62,000 rush to get just 1,000 immigration appointments on glitchy Biden app
62,000 rush to get just 1,000 immigration appointments on glitchy Biden app: Screening process ALREADY under pressure as thousands try to exploit Title 42 end
- The administration touted the app as an alternative to illegal immigration
- It has been used to make only 740 appointments per day, with planned increments
- Thousands are unable to get appointments and there have been photo disruptions
Thousands of would-be migrants seeking government appointments through the preferred channel with a new app have failed to make time amid disruptions and massive demand.
The app, called CBP One, is part of a multi-pronged effort to direct migrants to gateways and a more orderly process, to aid a mass migration that coincided with the end of Title 42 authority at midnight Thursday.
But available slots can’t keep up with demand, during a week in which authorities met 10,000 migrants a day at the border.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters at the White House on Thursday that Customs and Border Patrol would schedule more interviews through the app — but these represent only a fraction of the appointments migrants seek.
As the sun sets, migrants wait outside a gate in the border fence to enter El Paso, Texas, to be processed by the Border Patrol Thursday, May 11, 2023. The administration touts the new CBP One app as a way to get people to sign up for appointments
The administration relies on a new app to bring order to the immigration process
“So we are indeed expanding the use of the CBP One app from about 740 arrivals at our ports of entry along the southern border to 1,000 per day,” Mayorkas said. He said the administration is “examining what other possibilities we can add to that.” He added that the administration is “increasingly using the CBP One mobile app for individuals to schedule appointments at our ports of entry.”
But as of Thursday, according to the New York Times. Of the 1,000 applications, only 800 were confirmed as migrants from countries such as Cuba, Haiti and Mexico try to open cases.
The demand comes despite a series of reports of app glitches and problems migrants have encountered trying to secure appointments.
62,000 people have signed up to find an appointment, and the number on the first day will be just 1,000. Migrants crossed the Rio Grande on Thursday on the last day of 42 authority
The administration is setting up a network of centers to process migrants abroad to try and ease pressure at the border
Customs and Border Protection currently has about 26,000 migrants in custody amid a rush to process the arrivals, several thousand over capacity, and there are estimates of tens of thousands of would-be migrants south of the border.
Mayorkas said on Friday that overcrowding remains a concern as thousands continue to seek asylum.
“We’re seeing exactly the challenge we expected,” Mayorkas told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“We cannot control people’s movement before they reach our border,” he added.
During a Zoom call with reporters, Blas Nunez-Neto, COO of Customs and Border Protection, said officials were tweaking the way people get slots, including using a random feature for some appointments amid the high demand.
“We believe that the changes are working well. It has removed much of the time pressure from non-citizens who used to have to rush to sign up for an appointment,” he said.
“We fully appreciate that there is strong demand for the 1,000 slots that will be available each day,” he said.
He also said Immigration and Customs Enforcement is adding thousands of new beds amid overcrowding at border facilities.
“We didn’t see a substantial increase in overnight encounters or any influx at midnight” when Title 42’s authority ended, he said.