EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Migrant advocates are scrutinizing plans by Mexico to have certain refugees file petitions for protection online.
A similar plan implemented in the United States last year – the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s CBP One app – is still drawing criticism for technical glitches and a limited number of appointments, among other issues.
According to CNN, the Mexican Refugee Assistance Agency (COMAR) is overwhelmed with refuge petitions and plans to route applicants in Mexico City to an online portal similar to America’s CBP One.
The “pre-registration system” is supposed to go online this month in the Mexican capital and could be expanded to other cities later, CNN reported. The number of refuge petitions in Mexico City during the first half of May surpassed those in Tapachula, near the Guatemalan border, according to CNN.
“The CBP One app is a logistical and humanitarian failure that should not be replicated by Mexico or any other country,” Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles told CNN.
In El Paso, Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services Director of Legal Services Imelda Maynard told Border Report that online filing tends to exclude vulnerable individuals who need protection the most.
“We feel (the Mexican app) the same way we feel about the U.S. doing an app-based asylum process,” Maynard said. “If this is the only way to access their asylum systems, it leaves out people that just aren’t well-resourced. It leaves out very vulnerable people who may not be literate, not have the money for smartphones that are going to be necessary, who may not have the (technological) knowhow.”
The advocates favor asylum-seekers showing up at U.S. ports of entry and turning themselves in to immigration authorities to file a claim for protection. Online applications should be a matter of choice and convenience.
“If this was just one tool – in addition to allowing people to access asylum the traditional way […] that would be acceptable, but by itself, it is not right,” Maynard said. “It assumes you’re safe enough as a migrant to go through this app.”
Mexico in May received 13,647 refugee petitions, which brings the total for 2023 to 63,462, according to COMAR Director Andres Ramirez Silva. Nearly half of those petitions (25,802) came from Haitian nationals.
