Russians take over most slots on CBP One refugee app: other job seekers wait for months

At the Agape Migrant Shelter in Tijuana, the entire morning revolves around a mobile app. People are waking up as early as 05:00 to log into the CBP One mobile app, which was designed to connect vulnerable migrants to the US asylum system. The app allows migrants to make appointments so they can enter the United States and apply for asylum. But the app favors Russians with strong Wi-Fi signals over vulnerable migrants. How does it happen, the publication said KPBS.

Photo: IStock

“I have seen people scream and others cry at how happy they are when they get an appointment,” said Vidal Garcia, a Mexican asylum seeker and one of the 650 people who live at the shelter.

Attempts to make an appointment every day for the last month for Garcia have so far been unsuccessful.

And he is not the only one.

Mexican government data shows that most CBP One appointments are not going to vulnerable migrants like Garcia. Instead, they go to migrants, who tend to have more resources.

Of the approximately 15 migrants in Tijuana who have received appointments at CBP One, 000 are Russians, followed by 6645 Haitians, 2700 Mexicans and 1864 Venezuelans. That is, approximately 1844% are citizens of Russia, Haitians - 44%, followed by Mexicans and Venezuelans, each of whom accounts for 18% of appointments, writes Border Report.

According to Enrique Lucero, head of Tijuana's department of migrants, despite receiving almost half of the coveted appointments, Russian citizens make up less than 10% of Tijuana's total migrant population.

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“It’s a connection,” Lucero noted. — Russians have better phones and can connect to the Internet faster. They are also more familiar with technology.”

The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced changes to the app. In the future, the agency will increase the number of daily appointments, allow more time to complete appointment requests, and give priority to people who have waited the longest. These changes will start on May 10th.

But despite these changes, Lucero said the last five months have been huge economic and racial disparities.

“There is no filter to determine who is more vulnerable, and I think this is one of the main shortcomings of the application,” he explained.

To illustrate his point, Lucero gave the example of a typical migrant from Russia and Central America.

Citizens of Russia, as a rule, fly to Mexico on tourist visas. They can afford to stay in hotels and connect their phones to strong Wi-Fi signals. Meanwhile, Guatemalan citizens often make it to Tijuana on foot or by hitchhiking. They sleep in overcrowded migrant shelters and try to connect outdated phones to the same Wi-Fi signal used by 100 other migrants.

“There are migrants who have been waiting for appointments since the app launched in January,” Lucero said. “But other migrants with greater resources receive appointments within a week.”

Garcia is one of those who are still waiting.

He said that people cheer each other up when they have appointments.

“I’m happy because I wish them the best,” Garcia said. “But then I go into the shelter and start crying.” Sometimes, but not always."

He says the migrants at the shelter don't resent the Russian refugees for having more assignments, they just want the same opportunity.

Pastor Albert Rivera runs the Agape Migrant Shelter. He is aware of the racial and economic differences caused by the CBP One app. To combat them, Rivera invested in a stronger Wi-Fi connection at the shelter.

But this is still not enough.

“You have to be very close to the modem,” he noted. “If you’re not close to it, you won’t get a strong signal.”

“Mexicans, Hispanics and other Third World countries have older phones that don't work on the updated bands,” Rivera explained. “For Russians and Ukrainians, G5 phones are faster, which makes it easier to book an appointment.”

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Rivera said the US has an additional incentive to provide asylum to Russian migrants.

“The United States is interested in providing asylum to Russians for many political reasons, including because they want to know more about what the Russian people think and what might be going on in Russia,” he said.

Some migrants pay 200 pesos a day or $10 to get their own Internet access. But that only exacerbates economic inequality, Albert said.

“If you don’t have money, you don’t have internet, and you can’t make an appointment,” he stated. - This is another problem.

During fiscal year 2023, which began October 1, 2022, CBP staff from San Diego Field Operations encountered 14 Russians, half of whom were single adults and half were families, according to CBP data. The data shows that only three Russians were sent back to Mexico.

Border guards across the country faced 36 Russians in the entire fiscal year 72. The number of encounters has steadily increased since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

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