Stranded at the border

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: uncertainty at the U.S./Mexico border.

President Donald Trump’s many executive orders quickly reshaped U.S. immigration procedures and policies after years of inadequate oversight under the previous administration.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Here to help set up our next story is WORLD’s Compassion reporter Addie Offeriens. She’s been looking into the recent U.S. immigration policy changes as well as talking with immigration experts and ministry leaders operating border shelters.

Good morning Addie.

ADDIE OFFERIENS: Good morning.

REICHARD: Lots of executive orders on immigration in the last few weeks, but Addie, let’s talk briefly about the Securing Our Borders Executive Order. You write in your recent story for WORLD digital about big changes to the asylum system. Tell us about that.

OFFERIENS: This executive order covers a lot of ground, but most significantly, in the order Trump ended the use of the CBP1 app, which allowed immigrants to schedule appointments to ask for asylum at ports of entry. So now, immigrants are uncertain whether they have any way to request asylum,and that lack of clarity has already been challenged in the courts.

REICHARD: You’ll hear more about that in just a moment.

BROWN: If you’d like to read Addie’s story on the border freeze, you can visit our website: wng.org or follow the link we’ve included in today’s transcript and show notes. Thanks for your reporting Addie.

OFFERIENS: Thank you for having me.

BROWN: WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown is here now with this story from Addie’s reporting.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: It was 11 a.m. in Juarez, Mexico and 1 p.m. in Washington D.C., an hour after President Donald Trump officially took office last Monday. Asylum-seekers opened their phones to find their appointments at the port of entry into El Paso, Texas, had been canceled. Many had been in the queue a long time:

SOSA: They were waiting like about nine or 10 months.

Pastor Rosalío Sosa operates several shelters in Juarez.

SOSA: They were crying, waiting over there to see if they changed their mind. And most of them returned to the shelters because they really don't know what to do.

Sosa said a few of the immigrants have decided to make their way back to their home countries.

SOSA: But like 97% want to wait and see what happens.

He and other ministry leaders worry. Even though Trump’s border blockade may deter some illegal crossers in the short term, the lack of clarity about how the asylum system will function could push others into the arms of smugglers. And that could potentially increase more desperate and dangerous attempts.

SOSA: With this decision the traffickers, they are making a lot of money.

More on that in a moment. First a little background.

Trump’s executive order shut down a feature on a mobile app called CBP One. The app allowed immigrants to request an appointment at a port of entry and begin the asylum process. If they passed an initial screening, Customs and Border Protection officers paroled them into the country to await their hearing.

Former President Joe Biden created the virtual appointment system in 2023, and barred most immigrants from asking for asylum if they crossed between ports of entry. Customs and Border Protection issued a maximum of 1,450 CBP One appointments every day.

Critics of the system pointed to haphazard vetting procedures and documented cases of fraud. Here’s Missouri Senator Josh Hawley:

AUDIO: The inspector general actually did a report, a full investigative report, on this app and found that frequently users of this app were claiming the same addresses in the United States as their intended destination even though they didn’t know each other, they weren’t family connections. In other words, it has been completely abused.

Others argue many individuals were granted entry into the United States with asylum cases that wouldn’t hold up in court.

U.S. immigration law allows asylum-seekers to ask for protection once they step onto American soil. Asylum-seekers must prove they are the victim of targeted persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political affiliation, or social group. It’s a narrow standard, and many claims are not legitimate.

GONZALEZ: There's a lot of people, they just come to have a better life.

Juvenal González hosts asylum-seekers in his home in Tijuana, Mexico. It’s directly across the border from San Diego, California. He says some asylum-seekers are really just after a job and economic opportunity. But not everyone is trying to game the system.

GONZALEZ: Some of the people cannot go back because they've been persecuted.

That includes a Christian family staying with González who fled government persecution in Russia.

Asylum-seekers must present their case to a judge or, in some cases, an immigration officer. But because more than 1.5 million cases are backlogged in immigration court, immigrants may wait years before a judge is able to hear their case.

AUDIO: We will reinstate my remain in Mexico policy [APPLAUSE]

President Trump also reactivated the Migrant Protection Protocols, a policy more widely known as Remain in Mexico. It requires immigrants who request an asylum hearing to wait in Mexico until a judge can hear their case. But at this point, it’s unclear whether immigrants have any way to request asylum in the first place.

In one of his executive orders, Trump said a provision of the U.S. Immigration law gives him the authority to turn away anyone that may be detrimental to the interests of the United States, even asylum-seekers. WORLD contacted CBP to ask whether it would allow walk-up asylum claims at ports of entry, but has not received a response.

CORREA-CABRERA: It seems that there is no way to process asylum requests as of this time.

Guadalupe Correa -Cabrera specializes in U.S.-Mexico relations and organized crime at George Mason University. She says authorities on the Mexican side of the border are making it difficult for immigrants to access U.S. ports of entry.

CORREA-CABRERA: Migrants report that the National Guard, Mexican Enforcement….the Institute of National Immigration of Mexico is not allowing them to move further…there’s a lot of enforcement on the Mexican side.

Back on this side of the border, the ACLU filed a suit arguing Trump’s asylum lockdown violates the United States’ responsibility to protect those fleeing persecution.

CORREA-CABRERA: This is going to be decided in courts probably. The one judge is going to say something, and they're going to continue implementing some sort of program to process asylum requests.

The lockdown on both sides of the border and the uncertainty of what processes are available for those seeking asylum concerns Correa-Cabrera. She sees a troubling trend on the rise. She currently lives in Tijuana where she’s conducting research on human smuggling networks. When she talks with migrants living in shelters, she finds that some of them are unwilling to wait any longer.

CORREA-CABRERA: I have talked to people who are thinking about hiring a smuggler. They have been waiting for nine months, seven months.

From what immigrants have told her, she estimates smugglers charge an average of $1,500. But the numbers are all over the map.

CORREA-CABRERA: If you pay them enough money to facilitate that mobility, they're gonna find a way.

Still, some immigrants, especially families, aren’t willing to gamble a future asylum claim on a risky illegal crossing and are choosing to wait. Carlos Navarro, is a pastor in the border city of Brownsville, Texas:

NAVARRO: It's a high risk of being detained and not only that, but being deported the next day or the following week.

Navarro operates a respite center for immigrants.

NAVARRO: They don't want to risk their families. So they decided to stay there on the Mexico side without knowing, nobody knows, nobody knows what's going to happen.

In the meantime, Navarro says shelters like his must walk a difficult line.

NAVARRO: Show compassion, but also respect the government's orders.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

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