Word began to spread quickly in the Tijuana migrant shelter Monday, even as President Donald Trump continued to deliver his inauguration speech.
Nidia Montenegro, an asylum seeker from Venezuela, checked her cellphone to see if the asylum screening appointment she’d waited so long to secure was still good for Wednesday morning. Those around her had already been getting the heartbreaking news after seeing the new message on the government’s CBP One app: “Existing appointments scheduled through CBP One are no longer valid.”
She was no different.
“My spirit is on the ground,” she said through tears at the Juventud 2000 shelter. “We’re in limbo now. What’s going to happen to us?”
Shutting down the appointment system that allowed undocumented immigrants to schedule appointments for asylum screenings at ports of entry was perhaps the first blow of Trump’s promised border crackdown. Inauguration day ended with a flurry of executive actions aimed at the border — from reinstating his “Remain in Mexico” policy to using military troops for border security to ending birthright citizenship.
“All illegal entry will immediately be halted,” Trump said during his inaugural speech in the U.S. Capitol’s Rotunda.
The scene at the border unfolded as usual Monday morning.
Around 8 a.m., Border Patrol picked up a group of 14 people, including children, who had crossed the primary fence near the San Ysidro Port of Entry. One woman in line was breastfeeding her baby as she waited to board a bus for processing. The area, called Whiskey 8, has been a regular spot for asylum seekers to cross and wait for agents.
And in Tijuana at the PedWest pedestrian port of entry, asylum seekers who had confirmed 5 a.m. appointments through CBP One entered the U.S. as scheduled.
But the situation changed for those with the 1 p.m. timeslot. Asylum seekers queued up in line but were notified via the phone’s app that their appointments had been canceled.
Still, many of them remained in line, waiting for an official to come out and give them more information. Mexican immigration officials could be seen in the distance, but none spoke to reporters.
Just steps away, the PedWest northbound pedestrian border crossing used daily by thousands of people on their way to work, shop or go to school closed two hours early. Mexican officials could not give a precise reason for the unexpected closure. A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said Monday that the closure was initiated on the Mexican side.
Mexican officials said that the port of entry was expected to resume operations as usual Tuesday.
The end to asylum appointments through CBP One left thousands of migrants stranded in northern Mexican border towns. Nearly a million migrants had gotten screening appointments through the app since it was instated in January 2023. At the San Diego-Tijuana border, about 400 people with confirmed appointments were admitted each day.
Montenegro, the Venezuelan migrant, had been seeking to secure one of the 1,450 total daily appointment slots for four months when she finally lucked out. She had only recently arrived in Tijuana as part of a program in which Mexican officials provide safe and free bus rides to asylum seekers with confirmed appointments.
“There was this fear that when (Trump) came in, he would change the rules of the game, but we never thought it would be so immediate,” said Montenegro, whose family was waiting for her in New York this week.
Milagro González, an asylum seeker from Venezuela who said she was fleeing extortion and threats, had arrived at the Juventud 2000 migrant shelter in Tijuana the night before, ready for her appointment at 5 a.m. Tuesday.
She burst into tears when she learned it was gone. “I got the same message,” she said. She began texting her family back home to let them know what was happening.
During her daily press conference, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum urged Mexican immigrants to remain calm and said that “we must wait and see how the process unfolds in these weeks.”
“You are not alone,” she said. Sheinbaum added that the 53 Mexican consulates in the U.S. are prepared to assist if needed.
Sheinbaum said that she expects to meet with Trump’s team to discuss immigration.
Trump’s orders come as migrant encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border hit their lowest numbers last month since August 2020, according to data provided by the Biden administration on Friday.
Among Trump’s several executive orders is the return of the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy. Under the policy, enacted during his first administration, asylum seekers arriving at the border were sent back to Mexico to await their immigration court dates in the United States.
Albert Rivera, who runs the Agape migrant shelter in Tijuana, said the move was expected. “We always adapt to whatever it is,” he said. “But what we need is clear information.”
He said that when the policy was first implemented, the shelter was at capacity, so it was expanded to accommodate more people.
Mexico recently announced in anticipation of Trump’s policies that it would open new shelters along the northern border. In Baja California, there are plans to open shelters in Tijuana and Mexicali to serve deportees.
Rivera said that for now, that role will be filled by existing shelters, mostly run by nonprofits.
In San Diego County, Republicans who had gathered to watch Trump’s inauguration cheered when he outlined his plans for the border.
“San Diegans want a secure border,” said state Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, chairman of Reform California, who helped host a watch party at the Legacy Center in Mission Valley. “We’ve not had a secure border, and as a result, we have dealt with the impacts of migrants being released onto the streets.”
DeMaio says this has led to an increase in human trafficking and sex trafficking, as well as drug trade, in the region. One executive order aims to curb such crimes linked to the border.
Immigrant rights groups said they rejected policies they describe as anti-immigrant and reaffirmed their commitment to continue the fight against the new administration.
“We stand ready to defend the dignity of immigrants and the right to seek asylum, while also working toward systemic changes to our unjust immigration system,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, president and CEO of the Los Angeles-based Immigrant Defenders Law Center, or ImmDef, in a statement. “We will not back down.”
Staff writer Emily Alvarenga and staff photographer Ana Ramirez contributed to this report.
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