CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — David Melgar and his wife stand at the top of the Paso del Norte International Bridge. The chilly wind blows on the face of their 8-year-old son, who sits in between them on the cold pavement.
It's 5:30 a.m. on a Monday in early December. It's still dark, and the temperature feels like 40 degrees.
"We've been here since 3 a.m.," Melgar, 28, says in Spanish. There are a handful of people in front of him in line. Behind him, nearly two hundred people are waiting.
The family fled Honduras, their home country, about two months ago after being extorted for money. They've been in Mexico since. And every day they've been trying to get an appointment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection using the CBP One app. This is their best and safest way to petition for asylum, they say.
"I'm excited because it's a great opportunity for me and for my son, because [the U.S.] is a country where education is better," he says.
Since January 2023, the CBP One app has provided nearly 900,000 people with appointments to show up at ports of entry, get screened, and petition for asylum, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Although having an appointment does not grant migrants legal status in the country, it does allow them to apply for a work permit while they wait for an asylum hearing.
Melgar says he and his wife want to work in the U.S., provide for his son, and settle down in their "new world."
Nearly 10 hours later, Melgar and his family were allowed into El Paso, Texas — their first time in the U.S. He called his mom, before getting on a bus headed to New York to meet their loved ones.
Melgar says he's lucky to have secured one of the 1,450 daily appointments along the Southern border. His wait time was less than what many other migrants have waited. Migrants in Mexico have told NPR they've waited over eight months to secure an appointment.
The beginning of the end?
When the Biden administration rolled out the app in January 2023, it said it was intended to "reduce wait times and crowds at U.S. ports of entry and allow for safe, orderly, and humane processing."
But come January, the CBP One app might not be available.
President-elect Donald Trump vowed in September to get rid of the app, which he falsely claims is used to smuggle migrants into the U.S.
In a statement to NPR, Trump-Vance Transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt didn't answer questions about the future of the app. Instead, she reiterated the pledges the Republican made during his campaign, including securing the border and deporting "criminals and terrorists that make our communities less safe."
Zoila Velasco Cañas, 58, has been waiting for an appointment at a shelter in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico for 10 months. She even considered crossing the border illegally, until she secured one of the slots in early December.
"I'm happy!" Velasco, who is from El Salvador, says. "I got the appointment, and now I'll leave!"
Her parents and a daughter are all U.S. citizens. She says she's been praying they will be reunited one day.
But for Ricardo Bravo and Bárbara Mendoza, Trump's threat to end the app is putting them on edge.
They've been staying at the same shelter as Velasco.
The Venezuelan couple has been trying to get an appointment since June, after registering multiple times on the CBP One app.
"Our plan was to cross the border and surrender when she was pregnant," Bravo says in Spanish while standing in the courtyard of the Ciudad Juárez shelter.
As they were traveling through Mexico with their six-year-old son, Mendoza went into labor. Their daughter is now a month old.
That stopped them from attempting to cross the border illegally. Now, they try to secure an appointment through the app every day.
But they are losing their patience.
"I'm thinking we should cross the border and surrender," Bravo says. "It'll depend on what Trump says in January."
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