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The fate of tens of thousands of people seeking asylum at the United States' southern border will, from Friday, hinge on an app that has just 2.5 stars in the App Store.
'A nightmare'
Ciudad Juarez is a tangle of tents and desperation, where people who have made impossible journeys scrape by on hope and charity.
Those who have phones search for exposed wires from street lights to charge them, and save every penny they have to buy credit to access the internet.
But the challenge does not end there.
"Look, it's stuck," said Ronald Huerta, a Venezuelan who on Wednesday couldn't get past the application's language settings.
A few meters away, Ana Paola, a 14-year-old Venezuelan, cried disconsolately because the application had been updated and all the information for her family had been deleted.
"I'm tired! I can't take it anymore!" the teenager shouted as she repeatedly clicked "Submit" to recreate the family's profiles—receiving an "Error 500" message every time.
"It's been a nightmare, it's been a torment. This application has caused us emotional, psychological damage," said her father, Juan Pavon.
As Title 42 enters its final few hours, some migrants debate just sneaking across the border, hoping to avoid detection long enough to reach some kind of safety.
For some, the strategy works.
"I waited and waited and waited, but I got fed up, there was no way to get an appointment," said Luis Quintana, a Venezuelan who climbed through a hole in the wall at El Paso after three months on the streets of Ciudad Juarez.
For Raul Pinto, an attorney with the American Immigration Council, the app's many problems add another layer of unnecessary despair.
"It's frustrating that this important process is left at the mercy of technology that can often be glitchy and that is not going to be accessible by everyone," he told AFP.
The government said this week it would be rolling out updates to the app and increasing the number of appointments available in a bid to ease the logjam.
Pinto was hopeful that things would get better, but said there were many aspects of the process that were beyond fixing.
"We are very disappointed that there's not an alternative way for people to access this very important and potentially life saving process," he said.
© 2023 AFP
Original Text (This is the original text for your reference.)
The fate of tens of thousands of people seeking asylum at the United States' southern border will, from Friday, hinge on an app that has just 2.5 stars in the App Store.
'A nightmare'
Ciudad Juarez is a tangle of tents and desperation, where people who have made impossible journeys scrape by on hope and charity.
Those who have phones search for exposed wires from street lights to charge them, and save every penny they have to buy credit to access the internet.
But the challenge does not end there.
"Look, it's stuck," said Ronald Huerta, a Venezuelan who on Wednesday couldn't get past the application's language settings.
A few meters away, Ana Paola, a 14-year-old Venezuelan, cried disconsolately because the application had been updated and all the information for her family had been deleted.
"I'm tired! I can't take it anymore!" the teenager shouted as she repeatedly clicked "Submit" to recreate the family's profiles—receiving an "Error 500" message every time.
"It's been a nightmare, it's been a torment. This application has caused us emotional, psychological damage," said her father, Juan Pavon.
As Title 42 enters its final few hours, some migrants debate just sneaking across the border, hoping to avoid detection long enough to reach some kind of safety.
For some, the strategy works.
"I waited and waited and waited, but I got fed up, there was no way to get an appointment," said Luis Quintana, a Venezuelan who climbed through a hole in the wall at El Paso after three months on the streets of Ciudad Juarez.
For Raul Pinto, an attorney with the American Immigration Council, the app's many problems add another layer of unnecessary despair.
"It's frustrating that this important process is left at the mercy of technology that can often be glitchy and that is not going to be accessible by everyone," he told AFP.
The government said this week it would be rolling out updates to the app and increasing the number of appointments available in a bid to ease the logjam.
Pinto was hopeful that things would get better, but said there were many aspects of the process that were beyond fixing.
"We are very disappointed that there's not an alternative way for people to access this very important and potentially life saving process," he said.
© 2023 AFP
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