An app to streamline the asylum process at U.S. borders is experiencing technical difficulties.

From American public media, this is Marketplace Tech.

I'm Megan McCarty-Karino.

Earlier this year, the Biden administration unveiled a new tool to help migrants seeking

asylum at U.S. borders, where entry has been restricted under a pandemic emergency order

known as Title 42.

A newly expanded smartphone app, managed by Customs and Border Protection, now allows

asylum seekers to schedule appointments to enter the country.

But since this new function launched in mid-January, thousands of migrants throughout Latin

America have been scrambling to sign up, and encountering a lot of glitches.

KPBS reporter Gustavo Solis spoke with migrants in Tijuana as they tried out the new system.

Custom and Border Protection's new app is called CBP1.

If asylum seekers want to get into the U.S., they have to use it.

Cristian Valencia is one of them, but he's running into technical difficulties at the Tijuana

migrant shelter he's living in.

Valencia says the Wi-Fi at the shelter isn't strong enough.

The app keeps crashing.

CBP1 is the latest effort by the Biden administration to address the migrant crisis.

The administration has also invested in facial recognition and geotracking technology, both

to process new migrants at the border and to surveil the ones already inside the country.

Advocates say there are obvious problems with the app.

It's only available in Spanish and English, and some migrants don't have smartphones or

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