US expands area in Mexico to apply for border asylum appointments, hoping to slow push north
CIUDAD HIDALGO, Mexico (AP) — As soon as she stepped onto Mexican soil this week, Venezuelan migrant Yuri Carolina Meléndez downloaded the U.S. government’s app to apply for asylum appointments.
The CBP One app has been around, but as of Friday migrants in Mexico’s southernmost states bordering Guatemala will be able to apply for appointments. Previously, they had to be in central or northern Mexico.
“I have to wait to see if it really works,” the woman said while resting under a tree with her 16- and 18-year-old daughters along a border highway leading to the city of Tapachula this week.
Mexico has been asking the U.S. to expand the app’s access to the south in an attempt to relieve the pressure migrants feel to continue north to at least Mexico City. In recent years, the Mexican government has tried to contain migrants in the south farther from the U.S. border, but the lack of work opportunities and housing in southern cities like Tapachula have pushed migrants north.Mexico hopes that if migrants can wait for their appointments in the south they might not risk getting snagged by authorities without papers or by organized crime groups that prey on migrants travelling north. With an appointment, they could, in theory, move without interference.
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