The Mexican government will offer security-escorted bus transport to migrants traveling north for asylum appointments through the CBP One app.
CBP One is currently the primary way migrants can ask for protection in the U.S. – an executive order enacted by the Biden administration in June introduced further restrictions on asylum access in between ports of entry.
Those hoping to ask for asylum now must get one of a fixed 1,450 daily appointments available at a handful of ports of entry border-wide. The wait time to get one is around eight or nine months — according to a recent estimate from the Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas Austin.
Mexico’s National Immigration Institute says non-Mexican migrants with an appointment already on the books will now have access to buses equipped with security and food, which will take off from hubs in the southern Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas and travel to the border. Passengers will also receive a special transfer permit to be in Mexico while en route.
Adam Isacson, director of defense oversight with the Washington Office on Latin America, says thousands are waiting for or still trying to get CBP One appointments throughout Mexico, and many have to travel the length of the country once they secure a slot.
“Kidnappers and organized crime in Mexico know this, and they have been in some areas of the country stopping buses, even getting people if they fly, getting them when they leave the airport, grabbing them, holding them for ransom, or otherwise just robbing and extorting them, because these are very motivated people who want to make their [appointment] date,” he said.
A May report from Human Rights Watch found asylum seekers waiting for CBP One appointments in Mexico were vulnerable to kidnappings, violence and extortion from organized crime.
The program also comes on the heels of a move from U.S. officials to allow migrants to apply for CBP One appointments from further south in Mexico. Isacson says the new bus program will hopefully provide safer passage.
“So it seems like Mexico is trying to encourage people to wait in those southernmost states – Chiapas and Tabasco, way far from the U.S.-Mexico border – to secure those appointments, but is now making the travel across the country once they get the appointments safer than it was,” he said.
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=66d7ef879852441a981f582ee5805e52&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tpr.org%2Fborder-immigration%2F2024-09-03%2Fmexico-will-now-offer-security-escorted-bus-service-for-cbp-one-asylum-appointments&c=7069133315229771173&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2024-09-03 15:52:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
