On Sunday, US officials stopped hundreds of mostly Venezuelan migrants from entering the country through Mexico after a large group broke through Mexican lines to seek asylum in the US, only to be met with barbed wire, barriers, and shields.
Frustrated with the difficulty of obtaining appointments to seek asylum through a new U.S. government app, the migrants gathered at the border in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez but were unable to cross the border.
Many of the migrants were accompanied by small children.
Reuters images show some migrants attempting to throw an orange, plastic barrier at the US border. According to some, pepper spray was used to repel them.
“Please, just let us in so we can help our families,” Camila Paz, an 18-year-old Venezuelan, sobbed. “So that I can have a future and support my family.”
Requests for comment were not immediately responded to by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) or the Mexican government’s national migration authority.
The crowd of migrants eventually withdrew after some pushing and shoving with the officials, with some heading down to the banks of the Rio Grande, where they were monitored by U.S. immigration officials arrayed on the other side.
Many migrants have become dissatisfied with the asylum process since the Biden administration made available an app called CBP One, which was designed to streamline applications.
They claim the app is plagued by persistent bugs and high demand, leaving them stranded in dangerous border regions.
According to the US Department of Homeland Security, recent app updates will simplify and speed up the process.
Paz described her situation as “horrible, horrible,” saying she had been attempting to cross the border for a month, watching her money vanish and getting no closer to claiming asylum.
“We need answers,” she said, “the (CBP One) application has done nothing for us.”
