Brownsville shelter sees drop in migrants following shutdown of CBP One app
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A homeless shelter in Brownsville said they've seen a drop in migrants arriving, and that the shutdown of the CBP One app is to blame.
Jorge Garcia from Venezuela said he’s called the Ozanam Center in Brownsville home for the past month.
Garcia said it took him a month to get from his country to our border, and he does not want to go back to Venezuela.
Out of all the countries he passed through, Garcia said kidnappings and extortion made Mexico the most dangerous.
“I entered the country through the CBP One,” Garcia said in Spanish, adding that he crossed into Brownsville in November.
“I made it through the port of entry legally, and I don’t have a criminal record, so I’m not scared of presenting myself.”
Garcia said he knows he's lucky because many people are still stuck in Mexico after President Donald Trump shut down the app on Monday.
READ MORE: Migrants stranded when thousands of appointments to enter the US are canceled as Trump takes office
Ozanam Center Executive Director Victor Maldonado said he’s noticed fewer people at their facility.
“We were anticipating that our numbers would be coming down basically because of what this new administration stated that they were gonna shut down the border," Maldonado said.
Before the CBP One app ended, Maldonado said 180 people used their shelter daily — a majority of them were migrants.
On Tuesday, the shelter saw 90 people come in.
Maldonado said many of the migrants faced the same dangers as Garcia, and will face the same challenges ahead.
Garcia said a lot of people stayed behind in Mexico, and that he hopes President Trump will find compassion for the people are coming here to work.
RELATED STORY: ‘We’re in limbo:’ Reactions to CBP One app shutting down
Garcia is now working to get a flight to Denver, where he has a court hearing scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 23.
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