(Headline USA) When Angelica Delgado took a one-way flight to Mexico as she fled Cuba in December, she was set on seeking asylum in the United States.
But with the Biden administration’s open-border policy coming to a halt following the 2024 re-election of President Donald Trump, the 23-year-old recalibrated her plans, opting to stay in Mexico rather than seek U.S. visa status through legitimate means.
“Like almost all Cubans, our objective was to go to the United States,” she said. “It wasn’t in our plans to stay, but now we have to face reality.”
Delgado is among a growing number of migrants from across the world to ditch their ambitions of taking up undocumented status in the U.S., with some who entered illegally now opting to self-deport rather than .
Migrants trying to apply for asylum in Mexico in January more than tripled compared to the monthly average from the previous year, according to an international official with knowledge of the numbers who was not authorized to discuss them publicly. Mexico’s refugee agency has not yet published figures for January.
“All of these policies Trump is pushing are leading more people to seek international protection in Mexico,” said Andrés Ramírez, former director of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid, which processes asylum cases.
Delgado was among hundreds of migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, Afghanistan and other countries gathering outside the refugee agency in Mexico City after Trump unleashed policies to resecure the border.
The Associated Press spoke to around a half-dozen people who had asylum appointments in the U.S. through the Biden-era app, CBP One, that Trump canceled on Inauguration Day.
Many more said they now intended to seek asylum in Mexico, citing increasingly harsh restrictions in recent years in the U.S.
“Now, it’s the Mexican dream,” said a Mexican man helping Haitian friends try to get an appointment this month to apply for asylum in Mexico.
“Crossing illegally isn’t an option for us. We’d rather stay here” in Mexico, Delgado said, adding that if they crossed illegally into the U.S. and were caught “they’ll deport us and they’ll send us back to Cuba.”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
