Margelis Tinoco, a 48-year-old Colombian, collapsed when her appointment scheduled for Monday to legally enter the United States was canceled just after the inauguration of Donald Trump, who promised a merciless war against migrants and asylum seekers.
She learned of the cancellation of her scheduled U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB One) meeting in Ciudad Juarez, a Mexican city bordering Texas, after a long journey from Venezuela.
“Look what he says!” the woman cries as she points to the notification on her cell phone screen: “Existing appointments scheduled through CBP One are no longer valid.”
The app was deactivated just minutes after the inauguration of 47th US President Donald Trump, who promised to declare a state of emergency on the border with Mexico and use the US military to enforce it. monitoring.
“I don’t know what my life will become,” said Ms. Tinoco, wearing a woolen hat, jacket and gloves to protect herself from temperatures that plummeted to -3 degrees Celsius in Ciudad Juarez.
This woman lived in Venezuela with her husband and 13-year-old son, originally from that country, until she decided to emigrate to the United States.
Established by former Democratic President Joe Biden, CPB One allowed people to request asylum without needing to reach the border.
– “Let him have compassion” –
“May he have compassion and let us pass (…) may he support us because we have been suffering for six months,” begs the Colombian, in reference to her grueling journey from Venezuela.
Devastated, she finally falls to her knees in front of a metal pole.
“Since we are here, please let us in, after all the work we have done to get here, let us into your country, so that we can improve our lives,” Yaime Perez also adds , a 27-year-old Cuban.
-The CPB One application has significantly reduced illegal crossings.
According to the U.S. government, during the fiscal year that ended last September, 2.1 million appointments were recorded at the southern border, compared to nearly 2.5 million in the previous period.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke in favor of the continuation of CBP One “or a similar plan”, considering that it “had results” in reducing the influx of migrants at the border between Mexico and the UNITED STATES.
-Caravan in the south-
Hours before the Republican tycoon announced that he would deport “millions and millions” of illegal aliens, a caravan of more than a thousand migrants left southern Mexico heading for the United States.
“I'm a little scared because with everything we've been through, with all the sacrifices we've made, it's very hard that they close the doors to us,” Venezuelan Jefferzon Celedón told AFP on Monday. 24 years old, from Tapachula, a border town with Guatemala.
“All illegal ports of entry will be blocked immediately and we will begin the process of deporting millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places they came from,” Trump said.
“We have to move forward, not let ourselves be influenced by what people say, whether they close them or not.”
“We will see much later, in the north,” Leonel Delgado, a 42-year-old Venezuelan, said before the announcement.
Migrants usually organize caravans to lobby for passes that then allow them to advance into Mexican territory on their own, without fear of deportation.
