Although they were expecting it, thousands of migrants who are in different municipalities of Chiapas, showed their bewilderment and despair, after this morning the incoming president of the United States, Donald Trump, ordered to close the CBP One application with which migrants in transit through Mexico, scheduled an appointment with the government of their country to enter legally and apply for asylum.
This is one of the measures of the incoming president to stop the entry of migrants to his country. The other is to close the border with Mexico and carry out mass deportations.
This morning, in the cities of Tapachula and Tuxtla Gutiérrez thousands of migrants formed long lines at the offices of the National Migration Institute (INM) to obtain a Multiple Migration Form that authorizes them to transit through Mexico, because they are still waiting to reach the border with the United States.
Others went to the offices of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (Comar), where they are waiting to complete the procedures to request refuge in Mexico.
“At this moment I opened the CBP One application and it didn’t open and they removed it and that was the hope I had,” said Juan Mota, originally from Venezuela, who along with his family arrived in the capital of Chiapas after traveling through several countries.
The CBP One application was active since January 12, 2023, it was a measure implemented by the U.S. government at that time for migrants in transit through Mexico to schedule an appointment that would allow them to enter and apply for asylum. This morning Donald Trump decided to suspend it.
“That was the hope we were bringing (…) we don’t know what we are going to do, whether to go to another country, stay in Mexico,” said Juan Mota.
“We are sad, we don’t know what is going to happen to us. So many countries we went through waiting to arrive and make an appointment, and now this news,” said Javier, also of Venezuelan origin.
“We want to wait to see at least five days, eight days, to see if it is possible to continue advancing, we can continue advancing (to the U.S. border). The other possibility is that they have not said here (at the INM offices) that we can apply for asylum here in Mexico. But it is not our idea to live here,” said the migrant Harrison.
In the city of Tapachula, the INM and Comar offices are overwhelmed because thousands of migrants, mainly Haitians and Venezuelans, are waiting for legal recourse to avoid being detained on the route they still hope to take to the northern border. However, INM agents said they must wait, without explaining how many days.
Also, the bus stations are overcrowded. Other migrants decided to advance on foot on their route.
Other migrants explained that groups of human traffickers have approached them to offer to take them in exchange for between 10 and 20 thousand pesos. “The problem in all this is security, security for us, security for our children, since as a comrade said very well, the migrant has become a trade, a business, and what terrifies us the most is to lose our lives in this whole journey,” said one of the migrants.
Original text and videos by Ángeles Máriscal published in Chiapas Paralelo on January 20th, 2025.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.