Migrants anxiously monitor U.S. election, fearing Trump win

Nogales, Mexico — Migrants from each corners of nan globe, from Latin America to far-flung countries successful Africa and Asia, travel to a shelter successful this bluish Mexican metropolis hoping to participate nan U.S. and flight economical hardship and, successful immoderate cases, deadly danger. 

"They tried to termination us," said Rosa Benalcazar, a migrant staying astatine nan House of Mercy and each Nations, 1 of nan biggest shelters for migrants connected nan Mexican broadside of nan Arizona-Mexico border.

Benalcazar said she journeyed to nan U.S. aft criminal gangs threatened to harm her and her family successful Ecuador, which has seen grounds numbers of its citizens fly amid mounting unit and insecurity.

Concerned migrants astatine nan House of Mercy and each Nations shelter successful Nogales, Mexico, listening to an migration attorney. CBS News

Like nan different migrants astatine nan shelter successful Nogales, Benalcazar has been trying to get an assignment to participate America done a U.S. authorities phone app known arsenic CBP One. Designed to discourage forbidden separator crossings, nan Biden management programme allows migrants successful Mexico to petition a clip to beryllium processed astatine a ineligible introduction point. The hold times, however, tin widen for months owed to an extraordinarily high demand.

"I haven't had luck," Benalcazar said successful Spanish, noting she's been attempting to unafraid a CBP One assignment each time for 7 months straight.

Sister Lika Macias, nan shelter's director, said galore migrants consciousness that luck whitethorn soon go harder to find, fixed nan statesmanlike predetermination successful nan U.S.

"The authorities successful nan United States," impact "migration policy" astatine nan U.S.-Mexico border, Macias said.

Vice President Harris has promised to proceed existent Biden management policies that sharply limit asylum for those who transverse nan confederate separator without waiting for a CBP One appointment. But erstwhile President Donald Trump has vowed to seal nan U.S.-Mexico separator altogether, including by ending nan CBP One process and different programs that let migrants to participate nan state lawfully. 

"There's a batch of concern"

On a caller morning, migration lawyer Alba Jaramillo sought to easiness nan disorder and worry among those astatine nan shelter. The American predetermination could spell "either way" and there's nary telling who will win, she told a group of migrants, astir of them mothers pinch children.

Jaramillo urged nan migrants to beryllium diligent and to debar listening to societal media rumors astir a sudden, overnight U.S. argumentation change.

"There's a batch of interest astir what's going to happen," said Jaramillo, nan co-director of nan Immigration Law and Justice Network, a pro-immigrant group. "They're very scared. They deliberation that nan asylum strategy is going to close."

Jaramillo said she besides urged migrants to travel nan ineligible process and refrain from crossing nan U.S. separator illegally pinch nan thief of smugglers. Crossing nan Arizona desert, she said, is not only dangerous, and perchance deadly, but would besides disqualify migrants from asylum nether an executive action by President Biden successful June.

After Mr. Biden enacted those wide restrictions connected asylum, forbidden separator crossings, which had soared to grounds levels precocious past year, plunged to a 4-year low. While unauthorized crossings person remained astatine that debased level for nan past fewer months, U.S. officials worry the  results of nan statesmanlike predetermination could disrupt nan lull.

A Trump victory, immoderate U.S. officials believe, could punctual ample numbers of migrants to effort to transverse into nan state illegally earlier he takes agency successful January. In summation to promising to unopen down nan CBP One app process, Trump has vowed to reinstate his hardline migration policies, militarize nan separator and oversee nan largest deportation operation successful American history.

"It's nerve-racking"

Roughly half nan migrants astatine nan shelter are children, according to Macias, nan facility's director. While their parents desperately await nan results of nan election, fearing melodramatic changes successful American separator policy, nan kids' only attraction is being kids.

After all, for nan children, there's small to fearfulness astatine nan Nogales shelter, wherever they tin study English and mathematics and bask outdoor activities for illustration shot and basketball, arsenic good arsenic occasional treats.

Still, parents for illustration Areli Doral, a young mother from Guerrero, Mexico, stay profoundly concerned astir what could hap pursuing nan American election.

"Yes, I'm scared," Doral said successful Spanish, while holding her two-year-old son, Edgar.

"If they adjacent nan (CBP One) application, what are we going to do? We already waited 10 months," she said. "It's nerve-racking."

Doral said returning to her hometown is not an option, noting it would beryllium vulnerable for her son.

"There's a batch of crime," she said. "It's go much difficult wherever I'm from."

In:
• Immigration
• Migrants