A former border security leader says the CBP One app has been taken over by cartels and smugglers to streamline their process of moving people and products into the United States.
The Center for Immigration Studies on Aug. 23 conducted a panel discussion focused on the legality, impact, and myths surrounding the CBP One app.
Panel participant Mark Morgan, former Acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), who is also a Visiting Fellow at the Border Security and Immigration Center of the Heritage Foundation, joined Andrew Arthur, a Resident Fellow in Law and Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, who is a former Immigration Judge, Counsel on the House Judiciary Committee, and Acting Chief of the INS National Security Law Division.
When asked point blank whether drug cartels and human smugglers from Mexico were “benefiting” and “still making money” off the app, Mr. Morgan didn’t mince words, saying that the cartels have an “incredible ability” to change their “tactics, techniques and procedures,” and that the groups have “literally taken over the app.”
App Use by Cartels
According to the former CBP chief, cartels have only gotten stronger and better monetized over the last 40 years by running not just drugs, but illegal aliens through the southwest border. He asserted that has become particularly true over the last 30 months during the Biden administration.
Mr. Morgan said that while the users of the CBP One app are supposed to use it while in Mexico to set an appointment at a point of entry, the cartels have reportedly “overcome” the app, and they can get someone from anywhere to put in their application and then move someone to the appropriate point to get through the border via an asylum claim and into the United States.
“It’s equivalent to the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory ticket,” Mr. Morgan said. “As long as [migrants] have that appointment, [Officials are] just stepping aside, letting them come on in.
“The overwhelming majority of migrants coming to our border claiming asylum are false claims ... the data proves that there are economic migrants,” Mr. Morgan said.
The former CBP official went so far as to say that the Biden administration, and particularly Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, are lying to the American people and that the recently released border reports do not accurately reflect the true extent of illegal immigration.
App Use for Parole
Both panelists spoke about the use of the CBP One app by those who hope to be paroled into the United States, explaining that anyone who was born in Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti, or Venezuela can apply for parole in the United States.“That itself is a circumvention of the law,” Mr. Morgan said of the program. According to the former CBP official, that program was meant to be used “on a case-by-case” basis with a “specific purpose for a specific public benefit or humanitarian purpose. Being born in a country does not satisfy that lawful requirement.”
Mr. Arthur cited an NBC News report from February of this year, which stated that 588,000 people had been paroled into the United States up to that point, and they’re part of a “gigantic queue of people who were simply going to get the sheet of paper” that would allow them to take part in the correct legal process for their immigration status.
The panelist also asserted that some aliens are being given dates as far out as 2032 to have an appointment at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office to get documentation to put them into the proper proceedings.
“One of the things that you hear a lot of the Biden administration is that the Trump administration broke the immigration system, broke the asylum system,” Mr. Arthur said. “I served under Obama, Mark [Morgan] served under Obama and Trump. Trump didn’t really do anything that Obama didn’t do first ... This is literally breaking the asylum system.”
The former immigration judge said there are currently 1.642 million pending asylum applications in the United States and fewer than 1000 asylum officers and 650 immigration judges to hear them.
“There is no way that they are ever going to be able to get to these cases,” Mr. Arthur went on. “And this is an important point that many people miss. There are valid asylum claims ... those legitimate asylum claimants aren’t going to be able to get their day in court because of all of these cases that the Biden administration has flooded the courts with.
“If you believe in asylum and believe in, you know, the Statue of Liberty holding the torch to the nation, this is the exact opposite.”
A CBP spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement: “Claims that the CBP One app has been hacked are categorically false. Criminal organizations and smugglers continue to prey on vulnerable migrants, lying to them and putting them in harm’s way. Here is the reality: the lawful and orderly pathways we have established have been bad for cartels and other criminal organizations seeking to exploit migrants.”
The spokesperson also stated that the CBP One application requires the user’s device location services and GPS data to “verify their location before booking and confirming an appointment.”
The agency also stated that the app was updated to “improve functionality and enhance security” in May of this year and the agency took action to “cut out smugglers who prey on noncitizens,” and that they are “continually monitoring and evaluating the application to ensure its functionality and guard against bad actors.”
