Glitchy CBP One App Meant to Deter Illegal Migration Useless During Title 42 Surge; ‘A game of chance’: Migrants Battle Glitchy App at US Border

Glitchy CBP One App meant to deter illegal migration useless during Title 42 surge:

The federal government’s solution to unprecedented illegal immigration at the U.S. southern border has fallen short of all expectations and even managed to unite liberal and conservative policy groups in fury over the botched attempt to rein in the situation at the border.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection agency in January debuted a new feature in its CBP One app that would allow migrants outside the United States to schedule appointments to see if they met the threshold for admission and therefore could avoid crossing illegally.

But for migrants trying to go about getting into the U.S. the right way, it is but another stepping stone that can often lead to nowhere, according to several people who had tried to do so and ended up illegally crossing the border in Brownsville, Texas.

A group of four migrants standing around the Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport on Wednesday told the Washington Examiner that using the U.S. Customs and Border Protection app, CBP One, is “very complicated” and only works “depending on the time of day.”

“It is a matter of luck,” one immigrant said in an interview with the Washington Examiner this week, noting that despite the complications others face, they were able to eventually find success using it. A separate immigrant at the airport said on Tuesday that the app provides “good information” but complained about the limited windows of availability to access the app.

Other migrants have told media outlets that the app has been riddled with bugs largely due to the app crashing along with server and connectivity issues, as cellphone service is not guaranteed in areas close to the U.S.-Mexico border. —>READ MORE HERE

‘A game of chance’: Migrants battle glitchy app at US border:

The fate of tens of thousands of people seeking asylum at the United States’ southern border will, from Friday, hinge on an app that has just 2.5 stars in the App Store.

For immigration managers, a sleek, computerised way to manage the wave of people expected to arrive when Covid-era rules lapse must have been tempting.

But for poor, exhausted people whose phones don’t work, or who have no access to wifi or electricity, it’s just another almost-impossible hurdle.

“It’s amazing that an app practically decides our lives and our future,” Jeremy de Pablos, a 21-year-old Venezuelan who has camped out in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez for weeks, told AFP.

De Pablos, who has dark skin, said the hardest part of using the CBP One app was the facial recognition — an issue that many migrants with darker complexions have pointed to.

“It’s like a game of chance. It recognizes who it wants to.”

President Joe Biden’s administration launched the Custom and Border Protection app in January, as it eyed a way to manage the expected chaos when Title 42 expires overnight Thursday into Friday.

The measure was imposed under Donald Trump, with a stated purpose of keeping those infected with Covid-19 out of the country, allowing border guards to refuse entry to anyone.

In practice it has been a quick and easy way to avoid accepting asylum claims. —>READ MORE HERE

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