On a June afternoon when temperatures climbed near 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius), Alejandra Pena gently tipped a jug of water into her son’s mouth. Like other children in the migrant camp, a mile-long stretch of tents along the banks of the river separating Mexico from the United States, the toddler had diarrhea. Pena worried the boy was dehydrated.

“Drink, Natanael. Drink,” Pena coaxed. One of the few humanitarian groups operating in the camp had told her Natanael was malnourished and underweight, she said, attributing his condition to the lack of clean water and poor sanitation in the camp.

Pena, 34, bathes her son Natanael, 1, in a plastic bucket next to their tents, at a makeshift camp in Matamoros, Mexico June 20, 2023. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

Pena bathes Natanael in a plastic bucket next to their tents, at a makeshift camp in Matamoros, Mexico June 20, 2023. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

Pena, 34, fled Venezuela after a criminal group killed her sister, according to interviews and police records. Hoping to seek asylum in the United States, she said her family was stuck in northern Mexico because of new U.S. border rules adopted on May 11 by the administration of President Joe Biden.

The rule requires migrants to make an appointment on a government-run smartphone app before approaching the border – but none of the people with Pena has a device. “We are paralyzed here,” Pena said.

Biden, a Democrat, promised to replace the hardline policies of Republican President Donald Trump, including the COVID-era public health order Title 42, with a more humane immigration system.

Title 42 allowed border agents to expel migrants to Mexico without a chance to seek asylum. The new Biden regulation allows migrants once again to ask for asylum at the border, but wait in Mexico for a slot on the app or risk a sped-up deportation process that could be conducted while they are held in detention.

Officials said the regulation and other Biden immigration policies are reducing illegal border crossings that have hit record highs in recent years.

But in the first month of the new policy, Reuters interviews with more than 50 migrants, U.S. and Mexican officials, a review of court records and previously unreported data found:

* Tens of thousands of people waiting in dangerous Mexican border towns to snag a spot on the app, according to U.S. and Mexican officials, and warnings from humanitarian groups of deteriorating sanitary conditions at migrant camps

* A sharp drop in people passing their initial U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) asylum screenings, down to 46% for single adults from an average of 83% from 2014 to 2019, according to government data contained in a court filing.

* A 35% increase in people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the filing said.

* A sharp rise in time spent in Border Patrol custody, according to previously unreported U.S. government data obtained by Reuters.

* Roughly 50,000 people deported, according to the court filing.

Tens of thousands of migrants stuck in northern Mexico

Migrants who don’t use the Customs and Border Protection app, called CBP One, face a higher bar to claim asylum if they passed through another country without seeking refuge there, a standard which critics say mirrors a Trump policy that was blocked by courts. Those who fail the screening can be deported and banned from entering the U.S. for five years.

A senior Biden administration official told Reuters the policy was working. Government figures show the number of migrants caught crossing illegally has dropped by 69 percent in one month. “Our goal is to incentivize people to go through legal channels,” said the official, who was granted anonymity as a condition of the interview. “We’re seeing, so far, initial positive results.”

The U.S. on June 30 increased the number of appointments available on the app to 1,450 a day from 1,250.

Pena said she wants to follow the rules. But her partner’s phone was stolen in Colombia; the kids’ tablet was sold in Costa Rica and they lost their last smart device in a robbery in Guatemala. Pena hopes to buy a smartphone but the family has so little money that they are begging on the street just to eat, she said.

The Biden official said the administration is working with shelters and other non-governmental organizations to expand internet access for migrants, adding that there was no need for them to wait in dangerous border towns: “There are plenty of safer parts of Mexico where people can go.”

Juan Rodriguez, head of the state-level migrant services agency, said officials visit the Matamoros camp a few times a month to provide water and health services.

But he said he was worried that the CBP One app left some migrants waiting. He said even more spots would help. “That would allow us to control the flow (of people) in a more normal way so that it doesn’t overwhelm us,” he said.

The Mexican federal government did not respond to requests for comments on the camp conditions or the regulations.

By mid-June, the population of the Matamoros camp exceeded 5,000, according to Rodriguez, with an additional 3,000 migrants scattered across Matamoros in shelters, hotels, Airbnbs, abandoned houses, and an out-of-service gas station, local officials said.

The camp, formed during the Trump presidency, became a Democratic talking point during the 2020 elections. Joe Biden denounced policies that left people in “ squalor on the other side of the river.” Jill Biden, on a 2019 tour, tweeted: “This cruelty is not who we are.”

Humanitarian organizations say at times the camp has grown bigger under Biden than during the Trump years.

“We’re trying to provide food and water, but it’s insufficient. We’re overwhelmed,” said Glady Canas, head of a local nonprofit that helps migrants in the Matamoros camp.

Approximately 104,000 migrants are amassed in northern Mexico overall, according to U.S. government figures.

After dark

As mosquitos descended at dusk, Pena doused her children in the last of their bug spray. Swollen red bites pockmarked Natanael’s face and the bodies of his sisters Nathalya, 11, and Nathaly, 13. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said they have seen a few suspected cases of malaria and dengue fever.

Nightfall also brings out criminal groups, camp residents say.

Crime in the camp pre-dates Biden’s presidency, but the threat of the five-year ban makes some people fearful of crossing the border to escape, advocates said. (Reuters via VOA)

•PHOTO: A makeshift camp is set up next to the Rio Grande river, at the border between Brownsville, Texas, U.S. and Matamoros, Mexico June 20, 2023. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

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