TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — A nurse who fled Cuba as a part of the Caribbean nation’s largest exodus in additional than six many years wanted a spot to remain in Mexico as she waited to legally enter the U.S. utilizing a authorities app. A girl who had lived her complete life in the identical Tijuana neighborhood was determined for medical assist after a canine assault left her with wounds to her legs.
A mutual acquaintance introduced the 2 girls collectively. Nurse Karla Figueredo stayed with Martha Rosales for 3 days in October 2023, ready for a border appointment booked via the CBP One app and treating Rosales’ canine bites. When Figueredo left for the U.S., she obtained Rosales’ permission to provide her identify to different migrants.
Phrase rapidly unfold and Rosales made her house a part of a roster of at the very least three dozen migrant shelters in her hometown on the U.S.-Mexico border, briefly housing individuals who use the CBP One app.
“I told God that if they didn’t amputate my feet, I would help every Cuban,” mentioned Rosales, 45, who was utilizing a wheelchair after being attacked by 5 canines till Figueredo helped heal her wounds.
CBP One has introduced practically 1 million individuals to the U.S. on two-year permits with eligibility to work however may go away as soon as President-elect Donald Trump takes workplace.
Figueredo, 25, now works as a medical assistant within the Houston space and retains in contact with Rosales, who give up her job as a financial institution cleaner to deal with her migrant shelter. The individuals Rosales homes, largely Cubans, discuss with her as “’Tía Martha” (Aunt Martha) as she cooks pancake breakfasts, throws birthday events and shuttles them to their CBP One appointments.
Supporters say CBP One has helped convey order to the border and diminished unlawful crossings. However Trump has mentioned he would finish it as a part of a broader immigration crackdown. Critics say it prioritizes a lottery system over individuals who have lengthy lived within the U.S. illegally whereas paying taxes and individuals who have waited years for visas.
Dayron Garcia, a physician in Cuba who heard about Rosales from a nephew, utilized together with his spouse and kids and plans to settle with a buddy in Houston. He mentioned Rosales’ home “feels like family” and that “CBP One has been a salvation.”
“It’s a guarantee,” Garcia, 40, mentioned. “You enter with papers, with parole.”
CBP One started beneath Trump and adjusted beneath Biden
U.S. Customs and Border Safety debuted CBP One close to the tip of Trump’s first time period as a approach for customs brokers to schedule inspections and for guests with short-term visas to increase stays.
The Biden administration prolonged its use to migrants to interchange an opaque patchwork of exemptions to a pandemic-related asylum ban that was then in place.
CBP One is common with Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians and Mexicans, possible as a result of advocates of their communities put it on the market.
Unlawful border crossings by Cubans plunged beneath CBP One from a peak of practically 35,000 in April 2022 to only 97 in September.
Demand for appointments has far outstripped provide, with a median of about 280,000 individuals competing for 1,450 day by day slots towards the tip of final yr, in response to CBP. Winners should report back to a border crossing in three weeks.
An evening owl
Migrant shelters alongside Mexico’s border with the U.S. at the moment are occupied primarily by individuals searching for the net appointments.
Rosales’ home is in a neighborhood with ramshackle houses the place previous tires are stacked to cease flash floods. Migrants watch tv, play billiards, do chores and take care of their youngsters at Rosales’ home or a rental house close by. Those that don’t but have appointments work their telephones for slots made obtainable day by day at eight U.S. border crossings with Mexico, a process likened to making an attempt to purchase Taylor Swift live performance tickets.
Rosales works all through the night time. A helper drives to the airport in an SUV Rosales purchased with retirement pay from her financial institution job.
Shortly after midnight, she shuttles friends from her home to Tijuana’s important border crossing with San Diego for the day’s first appointments at 5 a.m. She chats with them, smiles for photographs and hugs individuals goodbye.
She checks her telephone for migrants needing shelter who heard about her on social media or from family and friends. Her contact checklist identifies them by measurement of occasion and appointment date: “3 on the 16th,” “6 on the 17th.”
Rosales, considered one of 13 youngsters, dropped out of faculty in third grade. Studying the Bible taught her sufficient to barely perceive texts, which she typically responds to with voice messages or calls.
Enrique Lucero was Tijuana’s director of migrant affairs when she got here to Metropolis Corridor for recommendation. He helped Rosales set up a authorized entity to lift cash and made himself obtainable for emergencies, comparable to when a girl missed her CBP One appointment to provide delivery. Lucero talked to CBP to verify the lady and her child obtained in.
“She worries about them. She cries for them,” Lucero mentioned.
The exodus from Cuba
Border arrests of Cubans elevated throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and after anti-government protests in 2021. Nicaragua had just lately eased guidelines for Cubans to fly from Havana, permitting them to keep away from strolling via the Darien Hole, a harmful jungle in Colombia and Panama. By the spring of 2022, Cubans eclipsed all nationalities however Mexicans in unlawful crossings.
“CBP One came like a gift from God,” mentioned Yoandis Delgado, who flew to Nicaragua in 2023, paid a smuggler $1,000 to achieve southern Mexico and was repeatedly robbed by Mexican authorities whereas making an attempt to achieve the U.S. border. “CBP One gave us a sense of possibility, of hope.”
Delgado, a prepare dinner in Cuba, mentioned Rosales’ house and neighborhood don’t stand out for individuals searching for to prey on migrants, giving a way of safety he wouldn’t get at accommodations or different shelters.
“She lives in the same condition that we do, not any better,” Delgado mentioned after a pancake breakfast. “She cries for everything that happens to us, for what we have suffered to get here from Cuba.”
A grim future for CBP One
Biden administration officers painting CBP One as a key success in its technique to create authorized pathways on the border whereas deterring unlawful crossings. They notice individuals in life-threatening circumstances can come to a border crossing with out an appointment to plead their case.
Nervousness is spreading amongst migrants in Mexico who worry Trump will finish CBP One. Even these within the U.S. are uneasy as a result of parole expires after two years.
The Trump transition staff didn’t reply to a query about CBP One’s future, however his allies say it’s overly beneficiant and encourages immigration. A invoice that stalled within the Senate in 2023 would have prohibited utilizing the app to confess migrants.
Figueredo, the nurse who helped Rosales, plans to get a inexperienced card beneath a 1966 legislation that applies to Cubans. She says she and her companion, a barber, got here to “continue to grow professionally and support our future children.”
She writes Rosales usually, telling her that her job is “crazy” busy and asking about her well being. “I hope you’re very happy,” she wrote.