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What Next | Daily News and Analysis

TBD | Seeking Asylum Via App

What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Slate

News, Daily News, News Commentary, Politics

4.62.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2023

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

CBP One, U.S. Customs and Border Protection's app that is supposed to make crossing the border more efficient, is littered with bugs. But even a perfectly functional smartphone app would pose problems for people seeking asylum on the southern U.S. border. Guest: Arelis Hernández, Washington Post reporter Gia Del Pino, director of communications at the Kino Border Initiative Felicia Rangel Samponaro, director of the Sidewalk School Host: Lizzie O’Leary If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

If you've never been to Metamora, Mexico, just across the border from Brownsville, Texas,

0:09.4

Felicia, Ranjal, San Panaro wants you to know what the city's park looks like.

0:14.9

Because it's not a park anymore.

0:16.9

It's a makeshift home for people trying to get to the U.S.

0:20.8

Whole families live out in what used to be Metamora's this park.

0:25.3

And at its height, like a month or two ago, we had over 2,000 people living in this park

0:31.8

in this small space, one on top of the other.

0:34.6

So there's also trash.

0:37.2

There's only four porta-potties for all of these people.

0:41.3

So it's just really unsanitary.

0:43.6

And then you're living outside amongst the cartels that run those cities.

0:50.2

Cities like Metamoros and Ragnosa, which also has a large encampment.

0:55.0

The camps have grown in shrunk over the years, largely depending on U.S. immigration policy.

1:00.6

The people living in them often come from places like Venezuela or Honduras.

1:05.4

Some have endured terrifying journeys just to get to Mexico.

1:09.4

They don't have tents.

1:10.8

So what they've done is they have repurposed trash bags and blankets and they've gotten

1:17.0

like sticks or branches and they've dug the branches into the ground like you would

1:22.5

at a tent.

1:27.3

Felicia runs the sidewalk school, which provides education, medical care and other assistance

1:33.4

to families seeking asylum in the U.S.

1:36.5

And since January, that has also meant providing tech support.

...

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