The frenzy took hold of a migrant camp in the northeastern Mexican city of Matamoros, where many were anxious to start the process that will allow Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Haitians to enter the United States.
Emotions were on the rise from the first minute of Thursday, when the process for making appointments was opened through an application called CBP One.
Through this procedure, migrants seek one of the 30,000 monthly slots announced on January 5 by President Joe Biden to be able to enter and work in the United States for the next two years.
It only applies to citizens of these four countries, although the migration crisis has a continental reach.
In the Matamoros camp, on the border with Browsville, Texas, hundreds of people, especially Venezuelans and Haitians, eagerly searched on their cell phones to enter their data into the app.
It is estimated that some 7,000 people remain stranded in this city in precarious conditions and enduring the low winter temperatures, waiting to obtain asylum.
"Nobody has slept, nobody, but here we are going forward, fighting to be able to complete the process. We are already in this because we want to be in the United States, mainly because I have mine there"Henry Moreno, 60, who left Venezuela with his children Grecia, 20, and Moisés, 28, and their dog Chonero, told AFP enthusiastically.
"What do they tell you in the mail?", "it came to me too", "It is the same date and the same time that was chosen"the Venezuelans who applied to the program, arranged by the governments of the United States and Mexico, commented among themselves.
The first interviews with the US authorities were scheduled for January 18.
– Solidarity –
This policy supposes the expansion of a measure presented in October for 24,000 Venezuelans, which allowed them to enter upon formal request, for which they needed a sponsor, and as long as it was by plane.
In announcing the new program, Biden warned that he will tighten restrictions to prevent illegal entry at the 3,100 km border, which he first visited as president last Sunday in El Paso, Texas, prior to an official visit to Mexico.
In fiscal year 2022 alone, 2.3 million arrests and expulsions were recorded, five times more than in 2020, largely due to Title 42, the anti-covid regulation that authorizes the execution of these measures expressly.
Thousands of these people remain in Mexican border towns, some for a year, waiting to be allowed to argue that they are fleeing poverty, violence or political persecution. Also, to try to enter on your own.
In the Matamoros camp, built on dusty ground, some tents were adapted as work areas, where the most skilled in computer matters helped their neighbors, friends or relatives in solidarity.
The joy is palpable, but also the nerves for not being able to make the appointment for his interview with the authorities of the neighboring country.
"They told us that from January 18 to 30 they were going to open those appointments and already some (the application) is not letting them move forward, so it means that the number of appointments that they had contemplated is already there so that they can enter through this port"said Gladys Cañas, president of the NGO Helping them to Triunfar.
This situation forces some to try to find the interview at another port of entry. One of the conditions is to make the request from the place where the interested party is located.
To be part of the quota, applicants must also pass an investigation into their criminal records, have a sponsor in the United States that provides them with financial support, and be vaccinated against covid.
Although the confirmation email he received does not guarantee that he will get permission to enter, Henry is not discouraged. He feels that he is already closer to starting to end his hardship.