you … and let you know to show up to get into the system.”

However, entering the country on a CBP One visa allows migrants to apply for a temporary work permit, which could potentially change their lives.

A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection told NPR in a statement that more than 680,000 people have successfully scheduled appointments since last January. It’s unclear how many of those have been allowed into the U.S. CBP said only that it processed more than 41,800 people with appointments last month.

According to 2023 data released by U.S. Representative Mark Green, Republican of Tennessee, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, 96% of migrants who applied for an appointment between January 2023 and September 2023 were allowed into the country.

However, CBP said there has been no increase in registrations since Biden’s actions last month.

In a statement to NPR, Green acknowledges the decline, adding, “but the continuing crisis of illegal border crossings between ports of entry does not undo the damage already done. More importantly, it does not take into account the unprecedented numbers of people entering our ports.”

It’s unclear how many people are currently registered on the CBP One app. A CBP spokesperson did not provide that number to NPR despite repeated requests.

“CBP encourages migrants to use legal processes rather than undertake the dangerous journey of illegally crossing borders between ports of entry, which also carries significant consequences under U.S. immigration law,” the spokesman said.

According to CBP, most migrants processed through the app are from Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti.

But one of the biggest challenges for migrants is that the app geolocates them. To be eligible for an appointment, migrants must be in central or northern Mexico.

The number of appointments is very limited; only 1,450 per day. It’s a lottery system, and a percentage of the appointments — CBP won’t say how much — go to migrants who wait the longest.

Migrants can only apply for an appointment between 12:00 and 23:59. Those who fail to get an appointment must try again the following day.

That’s what 25-year-old Emanuel Nava has been doing since he arrived in Mexico a month ago.

“I came here with the intention of crossing the border and turning myself in because I need asylum,” Nava said, adding that he was fleeing organized crime in his country. “But since it’s not available now, I’ll just stay here and find a job.”

He currently works in construction in Ciudad Juarez and has been applying for a position since mid-June.

According to CBP, non-Mexican citizens wait an average of eight weeks from the time they register for the app to the time they receive an appointment.

But many migrants have waited much longer.

Grebi Suarez, a Venezuelan migrant, has been seeking asylum for nine months.

“I have faith,” Suarez said. “If other people have a deadline, I will at some point.”

When will a single CBP appointment be provided?

Suarez has seen his loved ones get lucky and be able to get an appointment.

He is a hairdresser and his shop is located right behind Velazquez’s ceramics stand.

This week, Velazquez traveled more than 700 miles by bus to Tijuana, Mexico, to attend an asylum meeting at a port of entry. The trajectory wasn’t easy — in a town near Nogales, Mexico, Velazquez’s bus was stopped by local police. She says police stole all her money and sexually assaulted her. Her children were not injured, she says.

On Wednesday, Velazquez had her visit. More than 10 hours after she showed up at the port of entry, she was granted parole to the U.S. That protects Velasquez from deportation for a limited period until she has to appear before an immigration judge.

On Thursday, she told NPR that she woke up in a San Diego shelter and thanked God.

She says the wait was worth it. But she told her cousin, who also has kids and is thinking about making the same trip, to reconsider.

“I’m not selfish — they’re my family,” Velazquez said. “I don’t want them to go through what I went through.”

However, he says that if they want to get to the U.S., he recommends using the app.

“It’s best to wait and make an appointment,” Velazquez said. “And enter through the main gate.”

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