Donald Trump’s administration launched a new function in the CBP Home application, available on smartphones, which becomes a channel for migrants in an irregular situation to self -support. They present this option as the safer so that, in the future, people can Legal enter the United States.
However, organizations of Guatemalan migrants residing in that country consider illusory the possibility that undocumented nationals show interest in using the app to obtain a visa. Rather, They qualify the proposal as misleading And they warn that it does not offer guarantees to people so as not to be identified, captured and deported.
The application CBP Home It was launched on March 10, but now includes a function that allows verify Prove that they are outside the American territory.
“If they do not self -support we will find them, we will deport them and they will not be able to return,” is the message launched by the United States government and that accompanies this antimigration strategy.
Tricia McLaughlin, deputy secretary of Public Affairs of the Department of National Security of the United States, told the media last Monday that the migrant in an irregular situation must be found At least 3 miles from the country to successfully use the CBP Home application and thus demonstrate that meets the requirements to request a visa in the future.
He added that anyone who is illegally in the United States can opt for self -portion, and that the privacy of shared information through this application is guaranteed.
At the moment, the US government does not have data on how many undocumented migrants have used CBP Home, figures that could be known in the coming weeks, while the launch of new options in the application is expected.
According to Joe Salazar, deputy deputy deputy secretary for affairs of the Western Hemisphere in the State Department, the United States has the right to deport illegal immigrants, and the other countries have the responsibility of accepting citizens who return to their place of origin.
DECEPORY STRATEGY?
Walter Batres, president of the Guatemalan migrant network, questions that migrants opt for self -exporting through this application.
“No one is going to register in a system that is to locate or find you. Of our people it is almost certain that it will not, because it is absurd, it has no benefit than to control and know where people are located,” says Batres, who resides in California, United States.
In addition, it considers illegal the promise to obtain a visa in the future, because, at the moment when a person enters irregularly to the United States, violates laws, and that constitutes an impediment to opt for a permission that allows him to remain legally in the country. “They would have to go back and change that law. This is a trap,” he says.
For Batres, the Trump government has been characterized by being media, and affirms that the measures it has implemented to persecute undocumented migrants seek, mainly, to cause panic in the community and satisfy their voters, since there is no capacity to implement operations simultaneously throughout the country.
Elmer Sandoval, Guatemalan who lives in Trenton, New Jersey, points out that CBP Home is a strategy to “deceive” undocumented migrants.
“The possibility of re -entering American territory is legally very remote, since in this process they would seek any thorough and insignificant error that the person has committed, as traffic infractions, to place them in the category of non -returnable,” says Sandoval.
He adds that there is an unbelievable and double -meaning information saturation, which causes panic among the migrant community. Therefore, Batres suggests the nationals in an irregular situation in the United States to inform themselves well before opting for any process that may harm them, although it is presented as a panacea.
Rejection
The CBP Home application arises as a replacement for CBP One, which was used during the Joe Biden government so that migrants requested an appointment in order to present their cases before the US authorities in the entry ports. However, it was suspended by the Trump administration a few minutes after assuming power, on January 20.
Alfonso Pérez, president and founder of the United Guatemalan Alliance, in Los Angeles, California, considers that the application launched by Trump is totally opposite to which the Biden administration promoted.
“No Guatemalan who is in the US.
He adds that migrants without legal status have chosen to live in the shadows so as not to expose deportation, so he is unlikely to voluntarily return to their country of origin.
“If a voluntarily returned migrant used the application of the CBP Home, they will automatically find it in the database of people who were already in the United States and obviously they will refuse the visa,” says Pérez.
Fernando Castro Molina, Guatemalan immigration analyst, shares the doubt that migrants in an irregular situation use the application, since their goal is to remain as long as possible in the United States.
It indicates that the use of CBP Home not only seeks to facilitate self -exporting, but also reduce the costs of the federal government, since raids, captures, transfers and expulsions are avoided, which allows to focus efforts on migrants that US authorities qualify as criminals and dangerous.
Castro Molina points out that it is not clear what will happen with the imposition of the punishments of 3, 5 and 10 years for the people expelled from the United States, contemplated in the Immigration and Nationality Law, so it recommends that the authorities of each country officially consult the Trump government on this issue.