(AFP) – Milko Garcia’s shot at the American Dream was dashed when his appointment to apply for asylum at the US border with Mexico — two days after President Donald Trump took office last year — was abruptly scrapped. Like many other migrants impacted by Trump’s immigration crackdown, the 29-year-old Venezuelan has settled in Mexico instead –- in the border city of Tijuana that was meant to be his stepping stone to the United States.
“I have had some good opportunities, and I feel comfortable in Mexico,” Garcia, who works as a real estate agent, told AFP. “I wouldn’t start from scratch again” in the US, which is separated from Tijuana by a heavily-monitored metal border fence 18 to 30 feet (5.5-9.1 meters) high. Trump swept back into power on an anti-immigration platform and wants to put it front and center again for next week’s US midterm legislative elections, boasting of “zero illegal immigrants” crossing from Mexico after he essentially closed off the southern border.
He ordered the shutdown of the US Customs and Border Protection’s mobile app, CBP One, that scheduled appointments for asylum seekers and other applicants. In January 2025, CBP One had 270,000 open cases, including 30,000 for applicants seeking a legal pathway from Mexico into the US. Among them were Garcia and his brother. The cancellation of all pending appointments stunned migrants who had gathered in Tijuana. “We thought, ‘We can’t do it right now, but maybe in a few months,'” Garcia recalled.
For many, Mexico became their home. And Garcia has no plans to pull stakes and cross illegally, even if Trump’s Republican Party loses the presidency in 2028. “They’re asking for $10,000,” he said, referring to human smugglers — often called coyotes — who charge vast sums to help migrants enter the US. “I’d rather invest that money in something” in Tijuana, Garcia said.
– ‘Tijuana has embraced me’ – The city is a traditional transit point and haven for migrants, and between 2020 and 2025, it received some 25,000 foreigners. Arriving here was the latest step in Garcia’s dozen-year odyssey out of Venezuela. His family emigrated to Peru in 2014 to escape the crisis roiling their homeland. Drawn by better prospects in the US, Garcia headed north. On foot, he crossed the Darien Gap, a dangerous stretch of rainforest and swamps between Colombia and Panama. Eventually, he reached Mexico.
“My sister was living in the United States, and there were supposed to be more opportunities there,” he said. Another Venezuelan, 27-year-old Heiri Maya, arrived in Mexico in 2022 and failed to qualify through CBP One. She found work in tourism. But as a side hustle, she sold Venezuelan cuisine, and a month ago she opened a small food stand. “I feel quite comfortable,” she said. “Tijuana has embraced me.” A 2025 survey in the area by the UN migration agency found that 45 percent of those interviewed decided to make Mexico their home. Maya said she is grateful to live without the “anxiety” experienced by Venezuelan friends who made it to America. “They have had to stay inside their homes, and many are already returning,” she said. “They say ‘I want to leave on my own before they deport me.'”
– Some made it, some ‘missing’ – Tijuana’s migrant shelters, once overflowing, are now closed or barely operating. Trump “managed to stop the mass movements,” said Jose Maria Garcia, director of the Movimiento Juventud 2000 shelter that today houses only about 10 people. The few migrants who do arrive risk their lives at clandestine crossings or fall prey to criminals. “Many have achieved their goal” of entering the US, he said, “or they end up missing.”
Meanwhile, the group Al Otro Lado provides legal assistance. When CBP One shut down, applicants were overwhelmed. “It was very difficult to get (the migrants) to understand that it was over, that the border was closed,” deputy director Soraya Vazquez said. Now, they help people navigate Mexican bureaucracy to regularize their status. Mexico received 70,500 asylum applications last year, the United Nations says. Half were filed in Tapachula, in Mexico’s far south on the Guatemala border where tens of thousands remain stranded awaiting refugee status. Some cases, especially involving African migrants, are complicated.
Alpha Oumar Diallo, 37, said he left Guinea in 2024 for “political reasons.” Health and language issues have delayed his Mexican asylum process. Getting to the US “isn’t my plan,” he said in French. “If I could obtain my documents, find a job and reunite with my family so we can live together, it would be heaven on Earth.”
– Sofia MISELEM
© 2024 AFP
