CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico—A new app introduced by the Biden administration to help process hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border has allegedly become a cash cow for human smugglers looking to exploit desperate migrants.
The administration announced the CBP One app in January, describing it as a “safe and orderly” path for certain migrants to apply for political asylum. The app, which has been designed to curb unauthorized crossings in the U.S., has been the main legal pathway to request U.S. asylum at the Mexican border since May 12—when the infamous COVID-era policy, Title 42, was ended.
But now, some fraudsters are using the app as an opportunity to sell fake court appointments, bogus smartphones and internet services for migrants stuck at the border, according to several asylum-seekers and a human smuggler who spoke with The Daily Beast.
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Members of the National Guard watch over the river bank at border marker 40 in Ciudad Juárez on May 13, a day after Title 42 ended.
Luis ChaparroThe scammers appear to be exploiting weaknesses in the app, which has been heavily criticized for showing recurrent “not in service” messages that have frustrated scores of migrants who have tried and failed to apply for asylum through the app.
“First of all you need a working smartphone, reliable internet service, and then the help of God to get an appointment [with U.S. immigration authorities],” Joaquín Mares, a 31-year-old Venezuelan seeking U.S. asylum and currently waiting in Ciudad Juárez, México. “It is never working and it is frustrating, we are desperate.”
That desperation is driving some migrants to turn to human smugglers, some of whom appear to be charging between $100 and $500 for “family packages” that include a cellphone, internet service, and a “technician” that helps migrants set up an account on the app, according to sources in Mexico and social media posts reviewed by The Daily Beast.
In many other cases, according to accounts from migrants, the scammers simply disappear after getting paid to facilitate a court appointment through the app.
“I paid to get an account made since I’m not very knowledgeable about technology, but I never got an appointment and the man who set my account just disappeared after I paid,” Carlos Navarro, a Venezuelan migrant waiting in Ciudad Juárez for a court appointment, told The Daily Beast. “He promised me that I would get an appointment in less than two days, but it has been more than two weeks now.”
Scammers are also selling everything from “technical support” to SIM cards with a Mexican phone number—given that Mexican law requires a current ID to obtain cellular phone service—according to the smuggler.
“At the very beginning business started going bad, because migrants were crossing [the border] by themselves, without our help, because they were turning themselves over to the Border Patrol,” a human smuggler working for a drug cartel in Ciudad Juárez told The Daily Beast. “But when they started using the app, we managed to pump the business again by getting creative.”
Botched
In cases where smugglers don’t disappear after getting paid, the “services” they provide to asylum-seekers are often useless, according to some migrants.
“I had my cellphone but it got stolen when I entered Mexico and when I arrived in Ciudad Juárez the guides (smugglers) offered me a cellphone with internet for very little money,” Andrés, a-42-year old Guatemalan migrant in Ciudad Juarez, told The Daily Beast.
A group of migrants camp outside Ciudad Juárez city hall as they wait to get an appointment through CBP One app.
Luis ChaparroAndrés, who wouldn’t share his last name for fear of retaliation, said that smugglers offered him the cellphone along with internet service for $50. But on the second day of use, the phone service went down.
“I think it was a stolen phone, and it stopped working on the second day, so I couldn’t follow up on my application and now I don’t know what to do or if I got a message from immigration,” he said.
Some smugglers allegedly tell migrants to change the language of their phones from Spanish to English to get a better chance at being added to the long digital queue via the app, or to make different accounts and apply several times.
“Sometimes we offer full services like internet and a working phone to create several accounts on the app for full family members. For something like that we would charge from $350 to $600 depending on how many accounts we set up,” the smuggler claimed.
U.S. authorities have warned migrants of these sorts of scams, recommending they submit their applications themselves without relying on anyone trying to help. But many migrants don’t even have access to a smartphone, prompting some to turn to smugglers.
The Daily Beast reached out to CBP and Mexico’s Immigration Institute (INM) requesting comment but until the day of publication no answer was provided.
Mexican authorities believe that drug cartels generate over $615 million exclusively from human smuggling, according to a 2022 report from Mexico’s Ministry of the Interior. The real number could be much higher, considering the fraudulent schemes and other services provided to those who are not necessarily looking to cross the border illegally.
U.S. immigration authorities have granted more than 79,000 court dates to migrants between Jan. 12—when CBP launched the mobile app—and April 30, according to CBP figures. Last month, the CBP announced the expansion of the program from 250 appointments a day to over 1,000, prioritizing migrants who have waited the longest.
“As long as there are people trying to cross (the border) legally or illegally, we will find a way to make a profit from it,” the smuggler said. “Now we don’t even have to risk ourselves to make money getting people across, we just need to help them navigate an app and make money from it.”
