By JULIE WATSON
TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — Margelis Rodriguez and her two youngsters took selfies on their flight to Tijuana, displaying off the T-shirts she had custom-made to mark what she anticipated to be her household’s life-changing second.
The celebratory phrases now sting — driving residence 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, lots 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. Beneath 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 decreased unlawful crossings.
U.S. Customs and Border Safety estimates about 280,000 folks have been attempting to get appointments every day, lots 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 residence. 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 subsequent few months.
The whole lot 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 unit, a spot to stay and a college for her youngsters.
It has been over a yr since they left their hometown of Tumeremo in a area tormented by 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 college 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, outdoors 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
Almost 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 cross 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 goals of turning into a soccer participant and shopping for his mother a home.
At evening, the household stays within the shelter’s coated patio full of roughly three dozen small tents underneath an enormous banner that reads: “This is about humanity.” They share their tent together with her Venezuelan pal and her son, the boy’s ft hanging out of the opening.
Rodriguez has not been in a position to 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 pals in Denver and Chicago who entered the US underneath 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 condominium looking and enrolling her youngsters at school.
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 choosing by a pile of trash. A Haitian pal of Rodriguez’s hung again and scanned for hassle as they walked on the sting of a crimson mild district full of strip bars.
Just a few days later, she was extra relaxed. A neighborhood 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 family members inform her issues may enhance in a number 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.”
Initially Printed: February 11, 2025 at 1:25 PM EST
