Migrants have already found a loophole allowing them to hand themseleves over at the border and claim asylum without making an appointment through the CBP One app — which could effectively open the floodgates for thousands more to turn up at the southern border.
The mobile immigration app was trumpeted by the Biden Administration as the only legal pathway for asylum-seekers after Title 42 ended in May. It allows 1,000 people a day to cross into the US and claim asylum.
After failing to secure an appointment on his own, Cesar Segura read the application’s fine print — which states if “language barriers, illiteracy or technical issues,” stop a person from completing the process online, they can just show up to a US port of entry in person and request an interview according to Border Report..
Since he was waved through last week, 400 more migrants have amassed near the San Diego border, according to the report.
“I tried many times to set up an interview on the app but it never worked,” Segura told the Border Report, speaking in Spanish.
“It was our trump card to play,” he added.
The frustrated Venezuelan, and a few other migrants, had showed up to the San Ysidro Port of Entry and waited four days on the California-Mexico border to learn if their interviews had been granted.
Segura was interviewed by immigration officials, who said he met the asylum-threshold and allowed him to be released into the country legally to wait and hear if he will ultimately be granted asylum in the US — a process that can take years.
This is not what President Biden promised when he introduced use of the app in January.
In January the administration announced citizens of Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua would have to “request to come to the United States in a safe and orderly way” by applying from another country, obtaining entry documents and then flying into the US.
President Biden said at the time: “If your application is denied or you attempt to cross into the United States unlawfully, you will not be allowed to enter.”
Segura is now in Miami, beginning his new life in America. His successful work-around has already led to more migrants lining up at the international crossings for in-person appointments, and has no-doubt been commnunicated to the cartels, who are experts at exploiting any hole or weak point in immigration policy, as The Post has previously reported.
Now, asylum seekers can skip the virtual process and simply present themselves at a port of entry and could be cutting in front of other asylum-seekers who have waiting weeks or months to have an appointment scheduled — sometimes sleeping on streets or in shelters of border towns.
The loophole had been anticipated by leaders in Republican states, who have already sued the Biden over this very issue.
Two weeks ago, Texas announced it filed a lawsuit over the CBP One app, claiming it is “illegally pre-approving” foreign aliens to enter the country and “go where they please.”
In January, the Biden administration announced a new rule that requires any asylum-seeker to apply for protection in any safe third country they traveled through before they arrived in the US.
The White House claimed if they did not, they would be ineligible to make a refugee claim in the US.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claims the CBP One app offers a way around the third safe country rule, according to Fox News.
Migrants who do not seek asylum in other countries could still schedule asylum appointments through CBP One, so long as they presented themselves at one of eight designated ports of entry along the US-Mexico border — five of which are in Texas.
Even those without an appointment could just turn themselves and claim they had “extenuating circumstances, significant technical failure, or other applicable exception,” the Paxton stated.
“Joe Biden, [Secretary of Homeland Security] Alejandro Mayorkas and the entire Biden Administration have prioritized creating and protecting new ways for illegal aliens to stream into this country, no matter the cost or consequence to struggling American citizens,” said Paxton — who is currently indicted and the target of multiple criminal investigations over claims he abused his position in office.
As many as 40,000 migrants a month are using the app to schedule appointment and gain access legal entry into the country, Fox News reported.
