By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN

Washington (CNN) — The US-Mexico border is effectively closed off to migrants seeking asylum in the United States within hours of President Donald Trump taking office, an extraordinary departure from previous protocols that has left many concerned migrants in limbo.

It’s a rare combination of two policies — one from former President Joe Biden and other from Trump — that have nearly sealed off the US southern border to asylum seekers. With refugee admissions also set to be suspended, there are few, if any, avenues available to people seeking refuge in the United States.

Biden’s executive action last summer restricting asylum for people crossing the border illegally was condemned by Democrats and immigrant advocates. Biden administration officials argued that migrants still had an option available to them through the border app known as CBP One to schedule an appointment at a legal port of entry.

That option was shut down minutes after Trump was sworn in, leaving thousands of migrants in limbo and resulting in a border that is largely sealed off to asylum seekers.

Migrants who had been waiting for their appointments along Mexico’s northern border expressed shock and disappointment.

Luis, a Venezuelan migrant who has lived in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez for the past nine months, told CNN’s Valeria León he was “trying to do things the right way,” before learning that his appointment scheduled for Monday through the CBP One app had been abruptly canceled.

Venezuelan Yenyile Díaz, who has also spent months living in Ciudad Juarez with her family, said they had all lost their appointments following the shutdown of CBP One.

“The Biden administration had managed to restrict asylum by opening up some other legal avenues and hope that would stand in the court. As of today, there’s almost no way of getting protection at the US border or anywhere along a route to the United States,” said Andrew Selee, president of the think tank Migration Policy Institute. “That’s a huge shift.”

Republicans have argued that the US asylum system has been taken advantage of in recent years, saying that migrants are claiming asylum even though they don’t meet the definition and may instead be coming to the US for economic reasons.

When people request asylum, they are meant to be seeking protection from violence or persecution that keep them from feeling safe in their home country or keep them from returning safely to their home country. The process to be granted asylum can take years, and some claims are ultimately denied.

In an executive order signed Monday, Trump effectively suspended US asylum law until what he’s called an “invasion at the southern border has ceased.” He also directed federal agencies to “repel, repatriate, or remove” migrants coming across the border.

“The decision to eliminate all avenues to seek asylum, even for families with children fleeing for their lives, is a stunning development, one that makes a mockery of our post WWII commitment never to summarily send people back to danger,” said Lee Gelernt, ACLU attorney who led many of the challenges to Trump’s border policies in the first administration, in a statement.

Covid-era restrictions along the border, known as Title 42, also barred asylum and allowed border authorities to turn migrants back. That policy was challenged in court.

Trump is inheriting a relatively quiet border, as Biden’s asylum restrictions sent migrant crossings plummeting.

In the early days of Trump’s first term, border crossings remained low as migrants waited to see and game out his actions. But eventually they increased.

While it’s difficult to predict migration patterns, Homeland Security officials warn that might happen again.

“They may wait for a while and see what’s going to happen. Whether they wait for a day or a few months, if they’re this far and committed, they’re eventually going to try anyway,” the Homeland Security official said, referring to migrants.

Johana Conde, from Cuba, told CNNE from the Mexican border city of Piedras Negras that she now plans to return home but is unsure of what her future holds.

“They say they do want immigrants in the United States, but legal ones. Obviously, we did all this legally. … Right now we don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said.

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