President Joe Biden’s migrant mobile app, which allows foreign nationals in Mexico to schedule an appointment at the United States-Mexico border to be released into the nation’s interior, is plagued with extortion, despite claims that it provides a “safe, orderly, and humane” process.
As part of its expansive Catch and Release network, Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) started allowing foreign nationals to use the “CBP One” mobile app — enticing those in Mexico who are pregnant, mentally ill, elderly, disabled, homeless, or crime victims to schedule a border appointment to get released into the U.S. interior.
“Scheduling an appointment in CBP One provides a safe, orderly, and humane process for noncitizens to access ports of entry rather than attempting to enter the United States irregularly,” DHS officials have said of the app.
Foreign nationals in Mexico, hoping to use the app to get released into American communities, told the Associated Press (AP) that DHS has shut the program down near the Laredo, Texas, port of entry after they reported widespread extortion by Mexican officials.
According to the foreign nationals using the app, they secured appointments at the border and were subsequently told that they would need to pay Mexican officials in order to get to their appointment.
The AP reports:
Rafael Alvarez, 29, who fled Venezuela, said that after he landed in Nuevo Laredo in early June, Mexican immigration authorities at the airport seized his travel documents, including a printout of the email confirming his CBP One appointment, and demanded he pay 1,000 Mexican pesos, about $57. He was held with other migrants. [Emphasis added]
…
The officials, he said, threatened to hold them so they would have their appointments canceled. Alvarez, whose appointment was the next day, said he refused to pay and was eventually released, but five Russians who were held with him paid a total of 5,000 pesos, about $290. They initially were asked to fork over double that amount, but they told officials they did not have that much, he said. [Emphasis added]
The claims of extortion come as reports have indicated that foreign nationals unable to secure appointments at the border via the app are turning to a massive loophole that allows them to claim they have a significant language barrier or fare acing technical issues.
As Breitbart News reported, Biden’s DHS has increased the number of foreign nationals that it will now allow to use the app. Annually, close to half a million will be able to schedule appointments at the border and subsequently get released into the country at a 99 percent success rate.
From late January to mid-May, the app helped get more than 80,000 foreign nationals released into the U.S. interior.
Late last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration deploying the app, suggesting it merely encourages and facilitates illegal immigration in violation of federal immigration law.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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