As panic set in, two men tied ladders together with rope and placed them on top of the steel border wall that separated Tijuana from Southern California.
“Hurry up, hurry up and keep moving!” shouted the smugglers at the bottom of the ladder. The Zimbabwean girl stood up and looked down with wide eyes, she hesitated before taking the next step.
On Monday, people waiting to enter the United States learned that President Trump has canceled all asylum appointments after taking office and plans to sign more executive orders to close the border.
Yet at least one group made a last-ditch and dangerous attempt to cross into the United States.
One by one, they climbed up the rickety building, then slid down to the other side. The winners helped capture the women and children. But another woman fell down in his path and lay crying in pain, clutching her leg.
“We’re doing this out of necessity, not because we want to, and that’s it,” said Carlos Porras, 39, from Peru, referring to the wall planks. He also injured his ankle while jumping and limping.
After a while, the group was escorted by the US Border Patrol.
The scene revealed the despair of the migrants who found out on Monday that the border has been closed. All are left processing emotions, from confusion to despair.
“I feel angry, I’m sad, I feel everything,” said Katherine Romero, 36, a Venezuelan who had been waiting a year in Mexico City for asylum on Monday, working odd jobs to secure a plane ticket to Tijuana. “I do not believe you.”
In a series of orders he signed on Monday evening, Mr. Trump has moved to close the nation’s borders to immigrants, part of a policy that includes a broader ban on asylum seekers and a national emergency declaration to send troops to the border.
His superiors shut down the CBP One app within minutes of Mr. Trump took the presidential oath on Monday. The app was used by the Biden administration to allow immigrants to schedule appointments to gain entry to the United States but has been targeted by Republicans.
This system allowed 1,450 people a day to schedule an appointment to present themselves at the port of entry and request asylum. More than 900,000 people have entered the country using the app since its launch until the end of 2024.
At a migrant camp in Mexico City on Monday, Cristian Morillo Romero, a Venezuelan who arrived in Mexico a year ago, learned that Mr. Trump had completed the CBP One program — but he didn’t know what that meant for his Jan. 26 appointments in Calexico, Calif.
Then he opened his email. There was a message in English with the subject line “CBP One Appointment Canceled” which explained that the existing appointments were “no longer valid.”
“I want to cry,” said Mr. Morillo Romero, 37. When he finally hit her later in the day, he did.
In Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso, only one group of 100 people was allowed to cross into the United States for the morning election. Just before 11 a.m., Mexican border officials said they received a notification from their American counterparts: No more nominations are being accepted.
“I’m shocked,” said John Flores Bonalte, 36, a Venezuelan who never made it to his appointment at 1 p.m. “It is not fair. We were waiting for the official crossing for a long time. We have been waiting in Mexico for seven months to be nominated.”
José Antonio Zuchite, 40, said he left Honduras in September and waited five months in Mexico City before coming to Ciudad Juárez this weekend “with great hope.” His appointment on Monday was later withdrawn.
“I have no place to live,” he said, as his voice cracked. “I have no family or acquaintances here. I’m on the road.”
On social media, migrants shared photos and videos of themselves, crying or holding their heads, with captions explaining how long they had been waiting to be picked. Many said they were asking for time to go to Mexico. Some say they have been waiting for more than a year.
Many of the videos feature the same clip of a song that has served in recent years as a kind of anthem for people who have finally arrived in the United States.
Now many were stabbing. In Tijuana, some people considered staying while praying for some kind of miracle. Others said they were thinking of going to places like Mexico City, where there are more job opportunities. Some say that returning to their home countries is out of the question because they are fleeing violence or threats.
“Returning to Haiti means returning to death,” said Rose Joseph, 28, who left the violence-ridden capital of that country more than two years ago.
In her press conference on Monday, President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico strongly urged Mr. Trump is to replace the CBP One application with another system so that people can reapply for asylum in a systematic way.
“We want something similar to be established, because it has results,” he said.
The plan was a key part of the Biden administration’s efforts to gain control of immigration along the southern border. US officials at the time believed that by giving migrants a streamlined way to enter legally through the app, they might discourage unauthorized crossings.
In line with Mexico’s stricter restrictions, illegal crossings fell sharply by 2024 and officials and analysts say the program was a key reason.
“That was a big change,” said Ariel Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington. “It provided more stability and the opportunity to better control both sides of the US-Mexico border, because it made the flow of migrants more predictable.”
However, critics view the program as a way to allow those who had no legal means of entering the United States to come and stay for years as their immigration cases wind up in court.
“They made a request to help illegal immigrants,” Vice President JD Vance said in a post to X last week. “It boggles the mind.”
Without a diversion program, migrants stranded in Mexico may face three scenarios: try to cross illegally into the United States, return to their home countries or apply for asylum in Mexico.
“Maybe it’s not something that many migrants would like, but it’s an alternative,” said Mr. Ruiz Soto. Still, he added, that won’t be much help to Mexicans who want to flee their country. “For them, I don’t see many options.”
Francisco González, a priest who oversees a network of shelters, including one in Ciudad Juárez, said he expects migrants to stay longer in shelters as they plan their next steps. He said he was concerned that people could be putting themselves at greater risk by hiring smugglers or members of organized crime to cross the border illegally.
“They will keep trying,” he said.
Aline Corpus contributed reporting from Tijuana once Emiliano RodrÃguez Mega again Annie Correal from Mexico City.
