(11 Feb 2025)
++SOUNDBITES PARTIALLY COVERED WITH IMAGES++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tijuana, Mexico – 6 February 2025
1. Various of exterior of migrant shelter comprised of tents
2. Mid of Margelis Rodriguez seated in front of her family’s tent inside shelter
3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Margelis Rodriguez, Migrant from Venezuela:
"We arrived here… it’s already been some time here in Mexico. And the hope that we’ve always had and still have is to continue on to the United States."
4. Mid of Rodriguez with family
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Margelis Rodriguez, Migrant from Venezuela:
"I’m coming with my two children. I’m coming with a friend and her son and it’s always been the five of us. The group is just the five of us."
6. Mid of Rodriguez with family
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Margelis Rodriguez, Migrant from Venezuela:
"We left (Venezuela) for stability. Emotional stability, financial stability, as well as personal stability."
8. Mid of Rodriguez with family
9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Margelis Rodriguez, Migrant from Venezuela:
"Even on the day we arrived — on the 19th, we arrived here in Tijuana — we had a lot of hope and faith and I was very excited because we had our appointment to enter but on the 20th, the president took office and immediately as soon as he arrived, the first thing he did was delete the appointment, delete the page, cancel everything. And apart from noon when we received the email that was our canceled appointment — we felt bad, devastated, sad, we cried, we suffered… but here we are."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tijuana, Mexico – 20 January 2025
10. Various of migrants left stranded at Mexico-U.S. border after CBP One app appointments were canceled
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tijuana, Mexico – 6 February 2025
11. Various of Rodriguez sitting outside tent with family
12. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Margelis Rodriguez, Migrant from Venezuela:
"We are already taking papers out of here to be able to look for work, to be able to enroll children in school. And we are here waiting for the process, to find something to rent — a fixed apartment for us. And here we go. We’re going to find a way to organize ourselves around here for a while."
13. Wide of tents inside shelter
STORYLINE:
Margelis Rodriguez and her two children took selfies on their flight to Tijuana, showing off the T-shirts she had custom-made to mark what she expected to be her family’s life-changing moment.
On the back of the shirts were their names and the flags of the six countries they passed through in 2024. On the front between the flags of her native Venezuela and the United States, was written in Spanish: "Yes it was possible, thank God. The wait was worth it. I made it!!"
The celebratory words now sting — driving home how close they came without making it and how precarious their lives are with their future more uncertain than ever, Rodriguez said while standing near the tent her family lives in at a shelter in Tijuana, a block from the towering wall marking the U.S. border.
The family is among tens of thousands of people who had appointments into February and were left stranded in Mexican border cities after President Donald Trump took office. As part of a broader immigration crackdown, his administration quickly canceled all appointments people had made through a U.S. government app. Under the Biden administration, the CBP One app facilitated the entry of nearly 1 million people since January 2023, and supporters say it helped bring order to the border and reduced illegal crossings.
Rodriguez has not been able to sleep.
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