Washington — Approximately 270,000 migrants are estimated to be waiting on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border, hoping to get an appointment to enter the U.S. through a system that President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to end, according to government figures obtained by CBS News.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection estimates that around 270,000 migrants in Mexico are trying to get an appointment distributed by a government app known as CBP One, which the Biden administration has converted into the main gateway to the American asylum system.
Now, those migrants, many of whom are from countries outside of Mexico like crisis-stricken Haiti and Venezuela, are at risk of abruptly losing their ability to enter the U.S. Both Trump and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, his nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, have vowed to shut down CBP One.
The app allows migrants in certain parts of Mexico to request a time to be processed by American immigration officials at legal border entry points, also known as ports of entry. The Biden administration set up the process as part of a broader effort to discourage illegal immigration by offering migrants legal channels to come to the U.S. Those admitted into the U.S. under the system are allowed to apply for work permits, as well as asylum in immigration courts near their respective destinations.
As of Jan. 16, nearly 919,000 migrants had been allowed into the U.S. through the CBP One app process, which was established in January 2023, according to an internal government report obtained by CBS News. It’s unclear what the incoming administration’s plans are for those already admitted through the app, though those with pending asylum requests won’t be deportable unless they lose their cases.
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Demand for CBP One appointments has been extraordinarily high, far exceeding the daily cap of 1,450 the Biden administration placed on appointments. Over the past two years, migrants have attempted to secure an appointment over 166 million times, logging into the app again and again to try their luck, the internal report shows. Wait times typically extend for months due to the high demand.
Because appointments are distributed 21 days in advance of entry dates, roughly 30,000 migrants are currently scheduled to enter the U.S. under the CBP One system in the next three weeks. Appointments have been scheduled through early February, well into the incoming administration.
It’s unclear if the Trump administration will honor those appointments. Even if CBP One is terminated, any effort to stop processing migrants at ports of entry would face legal challenges as federal courts have ruled that U.S. refugee law requires officials to process some asylum claimants at these entry points.
Outgoing Biden administration officials warned that terminating CBP One could prompt some of those waiting for an appointment to cross into the U.S. illegally, potentially upending the current four-year-low in illegal border crossings.
During its first three years, the Biden administration struggled to contain an unprecedented wave of illegal immigration, with CBP processing record numbers of migrants. But unlawful border entries plunged in 2024, mainly due to enhanced efforts by Mexico to prevent migrants from reaching the U.S. and a move by President Biden in June to severely restrict asylum.
A spike in illegal crossings that some experts predicted before Trump’s inauguration never materialized. In fact, Border Patrol is on track to record fewer than 35,000 apprehensions of migrants in January, the lowest level since June 2020, when the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a dramatic drop in migration.
Internal Border Patrol figures show the agency has averaged just over 1,000 daily apprehensions in January, a nearly 90% drop from the record-setting month of December 2023, when an average of more than 8,000 migrants crossed in the U.S. illegally each day.
Illegal border crossings have decreased so sharply that the deactivation trigger for Mr. Biden’s asylum restrictions is set to be reached next week, two U.S. officials told CBS News. By its own terms, the policy would be gradually deactivated when the average of daily illegal crossings stays below 1,500 for 28 days. The rule, however, could be scrapped or modified by Trump’s administration.
Andrea Flores, who worked on immigration policy at the White House during Mr. Biden’s first year in office, said migrants “will likely have no choice but to make an unauthorized crossing” if the CBP One process is halted.
“Numbers may be low at the border, but it is a completely unsustainable situation that remains completely reliant on Mexico to maintain,” said Flores, who is now vice president for policy at FWD.US, a bipartisan group that supports some liberal immigration policies, including a pathway to U.S. citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
Trump’s transition team did not respond to questions about CBP One, including whether officials are concerned that ending the system could fuel an increase in unlawful border crossings.
Trump has vowed to move quickly and aggressively on reshaping federal immigration policy once he’s sworn in on Monday, pledging to launch mass deportations and undo Biden administration policies.
Other Biden-era immigration programs in Trump’s crosshairs include an initiative that allows citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to fly to the U.S. if they have American sponsors. The policy, known as CHNV, was also designed to reduce illegal immigration from these countries.
Officials have admitted roughly 532,000 migrants under the CHNV program, but their fate is unclear as the Biden administration declined to extend their two-year permits to be in the U.S., and Trump officials have talked about ending the policy.
Mexico’s government agreed to accept some non-Mexican deportees, including Venezuelans, from American authorities on the condition that the U.S. would accept migrants under the CHNV initiative. Mexico has not yet said how the program’s potential end would affect that arrangement.
The incoming administration will also need Mexico’s cooperation to fulfill one of its campaign promises: reinstating the so-called Remain-in-Mexico policy that required migrants to await their asylum cases outside of the U.S.
Matthew Hudak, a longtime senior Border Patrol official who retired last year, said he was not “necessarily a fan” of CBP One when it was created, but noted the policy has had some “value” in the form of dissuading people from entering the U.S. illegally through the Rio Grande or other parts of the border.
But Hudak said the incoming administration should make the criteria for being allowed into the country through CBP One “more stringent.” He said Trump officials should assemble their own policy scheme at the border before the spring, when migration has historically increased.
“Now is the window of time,” Hudak said, ” in which (the Trump) administration has the opportunity to establish consequences, to put things into place that can send the message that then, ultimately, becomes a deterrent factor in people deciding to make that illegal entry.”
