Customs and Border Protection is expanding the locations in Mexico where migrants can schedule a CBP One appointment along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The government-run smartphone app is the primary way for migrants to begin the asylum process in the US.
There are 1450 daily CBP One appointments available at a handful of ports of entry border-wide and right now, migrants as far south as Mexico City can apply to schedule one. CBP says migrants will soon be able to schedule further south in the states of Chiapas and Tabasco — along the border with Guatemala.
Rafael Velásquez, Mexico director with the International Rescue Committee, says it’s a positive step because it could tamp down on migrants’ reliance on getting further north with the use of smugglers.
“The positive is that we will see less of a need to transit through the country until people have that appointment,” he said. “We do know that organized crime has been seeing the transportation of migrants as a prime opportunity to increase their revenues. So in that regard we’re seeing less opportunities for people to be victims of misinformation.”
But, he says, Chiapas has also seen a rise in violence from organized crime.
“We used to be told, people in this state, we would be told that Chiapas is poor but stable. Right now Chiapas is not stable and it’s definitely more poor,” he said.
Velásquez says Mexico’s southern states are already struggling to provide aid and security — just last week, hundreds of Mexicans fled their homes in Chiapas and crossed the border to Guatemala amid a spike in violence between warring cartel groups.
He says and having more people wait there for longer could further strain those resources, and without clear information about CBP One updates, migrants could fall victim to organized crime and scams.
A June report from the Mexican government estimated there were more than 1.3 million people with irregular or undocumented immigration status in Mexico.
