Confusion among asylum seekers, aid workers as CBP One asylum process abruptly ends

CBP One — the government-run app for asylum seekers at the border — was abruptly shuttered Monday after a series of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump.

The program was launched in January 2023 just before pandemic-era restrictions on asylum at the border were lifted.

Asylum seekers could spend months waiting to secure one of a fixed 1,450 CBP One appointments available daily at a handful of ports of entry across the border — including Nogales.

Moments after Trump’s inauguration speech, a message on Customs and Border Protection’s website declared existing appointments were canceled. At a migrant shelter and aid group called the Kino Border Initiative in Nogales, Sonora, Tracy Horan said that how things would work on the ground is still unknown.

“But what we do know is that the right to seek asylum exists in our laws,” said Horan, who serves as the group's associate director of education and advocacy, in Spanish.

Seeking asylum is a right under U.S. law and international agreements.

Alejandro Nava is a volunteer with SAMU — an aid group in Nogales that picks up asylum seekers after they’ve been processed by border officers. He and other volunteers spent Monday at the DeConcini Port of Entry, trying to answer questions from asylum seekers who’d been scheduled for CBP One appointments there in the coming days.

He said some asylum seekers were in the middle of appointments with Customs and Border Protection when the app shut down.

“We kinda hoped that they were gonna respect the appointments that were already made, they’ve made appointments months ... sometimes months out,” he said.

It’s unclear what will happen to those who were in the midst of meetings with CPB. Other asylum seekers had pending appointments canceled.

Almost a million people have been able to schedule appointments through CBP One during its two-year long run, according to the AP.