At the border, a panicked wait to cross before Trump takes office...WaPo
Molly Molloy
At the border, a panicked wait to cross before Trump takes office
Return to menuCIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — It was still dark when the first several dozen people with CBP One appointments — migrants who applied and waited for entry through a federal app — walked up to the international border bridge.
Many had waited months for their appointments. The ones they got happened to fall on the same day Donald Trump will be sworn in as president.
Families walked together through the frigid crossing with infants wrapped in blankets and clutching folders with their identification documents. They carried bulging backpacks and suitcases full of their belongings.
Cleimer Marin, 31, walked up to the orange traffic barrier at the middle of the bridge where U.S. Customs and Border Protection reviewed her passport and son’s birth certificate under the beam of a flashlight. To her great relief, they waved her in.
“I was so scared we wouldn’t make it,” the Honduran woman said. “But God still makes miracles happen.”
Trump’s team has vowed to put an end to CBP One, which allows migrants outside the country to use a free mobile app to request an appointment at an official port of entry on the U.S. southern border so that they can apply for asylum.
More than 80 people waited behind Marin to cross.
Officers checked their names off a list and asked where they were from. Honduras, Venezuela and Cuba, they replied softly. Several people were not on the list. Officers urged them to come back later but said they had not received instructions on whether there would be a second opening.