U.S. suspends asylum appointments in Texas border city

U.S. asylum appointments at a dangerous Texas-Mexico border crossing can no longer be scheduled via an online app following reports that migrants face extortion in Mexico.

Advocates for migrants in the Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo, just across the border from Laredo, were informed of the suspension by a U.S. consular official. A website for the app, called CBP One, no longer lists Laredo as a city where asylum seekers can schedule appointments.

Nuevo Laredo has long been notorious for widespread kidnapping and extortion of migrants. The appointments are a key part of a border system put in place by U.S. President Joe Biden last month when COVID-era restrictions known as Title 42 expired.

Lately, criminal groups in Nuevo Laredo have allegedly demanded payment from migrants headed to the port of entry, including those with CBP One appointments, according to a May report from the Strauss Center at the University of Texas at Austin.