Posted on May 14, 2023
Migrants are frustrated with the border app, even after its latest overhaul
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https://www.npr.org/2023/05/12/ [login to see] /migrants-are-frustrated-with-the-asylum-claim-app-even-after-the-latest-overhaul
At the foot of the Paso del Norte International Bridge, a half-dozen young men are hunched over their phones. They're trying to sign up for a coveted appointment for an interview at the U.S. port of entry just across the bridge in El Paso, Texas.
One by one, they look up in disappointment, their screens showing a familiar message: "system error."
"When you log in, the app kicks you out," said Luis Suárez, a 37-year-old from Venezuela, while holding up his phone. "The app opens up at 9 a.m., and at 9:01 you can't register."
At the foot of the Paso del Norte International Bridge, a half-dozen young men are hunched over their phones. They're trying to sign up for a coveted appointment for an interview at the U.S. port of entry just across the bridge in El Paso, Texas.
One by one, they look up in disappointment, their screens showing a familiar message: "system error."
"When you log in, the app kicks you out," said Luis Suárez, a 37-year-old from Venezuela, while holding up his phone. "The app opens up at 9 a.m., and at 9:01 you can't register."
Migrants are frustrated with the border app, even after its latest overhaul
Posted from npr.org
Immigration
Refugees
Apps
Posted 12 mo ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Scraping together money for a phone when it's a linchpin of asylum
That's not even an option for Denise Hernández, another asylum-seeker from Maracaibo, Venezuela.
She said that she and her husband also surrendered to Border Patrol earlier this week and were expelled. He was returned to Juárez but she was sent to Piedras Negras, nearly 500 miles away.
Hernández said she took a train in Mexico to be reunited with her husband in Juárez, but she was robbed on the way. Thieves took everything, she said, including the only mobile phone the couple owned.
"We have to wait to get another phone and try through the app," she said in Spanish. "Otherwise, we will be turned 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 into the U.S., and she's hoping to join them. But her son-in-law was also expelled, and she doesn't know where he is.
"It's a lot of hardship," said Hernández, "but I'm not blaming anyone, we made our own decisions."
Hernández looks off into the distance, maybe wondering if they made the right choice.
"I would have never imagined [the journey] would be this hard," she lamented. "It's been a lot, and now my family is separated."
Hernández and her husband hope to earn enough money to buy a new phone so that they can try the CBP One app again. For now, they're sleeping in a tent on the street near the Paso del Norte Bridge, with the El Paso skyline clearly visible on the other side of the Rio Grande."
..."Scraping together money for a phone when it's a linchpin of asylum
That's not even an option for Denise Hernández, another asylum-seeker from Maracaibo, Venezuela.
She said that she and her husband also surrendered to Border Patrol earlier this week and were expelled. He was returned to Juárez but she was sent to Piedras Negras, nearly 500 miles away.
Hernández said she took a train in Mexico to be reunited with her husband in Juárez, but she was robbed on the way. Thieves took everything, she said, including the only mobile phone the couple owned.
"We have to wait to get another phone and try through the app," she said in Spanish. "Otherwise, we will be turned 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 into the U.S., and she's hoping to join them. But her son-in-law was also expelled, and she doesn't know where he is.
"It's a lot of hardship," said Hernández, "but I'm not blaming anyone, we made our own decisions."
Hernández looks off into the distance, maybe wondering if they made the right choice.
"I would have never imagined [the journey] would be this hard," she lamented. "It's been a lot, and now my family is separated."
Hernández and her husband hope to earn enough money to buy a new phone so that they can try the CBP One app again. For now, they're sleeping in a tent on the street near the Paso del Norte Bridge, with the El Paso skyline clearly visible on the other side of the Rio Grande."
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