Family of ten stranded after trekking to US border in hopes of being granted asylum

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The main room inside the El Buen Samaritano shelter in Ciudad Juarez, a city on the US-Mexico border, is calm for the majority of the day.

Rows of bunk beds extend from wall to wall, divided by thin curtains or hanging sheets. Men, women, and children sleep on the mismatched mattresses, all of whom hoped to travel to the United States but did not succeed.

It’s mid-morning on a frigid Tuesday, and most people are relaxing or looking through their phones. The only sounds in the room are periodic coughs, two toddlers playing, and minor sounds from a phone video. The scene has the feel of a loop.

“Kids, guys, it’s almost lunchtime,” she yells as she gets up and puts on a coat. They’re indoors but the walls are penetrated by the winter cold.

“Everyone up, let’s get ready,” she says.

Her husband, three children, and five other relatives begin preparing enthusiastically. Soon afterwards, a shelter worker announces that the food is ready for service.

“I’m hungry, finally!” her 9-year-old son Abel Jesus, says.

On January 20, US President Donald Trump decided to cancel all CBP One appointments for individuals seeking asylum from violence or persecution, halting thousands of asylum seekers, including Polanco and the other nine members of her family.

Their appointment had been set for January 21. They are now stranded in a shelter in Juarez, without money and full of uncertainty. They can see the US across the border from here, but they are unsure of their next course of action.

‘We laugh to keep from crying’

After lining up, the family, whose members range in age from five to forty, proceeds to the shelter’s dining hall. They sit together and occupy the majority of a communal table.

As soon as they sit down, they appear to put all of their concerns aside and concentrate on one another, talking and enjoying the warm dinner. The day’s menu included chicken soup and a modest dish of rice and beans with canned tuna.

“The most delicious soup does exist,” 9-year-old Abel Jesus says, his mouth half-full and soup dripping from the sides.

“I heard appointments until January 30 will be reinstated,” recalls 30-year-old Luis Alfonso Polanco, of a rumour that eventually proved false. “That’s what a friend in the US told me.“

On the other side of the table, his partner Yelitza Olivero speaks with two other Ecuadorian refugees and informs them of the app rumour.

At times, the family’s border talk dissolves into laughs and jokes about each other.

“We try to make jokes about each other, it’s a way of distracting from the news we received on January 20, it was very sad,” Lucymar’s cousin, 18-year-old Estiven Castillo, says.

“The point is to support one another, so one makes a joke, and we laugh, and we try to make a nice moment, otherwise, if we just focus on our situation, we’d all get depressed, so we laugh to keep from crying,” Lucymar tells CNN.

Lucymar and her family claim they fled the Venezuelan state of Lara due to political persecution by dictatorial President Nicolas Maduro’s administration.

“We were part of an opposing political party,” she admits. “My family, my parents, everyone there, and the government knew that, and we’d constantly be threatened.”

“I was set to receive a house from a program run by the government but after they found out who I voted for in prior elections, they took that benefit away from me,” she said holding back her tears.

Before leaving Venezuela, Lucymar and her brother, Luis Alfonso, worked in the beauty industry. “I was a barber in Venezuela, but things were so bad that at times I cut hair in exchange for food,” Alfonso explains.

Lucymar’s 40-year-old husband, Jesus Caruci, worked as a mechanic, while Yelitza, who is married to Luis Alfonso, worked in sales. The rest of the travelling family, whether young adults or youngsters, had attended school prior to leaving the nation.

Their odyssey began just over two years ago. They spent a few months in neighbouring Colombia before travelling across many nations. They safely passed the perilous Darien Gap, but were kidnapped by a cartel once they arrived in southern Mexico.

“When we entered Tapachula, they were waiting for us,” Luis Alfonso recalls.

“They tricked us, they forced us into a vehicle and said they were taking us to a safe place (…) but they took us to a farm and held us there for six days.”

According to Luis Alfonso, the criminals were only released after paying $900, which was all they were carrying.

“Ever since we’ve survived with some money our family has sent us or that we’ve had to borrow,” he says.

After sobremesa, the family moves to the shelter’s patio to enjoy some sun and continue to talk. They make a circle by gathering many plastic chairs scattered across the uneven and damaged shelter pavement. The little children decide to run about and play in an outside playset.

“I understand Trump,” says 19-year-old Beyker Sosa as the family stays quiet.

“There have been crimes done by illegal migrants, I understand the measures, they are meant to keep the country safe,” he adds. “But we aren’t criminals, I wish he (Trump) would have compassion, we are humans just like him.”

CNN questioned the family if they had ever considered entering the United States illegally, and they all responded, “No.”

“We never considered entering illegally, we never want to hide from authorities, we wanted to be able to walk free,” Beyker says. “It’s very sad to have done things right, the legal way, only to have Trump shut the app down, but I guess God doesn’t want us there.”

The family claims that their smartphones and conversations are their sole sources of entertainment in the shelter. “We can’t even go out, we were warned that migrants are targeted in this area, so we just stay in, especially after already being kidnapped,” Lucymar says.

However, with children to entertain, snacks are essential. Luis Alfonso and Estiven went to the corner store to get cookies and soda.

They resume the talk and begin passing out Oreos and a plastic cup of orange soda.

“Trump should clean up Venezuela, we are good people, but he should up take out the bad ones, especially those in the government, take them out, Trump, and then take our country and call it Venezuela of America,”  Beyker jokes about Trump’s plan to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

Nearly two hours later, the family returns to the shelter’s main room, each slipping back into their mattresses.

“This is all we do, we are either in our beds, on our phones, we wonder what could’ve been,” Lucymar murmurs. (CNN, excluding headlines)

Polanco and nine other family members were denied entry to the United States after trekking for days to reach the border.

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