As announced, the new American president, Donald Trump, struck hard at the border with Mexico, from the first hours of his mandate. He had promised to close access to the United States and to eliminate the CBP One program which allowed migrants to request an appointment to apply for asylum, it has been done.
In Mexico, thousands of migrants mainly of South and Central American origin are in shock. In the border town of Ciudad Juarez, in Paso de Norte, one of the entry points for walking to the United States, they find themselves lost and without options, forced to wait to see what happens. pass and which system can replace the old one.
“No my son, we can’t pass anymore. What should I say to my son? What will happen to us in the street? I don’t know…” This woman has just learned that she will no longer be able to file an asylum application in the United States, despite her scheduled afternoon appointment: “I think it’s unfair. This morning again people were able to enter. Why aren’t we given this chance? Why?”
Like a hundred other people who had been waiting since early in the morning, Yaledi had the hope of being among the last to benefit from the CBP One program: “I think it’s over. The app doesn’t even work anymore.” She says the program ended just moments after Donald Trump’s first speech. Like this Venezuelan woman, thousands of migrants still in Mexico are now in total unknown: “A night here costs $35, it’s huge. So what should we do? Stay or go?”
“I feel like I wasted my time. Seven months of my life here in this country wasting money and energy.”
-Yaledi, Venezuelan on the border between Mexico and the United Statesat franceinfo
More than 1,450 appointments were allocated every day, all along the border. These people are now stuck in Mexico. Nayareli Ribera from the government of the border state of Chihuahua: “We don’t have any details at the moment, but they are not going to pass. No migrant crossing will be authorized.”
In downtown Ciudad Juarez, Carly Fernandez also just received an email canceling her appointment scheduled for February. She tries to convince her family to stay a while, hoping that a solution will come in the days to come: “We fought so hard to get here… It was such a relief this appointment that they just took away from us. An opportunity for us to find work, to get by to help our children. And finally No? Once again, we’ll have to wait. We’ll see. My sister wants to go back, she’s tired of everything we went through to get here, for nothing.”
In Mexico, we are now wondering when Donald Trump’s deportees will arrive and how many there will be.
