MEXICO CITY (CN) — Many South American asylum seekers in Mexico City have adopted pay-by-the-week rooming houses and outdoor encampments as temporary shelter en route to the U.S. almost a month after President Joe Biden's executive crackdown on the border and long wait times for an asylum appointment.
Due to a tracking feature on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's CBP One app, Mexico City is the southernmost point in Mexico where the app can be accessed. This adds to the capital city's draw as a central hub for migrants on their way north.
On June 4, Biden signed an executive order giving him the authority to shut down asylum processing on a provisional basis at the world's largest migration corridor. The key changes to the Immigration and Nationality Act allow for larger-scale expedited removal and restricted asylum of unauthorized immigrants.
Ramon Daniel Vargas Vargas has been in Mexico City for five months now, living in what is locally known as "Casa Verde" in the Santa Maria la Ribera neighborhood due to its easily recognizable shade of light green. Casa Verde charges $100 a month for a small room.
Stands serving arepas, the pre-Colombian street food popular in Venezuela and Colombia, have popped up near the house, serving migrants a small taste of home.
The house is mostly inhabited by Venezuelans, Vargas said. He has been trying to reserve an asylum appointment through the CBP One app, which he has to do daily on his smartphone. He heard about Casa Verde by walking around and through word of mouth, though he says the living conditions are difficult.
"They treat us like animals," he said about the house's landlords. "I left Venezuela due to insecurity and the failing economy. I have my cigarette and candy stand here, anything helps while waiting for the appointment at the border," Vargas said in an interview in front of his temporary home.
Jean Carlos, his wife and two children are slightly further on in their voyage to the U.S. They resided in a makeshift encampment for two months in Plaza de Soledad in the downtown La Merced neighborhood of Mexico City and are currently in a shelter in San Luis Potosi. Though the lodging is also provisional, it has its problems.
"This place is like a prison," Carlos said. "They take your phone every day at 6 in the evening, and give it back to you at 10 in the morning, but I need my phone to make an appointment on the app so we can leave here."
Biden's changes are provisional and in effect until the number of arrested migrants at the border stays below 1,500 for seven consecutive days and another 14 days after that initial week. The new policy will then go into effect again after a sustained seven-day period of 2,500 illegal border crossing encounters or more.
Various immigrant rights groups sued the Biden administration this month over the rule, citing the 1980 Refugee Act, which was enacted to provide a procedure for "admitting refugees with special humanitarian concerns" to the U.S. by providing "comprehensive and uniform provisions for the effective resettlement and absorption of those refugees who are admitted."
Those with prior appointments using CBP One can continue with their asylum process, a system that has faced its own criticism.
Some immigration advocates say that even though asylum through CBP One is still available, allowing appointments solely through the app is illegal and diminishes an already impossibly narrow window for asylum that can have wait times of up to eight months.
"Those arriving at the border without a CBP One appointment aren't attended to because there is already the presumption of a lack of credible fear," said Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School.
