TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — Margelis Rodriguez and her two youngsters took selfies on their flight to Tijuana, exhibiting off the T-shirts she had custom-made to mark what she anticipated to be her household’s life-changing second.
On the again of the shirts have been their names and the flags of the six nations they handed by in 2024. On the entrance between the flags of her native Venezuela and america, was written in Spanish: “Yes it was possible, thank God. The wait was worth it. I made it!!”
The celebratory phrases now sting — driving dwelling how shut they got here with out making it and the way precarious their lives are with their future extra unsure than ever, Rodriguez stated whereas standing close to the tent her household lives in at a shelter in Tijuana, a block from the towering wall marking the U.S. border.
The household is amongst tens of 1000’s of people that had appointments into February, a lot of them left stranded in Mexican border cities after President Donald Trump took workplace. As a part of a broader immigration crackdown, his administration rapidly canceled all appointments folks had made by a U.S. authorities app. Underneath the Biden administration, the CBP One app facilitated the entry of almost 1 million folks since January 2023, and supporters say it helped deliver order to the border and lowered unlawful crossings.
U.S. Customs and Border Safety estimates about 280,000 folks have been attempting to get appointments every day, a lot of them after touring to Mexico, the one nation the place the app labored. Now they face the daunting query of what to do subsequent.
Some returned dwelling. Others left shelters vowing to cross the border illegally. The Rodriguez household seems to seize the prevailing temper: Keep put and see how Trump’s insurance policies unfold over the following few months.
Every thing modified in a second
Rodriguez flew to Tijuana together with her 12-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter on Jan. 19, the day earlier than Trump was sworn in. She by no means apprehensive the change in administrations would have an effect on their Jan. 21 appointment. A Venezuelan pal in Chicago had a job for her at a manufacturing facility, a spot to reside and a college for her youngsters.
It has been over a yr since they left their hometown of Tumeremo in a area suffering from violence and gang feuds tied to unlawful gold mining within the distant, mineral-rich space close to the borders of Guyana and Brazil. Rodriguez stated gangs more and more managed life there, together with by shuttering her youngsters’s faculty periodically and hiding in folks’s homes.
She and her household left together with her pal and the pal’s 16-year-old son, taking buses and strolling 2 1/2 days by the rugged Darién Hole. They spent 9 months in Pachuca, exterior Mexico Metropolis, the place Rodriguez, 38, discovered jobs at a tortilla store, butchery after which caretaking whereas ready for his or her CBP One appointment.
Life in Tijuana
Practically all the cash she earned was spent on the journey to Tijuana. She doesn’t have the $1,200 wanted to return to Pachuca.
She and her youngsters go the times in an uncomfortable state of boredom piqued with nervousness. They assist clear the loos, cook dinner and sweep on the shelter.
“There are no kids here my age so I don’t play with anyone,” stated her son, Mickel, who desires of changing into a soccer participant and shopping for his mother a home.
At evening, the household stays within the shelter’s lined patio crammed with roughly three dozen small tents below an enormous banner that reads: “This is about humanity.” They share their tent together with her Venezuelan pal and her son, the boy’s toes hanging out of the opening.
Rodriguez has not been capable of sleep.
“I have so many worries,” she stated.
She gained’t put her youngsters in danger by attempting to enter the U.S. illegally. Her mother says issues in Venezuela are worse than ever. Household and associates in Denver and Chicago who entered america below a Biden administration program that granted them humanitarian parole worry they might be deported.
“I don’t see anything that gives me hope,” she stated. “All I see is everyone getting deported.”
Although she worries about security in Tijuana, she is making use of for a Mexican visa so she will work there. She plans to begin residence searching and enrolling her youngsters in class.
Searching for hope
On a current afternoon, she and her youngsters and a half dozen different migrants walked to a laundromat, the T-shirts she had made wadded up in a bag of soiled laundry that teetered on a stroller she pushed down unbroken pavement previous a pack of canine and folks selecting by a pile of trash. A Haitian pal of Rodriguez’s hung again and scanned for bother as they walked on the sting of a crimson mild district crammed with strip bars.
Just a few days later, she was extra comfy. An area pastor had reassured Rodriguez that she’s in the very best spot proper now.
“Look at the situation with migrants in the United States, where they are chasing out everyone,” she stated, echoing his phrases.
Her relations inform her issues may enhance in a couple of months, saying the U.S. is simply “cleaning out” the immigrants with prison data and perhaps the Trump administration will open one other authorized pathway.
“We have been left stranded, stuck in limbo,” she stated. “Of course at times I still despair, but I also keep a bit of hope, too. We just have to start over, start over again.”