TAPACHULA — Hundreds of migrants waited in long lines outside an immigration office in southern Mexico on Monday, hoping to secure safe passage north and enter the U.S. legally before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
Trump plans to end President Joe Biden’s humanitarian programs, including one that allows migrants in parts of Mexico to make an appointment on a U.S. government app, known as CBP One, to approach a port of entry and enter the U.S. legally.
The Mexican government runs a program of busing migrants with confirmed CBP One appointments from southern Mexico to the northern border, seeking to protect them from gangs and organized crime groups that extort and kidnap migrants traveling across the country.
On Monday, migrants in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula waited to secure seats on these buses and expressed relief that they’d managed to land one of the coveted CBP One appointments for early January, before Trump takes office on the 20th.