Stranded Migrants Face Uncertainty in Mexico

Migrants from Guatemala, Venezuela, and other countries attempting to cross the border into the United States have found themselves stuck in Mexico after the Trump administration closed the asylum system at the border, The Washington Post reported.

On Monday Trump scrapped the program known as CBP One that allowed asylum seekers to schedule appointments on their phones before arriving at the border.

Also this week, the Trump administration began shutting down the processing offices in Latin America that the Biden administration had created to give migrants legal immigration options to dissuade them from crossing the U.S. southern border illegally, CBS News reported.

Internal documents from the U.S. State Department say the administration is ceasing operations at those locations, known as "Safe Mobility Initiative" offices, as part of a "broader effort to assess how the United States manages migration processes to serve U.S. national interests."

Now, with migrants from countries such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Guatemala stranded in Mexico, frustration is percolating over the growing number of encampments in cities far away from the U.S. border. Patience is wearing thin among the local residents, the Post reported.

Last May, protests erupted in three neighborhoods in Mexico City where migrants had set up camps. "The street is not a shelter" read signs held by residents as they blocked major avenues.

When the Mexican government announced it would open a shelter in the exclusive Anzures neighborhood, furious protests broke out. As a result, the government announced it would open the shelter in a poor neighborhood, according to the Post.

"Everyone is in limbo, desperate, trying to figure out what to do," the Rev. Juan Luis Carbajal, who runs the Archangel Raphael migrant shelter in southern Mexico City, told the Post.

The Biden administration and the Mexican government praised the previous system for lowering the number of migrants congregating at the southern border, who then opted to wait out the asylum process in places like Mexico City to avoid cartel-controlled areas. Yet with the Trump administration sending illegal immigrants back to Mexico, new shelters being built for the return of Mexican citizens won't hold everyone.

"For the Mexican deportees there's a good plan," said Arturo Rocha, who served as a senior Mexican migration official until last year. But for the foreigners now stranded in Mexico, "there's uncertainty about what's going to happen to them."

Maribi Ruiz, 42, a Venezuelan security guard whose family had hoped to make it into California, checked the CBP One app on her phone Monday only to discover her asylum appointment had been canceled, the Post reported.

With Venezuela's economy having collapsed in recent years, the mother of two struggled to earn enough money to feed her family. She told the Post that working odd jobs along with her husband and living in a dirt-floored shack in Mexico is still preferable to returning home, as at least she makes enough money to eat.

"There's no way I'm going back to Venezuela," she said.

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