Biden's CBP phone app a 'boon for alien smugglers' as migrant encounters surge

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection smartphone app known as "CBP One" is "facilitating illegal immigration” and has become a “boon for alien smugglers” as migrant encounters surge at the border, according to an immigration policy expert.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, noted that the app was initially being developed during the Trump administration as a way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among workers who were linked to companies doing business at the border. CBP rolled out the app in January 2023 for migrant asylum appointments and expanded it in May.

The CIS says it is an independent, non-partisan research organization in Washington, D.C., and that its mission is to examine and critique the impact of immigration on the United States, "animated by a pro-immigrant, low-immigration vision which seeks fewer immigrants but a warmer welcome for those admitted."

The CBP says on its website that "as part of CBP’s comprehensive effort to improve the security of our nation’s borders while enhancing legitimate travel and trade, CBP One provides increased accessibility and transparency to some of CBP’s most utilized services."

Krikorian challenges the effectiveness of the app, and says, "This administration has taken it and turned it into a way of facilitating illegal immigration because if somebody makes an appointment on the CBP One app and they show up at a port of entry and they are let in or let go, they're still illegal aliens," adding that "the administration has no legal authority to let those people go and they're doing it anyway."

CIS estimates that the majority of migrants who make appointments on the CBP One app are ultimately let into the U.S. with a court date that they might not attend. 

Krikorian said the Biden Administration took a victory lap too early after the number of migrant encounters had dipped in June compared to May when Title 42 ended. He noted that leaked data reported in The Washington Post shows migrant encounters surging about 30% in July.

"A lot of people, smugglers and regular illegals, you know, potentially illegal, said, 'Okay, well, let's wait and see. Let's see how it's going there. We're holding back.' That's what happens anytime we change policy," Krikorian said, referencing the initial implementation of the CBP One app for migrant appointments. "There was a brief pause in June in border patrol numbers, some of which was made up for by people being illegally let into the country with CBP One but even that brief reduction looks like it has been eliminated."

In addition, the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) – the union representing more than 18,000 Border Patrol agents – reported that the August encounter numbers are on track to be even higher than July.

"So the administration prematurely declared victory and their attempts at half measures, at trying to plead with potential illegals, 'please don't come, it makes us look bad in the newspapers,' are not being heeded," Krikorian said.

He also seems unwilling to accept at face value that the misuse of the app is perhaps an unintended consequence. Krikorian argues that the Biden Administration is using CBP One to make it easier for immigrants to break the law. By using CBP One, migrants are "not jumping the border, which is a federal crime as well as a civil offense, but they're showing up at a port of entry" instead.

"The administration is the one breaking the law by releasing them into the United States but the point is they're still illegal aliens. It's still illegal immigration," he said.

Krikorian emphasized that migrants who use the CBP One app still have to get to the border somehow.

"They still have to pay smugglers to get here and the whole thing is a boon for alien smugglers," he said. "It's supposed to only be for people who have made it to Mexico already and even that's bad enough, because you have to pay a smuggler to get there but the smugglers have figured it out. They're actually using it."

Krikorian's analysis is evidenced by a Spectrum local news report that features a migrant who said the app only "starts working from Mexico City up to the border towns." The report added that this "contradicts what the Biden administration said the app would do when it was launched as a solution to the large influx of migrants at the border. It was proposed that people could apply even from their home countries before traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border. But that’s not the case."

Krikorian said smugglers are creating workarounds, rigging the app to work in other areas as well.

"Smuggling organizations have figured out if you just use a Virtual Private Network [VPN] and say that you're in Mexico, you can schedule your illegal immigration from Tajikistan and then when you get an appointment, you arrange your travel to Mexico and then show up and they let you in," he said.