Human Rights Watch Report: We Couldn’t Wait: Digital Metering at the US-Mexico Border

The administrations of U.S. President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador are forcing thousands of people seeking asylum in the United Sttaes to wait for months in Mexico, exposing them to danger, Human Rights Watch said in a report released yesterday. 

The report We Couldn’t Wait: Digital Metering at the US-Mexico Border, details how the Biden and López Obrador administrations have made a difficult-to-use US government mobile application, CBP One, all but mandatory for people seeking asylum in the United States. The result is de facto “metering,” a practice formalized early in the Trump administration that  limits the number of asylum seekers processed at ports of entry each day, turning others back to Mexico.

The report is based on interviews with 128 asylum seekers who were able to share information on the experiences of a total of 263 people, including family members and friends with whom they were traveling, as well as interviews with 13 shelter workers, eight migrant service providers, Mexican government officials, and human rights workers.

CBP’s nearly exclusive use of the CBP One app to process asylum seekers creates additional barriers to access for those seeking asylum, particularly for certain groups. Many asylum seekers do not have cellphones because they cannot afford them or because criminal actors or government agents in Mexico have stolen their phones. When asylum seekers do have phones, their devices often do not have memory space to support the app, they cannot pay for the data they need to use the app, or they do not have access to Wi-Fi.  

In addition, nearly all the asylum seekers Human Rights Watch spoke to described having trouble using or accessing CBP One. For some, the app was particularly difficult to use due to identity factors such as their race, digital literacy, ability to read or write, language, age, LGBT status, or disability.  

The report is here. 

KJ