U.S. asylum appointments suspended in Texas border town after reports of extortion in Mexico

Administration officials have stopped taking mobile app appointments made by asylum seekers at a Texas border city after they received reports that the migrants were being targeted for extortion. 

For the time being, migrants will no longer be able to schedule appointments in Laredo, Texas—a border city that connects to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, known for being notoriously dangerous, U.S. authorities said in a statement. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection gave no official explanation for why it decided to stop scheduling the appointments through the CBP One app. However, several humanitarian groups told CBP that cartels were controlling the access to the international crossing on the Mexican side of the border placing “vulnerable migrants” at risk. 

Asylum seekers at Nuevo Laredo told The Associated Press that Mexican officials had threatened to detain them and make them miss their scheduled asylum appointments unless they received the money. 

“They would tell us covertly, ‘You’re going to put the money in this envelope and pass it to us,’” Rafael Alvarez from Venezuela told AP. 

Alvarez was detained in early June by Mexican immigration authorities, who seized his travel documents. The officials then demanded that he pay around $57 if he wanted to be released and make it to his immigration appointment with U.S. authorities the following day. 

Another migrant, Narsher Nuñez, secured an immigration appointment in Nuevo Laredo for herself, her 6-month-old son, her husband, and her adult nephew, reported VOA News. Upon landing in the Nuevo Laredo airport, Mexican officials took her documents and demanded $86 to get them back. 

"If I have a good heart, I'll send you to Guatemala. But if you catch me in a bad mood, I'll send you to Venezuela," the officer allegedly told them.

According to a report from the Strauss Center at the University of Texas at Austin, one migrant, who asked to remain anonymous, said cartels demanded as much as $500 per member of his family to be get close to the border. 

After the end of the immigration policy Title 42, the Biden administration opened up different options for migrants to enter the country legally, with one option being to schedule appointments via the CBP One app and wait in Mexico until their assigned interview date at a port of entry. 

However, immigration advocates are arguing that migrants should not be forced to wait in dangerous conditions in Mexico. It is unclear if the problem of extortions only pertains to Nuevo Laredo or is seen in other ports of entry.