Tears and shock as Trump ends dreams of Mexican migrants destined to enter US By Reuters

By Lizbeth Diaz, Laura Gottesdiener and Alexandra Ulmer

TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) – Nidia Montenegro fled violence and poverty at home in Venezuela, survived a kidnapping while heading north to Mexico, and arrived in the border city of Tijuana on Sunday for a refugee conference The US would eventually reunite him. his son who lives in New York.

That appointment has been cancelled.

When President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on the southern border, immigrants waiting in Mexico checked the US government’s tool known as CBP One, through which many were able to schedule the to seek refuge. When they updated the app, a warning popped up: “Meetings scheduled through CBP One are no longer available.”

The tremors shook the security post in Tijuana, just meters from the border.

“I can’t believe it,” said Montenegro, 52, tears streaming down her cheek. “No, God, no.”

US border officials have confirmed that they have blocked the device and canceled existing options.

Montenegro is one of thousands of immigrants whose hopes of arriving legally in the US were suddenly dashed in the days and weeks before their appointment.

All around, some migrants cried as they repeatedly tried to install the app, frustration rising. Some got emails canceling their agreements, some got a warning, and some couldn’t open the app at all.

The move represents one of the first changes brought by the Trump administration as the president vowed in his speech to begin deploying troops to the US-Mexico border, ramping up deportations and designating organized crime groups. of terrorists abroad.

Reuters has followed Montenegro’s journey for two months, from her joy when she got the appointment on Wednesday, January 22 – just two days after Trump took office – to her disappointment when it was cancelled.

Elsewhere along the border there were similar images.

In Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, several immigrants with CBP One appointments scheduled for later Monday received notices that they had been canceled.

“It’s over, they ended it,” said Margelis Tinoco, from Colombia, who was traveling with her husband and son. He said to his thirteen-year-old son: “They have blocked it, there is nothing we can do.

In Piedras Negras, across from Eagle Pass in Texas, seasonal immigrants were being deported. They grabbed bags and blankets as they rested against the wall, trying to think of what to do. Others sent tearful voice messages to his family.

For Montenegro, it is a traumatic change. She arrived in Tijuana on Sunday full of hope and excited to be reunited with her 24-year-old son in New York, whom she last saw a year ago. “Today my life starts again,” he told Reuters at the time, beaming.

Last year he was kidnapped along with his two siblings and many others, including children, the day he arrived in southern Mexico from Guatemala. Two days later, the group managed to escape but he has been carrying the trauma of the incident ever since.

Now he doesn’t know what to do, being in a foreign city thousands of kilometers away from home and almost close to the country he hoped to live in.

He’s still scared, he can’t let go of the hope he’s had since his appointment was confirmed. Even as he hears about others being turned away at the border, he insists: “I will go to my meeting.”