With hopes for asylum in U.S. dashed, migrants in Tijuana ponder next moves

Haitian migrants are amongst these staying on the Albergue Assabil shelter in Tijuana. Many Haitians, who fled gang violence of their homeland, have been in limbo, residing on the shelter because the U.S. immigration crackdown.

TIJUANA — When the Russian man arrived on the U.S.-Mexico border on March 1, he knew he was too late. Nonetheless, he held on to hope that even with President Trump in workplace he may very well be let into the US to hunt asylum.

Slavik, a 37-year-old engineer, mentioned he fled Russia after being crushed by safety forces for supporting the opposing political social gathering. He had hoped to fulfill U.S. immigration officers to use for asylum, he mentioned, and has pals prepared to sponsor him.

A woman in dark shirt runs a blade over the head of a bald man seated with strips of paper over his back, with hair on them

As a substitute, he spent weeks at a shelter for migrants in Tijuana as he mulled over what to do subsequent.

“I simply tried to do by guidelines and wait,” mentioned Slavik, who requested to be recognized by his nickname for concern of retribution. “There’s nothing else now. All immigration shall be illegally.”

In Tijuana, hundreds of migrants reminiscent of Slavik had tried to safe an appointment with immigration officers by a Biden administration telephone software, however Trump canceled this system, in impact blocking entry to asylum. Many have since left the area.

With no technique to legally enter the U.S., the temper amongst migrants nonetheless in Tijuana has shifted from cautious optimism to hopelessness. Shelters are not full, and administrators say those that stay are among the many most weak.

Making issues worse, funding cuts by the Trump administration to the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement, or USAID, have introduced some shelters to the brink of closure, tightened others’ budgets and considerably lowered migrant healthcare companies. Enduring organizations now battle to fill the gaps.

“As attorneys, we need to give folks options, however there are none now,” mentioned Lindsay Toczylowski, co-founder and chief govt of the Los Angeles-based Immigrant Defenders Regulation Heart. She visits Tijuana shelters a couple of occasions a month. “It’s them asking quite a lot of questions and us saying, ‘I’m so sorry.’”

People seated in a room with a framed print in Arabic script on the wall

Though unlawful border crossings are right down to a trickle, Toczylowski and different advocates consider they’ll ultimately start to extend.

Slavik fled his homeland in 2022, first residing in Turkey and Georgia earlier than realizing that, as Russian allies, these international locations weren’t secure.

He can’t return to Russia, the place he can be thought of a terrorist sponsor for donating to the marketing campaign of Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s greatest political rival, who died beneath suspicious circumstances final yr.

However staying in Mexico or elsewhere in Latin America can be troublesome, Slavik mentioned, as a result of he doesn’t converse Spanish. He speaks primary English and has thought of going to Canada, however pals instructed him it’s troublesome as properly to acquire asylum there.

Now Slavik is beginning to really feel like he has no different selection however to attempt to get into the U.S. illegally.

“Perhaps that is one probability,” he mentioned. “If lots of people do it, then perhaps I can do it.”

Slavik stayed at Albergue Assabil, a shelter that serves principally Muslim migrants. Director Angie Magaña mentioned half of the 130 folks residing there earlier than the U.S. presidential election within the fall have since left. Many went again to their house international locations — together with Russia, Haiti, Congo, Tajikistan and Afghanistan — regardless of the hazards they may face. Others went to Panama, she mentioned.

On a current Friday, the shelter was bustling. Haircuts had been being provided within the courtyard. A truck pulled up outdoors, and residents helped carry in instances of donated bottled water. Contained in the neighborhood heart, these having breakfast and tea cleared the tables as members of a humanitarian group arrived to play video games with the youngsters.

A woman in a gray shirt stands next to another woman, in a red shirt, holding the hand of a boy

Magaña mentioned she’s frank with those that stay: “Most individuals have the hope that one thing will occur. I inform them their finest wager is to get asylum right here” in Mexico.

Toczylowski mentioned this administration differs considerably from Trump’s first time period, when she might search humanitarian entry for notably determined instances, reminiscent of a lady fleeing a harmful relationship. Now at any time when a lady says her abuser has discovered her and he or she asks Toczylowski what she will do, “it’s the primary time in my profession that we will say, ‘There’s no possibility that exists for you.’”

Within the weeks after the telephone app for border appointments was eradicated, Toczylowski introduced weak households, together with these with youngsters who’ve disabilities, to the San Ysidro port of entry.

She mentioned a Border Patrol agent instructed them there was no course of to hunt asylum and turned them away.

The U.S. army has added layers of concertina wire to 6 miles of the border fence close to San Ysidro.

“Ideally, it deters them from crossing” illegally, mentioned Jeffrey Stalnaker, performing chief patrol agent of the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector. “We might reasonably have them enter at a port of entry, the place it’s a lot safer, and hopefully this guides them in that path.”

