Today U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding answers on the Department’s new CBP One app.
“Under your leadership, the Department is marketing a new phone app, called CBP One, that allows unauthorized migrants to reserve a time to cross the border, like making a restaurant reservation. How convenient,” wrote Senator Hawley.
He continued, “I imagine there are plenty of Americans who would appreciate this level of service from their government. Your choice to spend untold sums of taxpayer money—you said you had no idea what it cost—on concierge service for illegals is baffling. It is also revealing. It demonstrates your priorities: open borders, no matter the cost to Americans; no matter the jobs lost, the wages lost, the drugs flooding our schools.”
Senator Hawley posed several questions for Secretary Mayorkas about the app, including whether it is a national security risk and how many individuals are projected to use it in the weeks ahead.
Earlier this week, Senator Hawley questioned Secretary Mayorkas on the CBP One app in a Senate Judiciary hearing.
Read the full letter here or below.
March 30, 2023
The Honorable Alejandro Mayorkas
Secretary
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
2707 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave SE
Washington, D.C. 20528
Dear Secretary Mayorkas,
Stopping illegal immigration is your responsibility. But it does not appear to be your priority. Instead, as you and I discussed in the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, you are busy providing concierge service to illegal migrants.
Under your leadership, the Department is marketing a new phone app, called CBP One, that allows unauthorized migrants to reserve a time to cross the border, like making a restaurant reservation. How convenient. I gather the app is meant to expedite asylum claims, or so your Department’s promotional material says. But I noticed you said nothing about asylum when I asked you at the hearing. And the Texas Monthly has recently reported that “[a]t no point does the app ask users ‘Are you seeking asylum?’” Worse, when migrants show up at the border to enter the country, they “are given no interviews and asked no questions about vulnerabilities they listed in the app or about why they’re seeking asylum in the U.S.—they’re simply released into the country on official parole.”
You told me at the hearing that the app was available to a limited number of persons. But you also said “tens of thousands” of migrants have used it. And your Department has pledged to “expan[d] access to the app in Central Mexico”—so even more migrants can schedule their border crossing.
That is far from limited.
I imagine there are plenty of Americans who would appreciate this level of service from their government. Your choice to spend untold sums of taxpayer money—you said you had no idea what it cost—on concierge service for illegals is baffling. It is also revealing. It demonstrates your priorities: open borders, no matter the cost to Americans; no matter the jobs lost, the wages lost, the drugs flooding our schools.
And then there are the national security risks, which your new app makes far worse. Migrants who use CBP One to get across the border are unlikely to face consequences for years: frivolously claiming asylum ensures that an illegal migrant can stay in the United States almost indefinitely, while their asylum claim remains caught up in a massive backlog. And even if they ultimately lose their asylum cases, DHS won’t deport them anyway.
The CBP One app, in its current form, is a full-on institutionalization of an open border and the abuse of our asylum laws. So that Congress can consider remedial legislation, please provide the following information—which I asked you about in this week’s hearing—by April 10, 2023:
- How many individuals have claimed “vulnerable” status through the CBP One app since its rollout?
- How many individuals are projected to use the CBP One app following the cessation of Title 42 authority in the weeks ahead?
- Will the CBP One app be updated to ask users whether they are in fact asylum seekers?
- Are there national security risks posed by migrants potentially abusing the CBP One app?
- How much did the CBP One app cost to develop?
- Which, if any, third-party companies or other contractors were involved in the development of the CBP One app, and how much were they paid for their services?
I await your response.
Sincerely,
Josh Hawley
United States Senator