Biden's Controversial 'Asylum Seeker' Mobile App Is Abruptly Halted, But Officials Maintain Steady Flow of Illegals
An app used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to facilitate requests for asylum from illegal immigrants has been placed on ice at one border crossing in response to an alleged extortion plot.
Biden administration officials have ceased processing appointments for asylum seekers in Laredo, Texas, through the CBP One app, according to the Associated Press.
Several asylum seekers claimed that Mexican officials in Nuevo Laredo had threatened to make them miss their asylum appointments unless they were paid a bribe.
One Venezuelan migrant claimed that Mexican officials demanded 1,000 pesos ($57) to return his travel documents.
“They would tell us covertly, ‘You’re going to put the money in this envelope and pass it to us,’” Rafael Alvarez said of the Mexican authorities.
The illegal immigrants’ missed appointments will be made up elsewhere.
The Biden administration is reallocating 1,250 daily appointments for the illegals across other ports of entry across the southern border, according to The Washington Post.
Laredo is considered among the less busy CBP sectors in regards to asylum interviews — with greater amounts of migrants flooding the San Diego, California, and Brownsville, Texas, sectors.
American immigration law allows foreign nationals the opportunity to demonstrate that they face persecution or imminent harm in their home nation for asylum, or U.S. legal residency.
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The app has been criticized by opponents of illegal immigration.
Critics of the app have termed it a “concierge service for the illegal immigrants.”
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley described the app as such in a March hearing with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Watch this exchange between Sen. Josh Hawley @HawleyMO and Alejandro Mayorkas ?
“It’s like a concierge service for the illegal immigrants.” pic.twitter.com/n53IpuMPxc
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) March 28, 2023
Record-setting levels of illegal immigrants have breached the United States’ southern border during the tenure of President Joe Biden — many of them inclined to file requests for asylum in a bid to delay or halt their ultimate deportation, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
The Biden administration set forth a plan under which migrants who refuse to apply for asylum in a safe third country before arriving at the U.S. border would be deemed ineligible for asylum in February, according to PBS.
The extent to which the plan is being enforced is unclear.
Illegal immigration costs American taxpayers $150.7 billion every year, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