He didn’t handle the truth that the federal government has primarily stopped contemplating asylum requests at ports of entry. Toczylowski mentioned that in her expertise, restricted exceptions have been made for unaccompanied youngsters.

Migrant Haitians stay at the Albergue Assabil Shelter in Tijuana on March 22, 2025. Many

The halting of USAID funds can also be reworking life on the border. On his first day in workplace, Jan. 20, Trump signed an govt order freezing U.S. overseas assist funds for 90 days, pending a assessment of effectivity and alignment with overseas coverage. The order says overseas assist is “not aligned with American pursuits and in lots of instances antithetical to American values.”

An April 3 report by the nonpartisan Migration Coverage Institute discovered that as much as $2.3 billion in migration-related grants seem on leaked lists shared with Congress of terminated overseas assist from USAID and the State Division. Among the many funding — which supplied humanitarian help, countered human trafficking and enabled refugee resettlement — was $200 million centered particularly on deterring migration from Central America.

The fallout from the cuts has already begun, the report states. As an illustration, the federal government of Ecuador used the withdrawal of overseas assist to justify rescinding amnesty for Venezuelan migrants, which might have dissuaded some from persevering with north towards the US.

In Tijuana, Trump’s order led to the closure of a well being and social companies clinic referred to as Comunidad AVES. A longtime shelter referred to as Casa del Migrante is now getting ready to closure after USAID-funded organizations scaled again their help, leaving its leaders on a determined seek for alternative funding.

Midwife Ximena Rojas and her group of two doulas run a birthing heart and supply sexual and reproductive care to migrants.

Two women sit, each holding a child in their lap

Rojas sees 20 sufferers a day, three days per week. Her companies are essential: Most of the girls she sees have by no means had a Pap smear and a few had been sexually assaulted on the migration route.

With the closure of AVES and issues about Casa del Migrante — which has a partnership with the Tijuana authorities for weekly physician visits — Rojas mentioned the strain is mounting on her small operation to someway increase its attain.

“We’re at max capability,” she mentioned. “We want a military.”

Rojas mentioned she’s contemplating opening a meals financial institution for migrants to make up for the lack of U.S.-government supported help.

“Our objective is to decrease toddler demise, additionally maternal demise. One of the simplest ways to do it’s with vitamin,” Rojas mentioned. “I give them a prenatal vitamin day by day, but when they’re consuming [only] a banana a day, it’s like, a vitamin can solely accomplish that a lot.”

Many shelters counted on funds from the Worldwide Group for Migration for groceries. At Espacio Migrante, the cash paid for imported substances that allowed households from international locations reminiscent of Russia and Uzbekistan to cook dinner religiously or culturally acceptable meals.

At La Casita de Union Trans, a shelter for transgender girls, the 6,000 pesos the ability bought every month (about $300) went towards primary requirements — eggs, cooking oil and milk.

A woman in a brown coat stands near a metal door and a wall painted with a large butterfly

However director Susy Barrales mentioned U.S. politics received’t cease trans girls from searching for security, or the shelter attempting to help them.

“I need the women to check, to acquire a career, to allow them to confront something that comes their manner — as a result of I’ve completed it,” mentioned Barrales, who’s learning for a social work license. “We’re going to preserve striving.”

Shelter residents embrace Miranda Torres, 31, a hairstylist who fled Venezuela in July after she was raped by strangers and police refused to analyze. She mentioned the assault contaminated her with HIV. Venezuela’s ongoing financial collapse meant she had no entry to therapy.

Torres mentioned she walked north by the Darien Hole, a harmful 60-mile stretch of jungle that straddles the border dividing Colombia and Panama, the place she was sexually assaulted once more.

A woman seated on the lower half of a bunk bed in a room with a ceiling fan and clothes hanging on the right

In Oaxaca, Mexico, she was recognized with lymphatic most cancers and went by surgical procedure and chemotherapy. She now bears a spherical scar on her neck and covers her bald head with a wig.

After taking time to recuperate, Torres lastly arrived in Tijuana in December, the place she slept atop a cardboard field on the road whereas making repeated and more and more harmful makes an attempt to enter the U.S.

Unable to safe an appointment by the telephone app, she went to the San Ysidro port of entry, ready outdoors for 4 days to talk with an agent. She was turned away after which detained by Mexican immigration officers earlier than being launched due to her well being circumstances.

Torres mentioned males belonging to a prison group started to focus on her, saying they might hurt her if she didn’t cross the border. So she tried to climb the border fence however was too weak to hoist herself up. Then they instructed her to swim across the fence that extends into the Pacific Ocean. She almost drowned.

Now, Torres has given up on the U.S. and is making use of for asylum in Mexico.

“My goals are in my head, not in any explicit nation,” she mentioned, seated on a bunk mattress in one in every of La Casita’s two bedrooms whereas Chappell Roan’s hit “Pink Pony Membership” performed from somebody’s telephone in the lounge.

“In the event that they’re not doable within the U.S., I’ll make them occur right here.”