9 government—calling for his release. wife and three kids’ first time in the United States, they were released right A boat rescued us after the shipwreck. away. But I was separated from them Then we were arrested by the Greeks. and sent here to Otay Mesa. – Sergio The Greek Coast Guard took the Syrians, Pakistanis, and children in Sajjad, an Iraqi student, fled his home one bus and put the Egyptians in a hoping to seek asylum in Europe. 15 He different bus and took us to Corinth. traveled through Belarus before crossing – Najib into Lithuania, where Lithuanian officials Sergio, a Mexican citizen and father of three, fled to the U.S. after being threatened by cartels. He and his family got an appointment through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) mobile application, CBP One, to appear at a port of entry for processing. 14 His wife and kids arrested him and detained him in several sites across the country. He was eventually transferred to a former Soviet prison repurposed as a detention center, where he was detained for ten months. After nearly one year in detention, Sajjad was released and currently lives in Germany. were allowed into the U.S. to seek asylum. I saw the Lithuanian border guards But U.S. officials arrested Sergio and and I surrendered myself to them. I transferred him to Otay Mesa Detention gave them everything—my passport, Center in California. He had been detained money, there for six months as of the date of his everything from me. And then they interview for this report, even after the U.S. handcuffed me. – Sajjad government found that he had a credible fear of persecution—an indication that he passed the threshold screening requirement to proceed with his asylum process in the U.S. everything. They took Noor, a Syrian woman, traveled from Turkey to the Greek island of Kos on a small rubber boat with her husband and two young children.16 The journey from Turkey to Greece is notoriously dangerous, and When I had my CBPOne appointment, boats like the one Noor traveled on capsize the appointment was for me, my wife, frequently. 17 Though she was five months and my three kids. Because it was my pregnant, Greek authorities detained Noor Video interview with Sergio, California, United States (Mar. 21, 2024). For additional information on CBPOne, the application through which migrants must now preschedule appointments at the U.S.-Mexico border in order to maintain eligibility for asylum, see American Immigration Council, Fact Sheet, “CBP One: An Overview” (June 2023), available at https://bityl.co/R6Sn. 15 Phone interview with Sajjad, Germany (Feb. 27, 2024). 16 Phone interview with Noor, Greece (Mar. 22, 2024). 17 See e.g., “Migrant Boat Sinks off Turkish Aegean Coast, Killing at Least 22 People,” AL JAZEERA (Mar. 15, 2024), available at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/15/migrant-boat-sinks-off-turkish-aegean-coast-killingmultiple-people; Judith Sunderland, “Endless Tragedies in the Mediterranean Sea,“ Human Rights Watch 14 Immigration Detention Across Borders Detention of Asylum Seekers in the United States and the European Union