海角社区官网

鈥淲e were not raped or kidnapped like others we met,鈥� she told the Star in Spanish, her voice soft, her ashen face sweating in the oppressive heat. 鈥淲e were lucky.鈥�

In the bustling heart of this dangerous city on the U.S. border, Nicole鈥檚 girls cling to her in an overcrowded shelter called Embajadores de Jes煤s. Here they sleep on the floor alongside hundreds of other migrants. Most are from Central and South America and are waiting for hard-to-get appointments, instituted by the Biden administration, to legally enter the United States.

The girls鈥� clothes, faded and worn, cling to their fragile frames. An angry red scar on Nicole鈥檚 abdomen, from a mafia knife attack in El Salvador, has started to heal, but she has no money left for food.

鈥淚 plan to sell my phone,鈥� she said, looking at the cracked screen of an ancient Android. 鈥淚 have nothing left and I am afraid for my girls.鈥�

Nicole is one of the hundreds of thousands of migrants vulnerable to violent assault, kidnapping and extortion as they wait for months in Mexico鈥檚 most dangerous regions to claim legal asylum in the United States. The Star is using only first names for some of the migrants for their safety.

The Biden government鈥檚 attempt to create an orderly system for migrants through its CBP One smartphone app has not eased the humanitarian crisis on its southern border. The new U.S. policy was put in place in May after the administration ended former president Donald Trump鈥檚 use of a procedure known as Title 42, which denied asylum and expelled undocumented migrants at the border, to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Biden policy combines new legal pathways for migrants with more punitive measures for unlawful crossing.

But CBP One鈥檚 offer of 1,450 daily appointments for migrants at the Mexican border is not nearly enough to process near-record numbers of arrivals. Border police have been apprehending up to 9,000 people daily crossing illegally, according to People waiting to cross legally are stranded for months in places where they are targets for kidnapping and violent assaults.

鈥淧eople are hiding in extremely unsafe situations, trying to gain legal access at an official port of entry,鈥� Christina Asencio, a director at Human Rights First, told the Star.

Prior to these new rules, anyone arriving at the U.S. border could apply for asylum. Now Mexican and U.S. authorities are blocking people without appointments from even approaching ports of entry and those crossing illegally face a higher risk of deportation.

Since May, Asencio鈥檚 team has spoken to dozens of vulnerable migrants who have suffered violence waiting near the border. They met parents whose children were sexually assaulted in front of them to expedite ransom payments; men, women and children kidnapped and tortured; and women raped while sleeping in tents near the border. Asencio said she spoke to asylum seekers who would bind themselves to their children with cable wire for fear that the children would be abducted while they were sleeping.

鈥淭he new rules are 鈥� resulting in irreparable harm to the refugees,鈥� Asencio said.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency did not respond to the Star鈥檚 request for comment on its shortage of CBP One appointments. But a June stated that it has increased the number of appointments by nearly 50 per cent since May 12.

Some of the most vulnerable migrants waiting at the border are Mexicans who have fled cartel violence in their hometowns and are living in hiding from those same cartels in places such as Tijuana.

One of these internal migrants, Maria, 48, spoke with the Star from her hiding place inside the walls of a humble shelter called Agape, on a rutted sideroad. She wept while telling the Star in Spanish that she and her five children are hiding from cartel bosses who kidnapped her husband. While she talked, her six-year-old son, Martin, clutched a weathered toy top, a relic from their former life on a ranch in southern Mexico, where they had to pay local mafia bosses ever-increasing rent to leave them alone.

The shelter鈥檚 hardy director, Padre Albert Rivera, is helping Maria put together the evidence that she needs to request asylum at the border. But vying for entry alongside escalating numbers of others, Maria and her children have been waiting two months for a CBP One appointment, without success.

鈥淚 am terrified that my children will be kidnapped and trafficked by the men searching for me while we wait,鈥� she said through tears. 鈥淚 never leave the shelter.鈥�

But Padre Rivera told the Star that the powerful Tijuana mafia groups don鈥檛 hesitate to enter the shelters and churches to threaten, extort or kidnap refugees. The city is experiencing a surge of violence and homicide as cartels and criminal syndicates vie for control over lucrative drug and migrant trafficking businesses. Last year, Tijuana had more than 2,300 homicides, the highest rate per capita for a large city in the world and a 17 per cent rise over the year before. By comparison, Toronto, with almost twice as many people, recorded 71 homicides in 2022.

Adam Isacson of WOLA, a U.S. human rights research and advocacy organization, said that Tijuana shelters are vulnerable to attacks by organized crime that profit from migrants like those behind their gates. Migrants in shelters are more difficult to recruit, kidnap or charge for 鈥渃oyote鈥� services to cross the border, he said.

Tijuana also has more Mexican asylum seekers than other sectors.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really scary because (criminals in Tijuana) are actually targeting migrants specifically,鈥� Isacson said.

The Agape shelter has suffered two armed kidnappings and one shooting injury by organized crime groups, said Rivera, glancing at a bulletproof vest hanging on a nearby chair in his office. Migrants often show him grisly videos and photos they receive from mafia to instil fear or extort them.

