Donald Trump has cut access to the CBP One app during his presidential inauguration. CBP One has provided over one million asylum seekers the opportunity to enter and work in the US legally.
According to the Customs and Border Protections website, the functionalities of CBP One are no longer available. Even migrants who’ve scheduled appointments have been cancelled. Asylum seekers and applicants were waiting in the cold, unsure of their next move after the program had been cancelled. Some were even caught in tears.
Some social media users felt immense sympathy for these migrants. One user on X found the clip heartbreaking. They added, “These people are being told to come in “the right way, and when they do, they get turned down from that.” Another X user furiously wrote, “F— you ghouls who support this. These people are waiting in line, not breaking in, like you guys said you wanted.”
Meanwhile, other commenters viciously tore into the migrants. Several claimed that these migrants had ‘four years’ to be legalized and accused migrants of crying for show. Another one on YouTube chided that “the party is over”—disregarding the contexts that these asylees fled from.
Misinformation about CBP One
The bottom line is the Trump-Vance administration doesn’t care whether or not migrants have come to the United States legally or illegally. Nevertheless, this was to be expected—Elon Musk, who has been Trump’s sidekick for the election, has criticized the CBP One app. Musk claimed that the CBP One App ‘takes less than 5 minutes and zero documentation to get approved as an illegal immigrant.’
That claim is unfounded at best, because all the app does is help asylum seekers schedule an appointment. Then, these asylum seekers have to present themselves to one of eight border crossing points to seek a humanitarian permit. These migrants aren’t simply leaving their countries for a better life. Asylum seekers from Haiti and Venezuela are leaving because they must.
