CIUDAD HIDALGO, Mexico (KAP) - As soon as she set foot on Mexican soil this week, Venezuelan migrant Yuri Carolina Meléndez downloaded a U.S. government application to request asylum appointments.
The CBP One app already exists, but starting Friday, migrants in the southernmost Mexican states bordering Guatemala will be able to request appointments. Previously, they had to be in central or northern Mexico.
"I have to wait and see if it really works," said the woman, who was resting this week with her 16-year-old and 18-year-old daughters under a tree on the border road leading to the town of Tapachula.
Mexico is asking the United States to expand access to the application to the south in an effort to ease the pressure migrants feel to continue north at least to Mexico City. In recent years, the Mexican government has tried to keep migrants further south from the U.S. border, but a lack of jobs and housing in southern cities like Tapachula is pushing migrants north.
apnews.com / gnews.cz-jav_07
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