The women sit at the wooden tables that were placed inside the shelter. Some are carrying their children. It’s time for lunch and here they go in small groups in the center of the dining room, their voices pierce the walls and are heard among them all talking about a rumor that began in Central America and came up Casa Mare Assunta, en Tijuana: The border with States United will open.
On January 20, the President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, Will take protest. The government of Donald Trump and for the migrants this change, they think, means the reactivation of asylum processes.
Maria, one of the migrants who is in Mare Assunta, a hostel for women, explains that she is just waiting for her family to arrive so that they can try to cross together. She, like other classmates Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, Thinks that with the new president the American policy of exclusion of migrants will change.
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“There [en Honduras] they told my husband that it will be easier now, “says Maria as she watches her son play with the other children at the shelter,” which after 20 [de enero] they will let us apply for asylum and that’s why Trump is leaving, “he says.
Marisol is another of the women who arrived at the hostel a couple of days ago. She ended up trapped in the city by the pandemic of Covid-19, After the closure of the border for any non-essential activity, such as asylum applications.
“All of them, those who are here, want to cross,” explains Sister Salomé, “either deported or just arrived or are in open asylum processes, waiting for them to resume activities, such as Marisol … all they are waiting for their time to cross “.
Migrants arriving at hostels can spend from two months to a year here.
Carles is one of the newcomers to Youth Hostel 2000. With him are his wife and three children. They left Guatemala on a trip that lasted months because they first tried to cross the border by crossing the Colorado RiverBut he stopped them Border patrol and were deported to Chiapas. Now, for the second time, they have arrived in Tijuana.
“I heard on the way that on the 20th they are going to open the border, right? We are only enduring because we only have one or two weeks left here … and we don’t have bread to go … but we don’t occupy much anymore of time, only the new arrives [presidente] and we vent, “says Carlos
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“We just have to wait”
However, the migrant population on the border of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, hoping to receive political asylum in the United States, is skeptical of the change in life that may represent for them the arrival of Joe Biden in the White House , this although there are rumors about the possible change of migration policies during his first 100 days in government.
The Pa de Vida hostel and canteen, located in one of the most backward colonies in this border city, currently protects 139 migrants from Central and South America and, despite the expectations that may exist before the departure of Donald Trump, has not recorded any new revenue in recent weeks.
For Anna Maria, who arrived from Honduras almost a year ago, there are not many expectations about the change of president: “I don’t think things will change, you don’t lose hope, but I don’t think it’s easier, we don’t have another to keep waiting “.
Ismael Martínez Santiago, director of the hostel, explains that the number of people entering and leaving has not changed significantly, and that those who are there have been there for a year to two months.
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According to data from the State Council of Population (Coespo)Between 8,000 and 10,000 migrants live on this border, however, only a thousand are distributed in the 17 care centers or hostels for migrants, so most are on the street.
“Biden will decide everyone’s fate”
At the Casa Senda de Vida, in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Do not lose faith that things can change thanks to the new US president.
For almost a year now, there have been 145 migrants, 35 of whom are minors; some from Nigeria, Haiti and Ghana.
“I don’t think we can ring the bells until we know what Biden’s migration policy will be. It will be the president who decides the fate of all migrants who are stranded on the Mexican borders and who are living difficult situations in the not having a home, or money to support, “said Héctor Silva, director of this hostel.