鈥淥ne woman showed me a video of her husband decapitating people and saying he will come to Tijuana and do the same to her鈥� because she reported his criminal activity to authorities, Rivera said, shuddering at the memory.

Amid the arrival of record numbers of refugees, Tijuana, a way station long accustomed to migration, has begun to buckle under the pressure. Its shelter network 鈥渋s on the verge of collapse,鈥� migration official Enrique Lucero told Mexican in September. The usual shelters have been filled. So, too, have hundreds of hotel rooms that house wealthier migrants, including many from Russia and China, who see the Tijuana border as the easiest way into the U.S., according to Star interviews with hotel staff.

But not everyone can wait.

Not far from the official border crossing, dozens of families camp between the layers of the area鈥檚 double-layer border wall. The first wall, about six metres, is made of steel beams with gaps narrow enough to prevent a person from passing through but wide enough to allow authorities to see through for monitoring. In places, the wall serves as a canvas for murals depicting protest or hope. In others, steel panels have been bolted on top for extra height. The secondary fence, to the north, built as part of former president Donald Trump鈥檚 鈥淏uild the Wall鈥� campaign, is composed of steel slats in some places and concrete topped with razor wire, to deter climbers, in others.

Unwilling or unable to wait for a CBP One appointment, about have climbed over the metal slats of the first wall from Tijuana, turned themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol, and are waiting in the 20 metres of land between the north and south border walls to be processed. Plastic tarps were all that shielded the migrants from the sweltering sun when the Star visited. Some washed their clothes in the muddy Tijuana River or climbed on concrete barriers hoping for a cellphone signal.

鈥淭hey are destined for asylum, but officials have chosen to leave them out there without bathrooms or food鈥� for days, Isacson said.

Just days after the Star鈥檚 visit, a 29-year-old woman died after suffering a medical emergency here, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said in a to local media. Her cause of death is unknown but advocates say that migrants are currently waiting from before being processed and often suffer from broken bones or open wounds from dropping over the wall.

A documented 686 migrant deaths and disappearances on the U.S.-Mexico border last year, making it the deadliest land route for migrants worldwide on record. In a recent press release, CBP posted a message for people considering entering the United States illegally from Mexico:

鈥淒on鈥檛 do it. When noncitizens cross the border unlawfully, they put their lives in peril.鈥�

Near the Pacific Ocean, where the U.S. government is replacing the border wall, about 100 people a day are crossing over the temporary fencing, according to . Mexican National Guard troops deployed at the site to deter would-be border crossers told the Star their role is to prevent smuggling of drugs and people across the border.

But several Tijuana residents told the Star that some local authorities, including Tijuana Police and National Guard officers, are controlled by the mafia and not to be trusted. has been documenting cases of Mexican authorities turning people over to the cartels, where they face extortion or worse.

Gabina, who looks decades older than her 36 years, is staying at the Embajadores shelter and does not want to risk scaling the wall with her five children and grandchildren, ages four to 16. She is running from cartel bosses in her home state of Guerrero in southern Mexico, who put a gun to her head and kidnapped her eldest son to pay off a debt, she said.

Relatives have reported that gang members are searching for her in Tijuana, Gabina said, but she fears Mexican authorities and knows her family has a better chance of asylum if they wait to cross the border legally.

Her lanky 11-year-old son, Jos茅 Luis, doesn鈥檛 care about borders. 鈥淲hat about Canada, Mama?鈥� he asked. 鈥淲ould Canada be safe?鈥�

Downtown, in Tijuana鈥檚 lineup for scheduled CBP One appointments, the relief that migrants should have felt in the moments before their long-awaited appointments seemed absent, overtaken by their exhaustion and worry about what they would do next. One weary Mexican couple, with a one-year-old daughter, fleeing cartel violence in the state of Quintana Roo, said that they had been waiting for eight months for their CBP One appointment and had spent those months terrified that their baby would be kidnapped.

鈥淲e held tight to our baby, because we heard so many stories of others whose children were taken,鈥� said the mother in Spanish, frown lines consuming her young face.

The CBP One migrants are right to be worried about what comes next. San Diego County, across the Tijuana border, declared a humanitarian crisis in late September. There, shelters and humanitarian groups are stretched beyond their capacity to support migrants crossing from Tijuana, and those being dropped off by Customs and Border Patrol in San Diego from other areas with notices to appear in immigration court at their final destinations. Nearly 15,200 migrants were dropped in San Diego over the past three weeks, county supervisor Jim Desmond .

For Nicole, San Diego鈥檚 problems seem far away. She feels desperate, as her younger daughter starts to whine, and can鈥檛 afford to wait. After a few more days鈥� rest at the shelter, she plans to use a ladder to climb the border wall at night with her daughters and disappear into the hinterland. She has no money, no food and no contacts in the United States. But she is filled with hope.

鈥淚 want to give my children a better future. I want to work hard. We need to continue on.鈥�

Katharine Lake Berz is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to the 海角社区官网Star who lives on Vancouver Island and in Toronto. Her work focuses on national and international issues and their impact on individuals.