In a small room with one light bulb and six bunk beds, Jhosseline Estefanie Argeta Morales, 31, of El Salvador sits on a lower bed organizing a small bag of toiletries at Cobina Posada Del Migrante, a shelter for migrant families in Mexicali, Mexico.
Argeta has been at this shelter for four months. The thin, petite woman with light brown hair left her home with her young son nine months ago, fearing that one of the local gangs would force her son to join them.
She said that while El Salvador's populist President Nayib Bukele is cracking down on gangs with massive sweeps and incarceration (which critics say violate human rights), his hard-line approach is driving gang leaders to recruit more young boys.
"I left in fear for his life," she said of her son, in a quiet voice. "I was in Tapachula for five months and now I've been waiting four months here for my CBP One application to be processed," Argeta added, referring to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
According to the Customs and Border Protection website, the CBP One app can be used to schedule appointments by noncitizens in central or northern Mexico who seek to travel to the United States.
Cobina Posada Del Migrante director Elizabeth Gallardo said her group helps immigrants fill out the necessary paperwork to apply for asylum.
Argeta hopes to receive asylum in the United States because she does not want to return to El Salvador.
"My sister is now in North Carolina," she said. "She was left for dead after gangs tried to take her son. She was stabbed and beaten."
Cobina Posada Del Migrante provides housing and three meals a day for more than 200 people. Filled to capacity most of the time, the shelter also provides hygiene products, clothing and shoes, because most who arrive come only with the clothes on their backs. Charity groups such as Border Compassion and SoCal Immigration Task Force help meet those needs.
Another resident who escaped narco-violence said she feared for her life and the lives of her children if she did not leave her home state of Michoacán, Mexico. The mother of a girl and two boys did not want to use her name because she feared being found. "I was raped three times by narcos," she said.
"They also wanted to take my 14-year-old daughter simply because if they like you, they take you and do whatever they want with you," she said of the gangs. "I was left for dead, naked in a canal. I tried to report the attack to the police, but I was told I would be killed along with my children and mother."
She had no choice but to flee north to the United States. She said she finally feels safe at the shelter because "we don't go out and no one knows we are here."
Gallardo said people leave their countries for a variety of reasons. Cobina Posada Del Migrante has received and helped immigrants from Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador, many fleeing violence and extortion related to gangs and drug trafficking.
Other immigrants are escaping threats and violence because of their sexual orientation, Gallardo said.
Twenty-year old Genesis Abigail Flores Ceron and her 3-year-old son, Mateo Isacc, began their journey north to Mexicali in late March 2023. Flores was starting to have problems with gang members in her native Honduras, so she decided to leave for her young son's well-being.
"I didn't want to leave my country," Flores said. "We can flourish the same there." But she wanted to avoid problems with gang members. Her journey began as part of a 5,000-strong caravan of people walking. She said she walked for five days, then was stopped by criminals in Mexico.
"They demanded I give them $100 U.S., or they would take my son from me," she said with tears welling up in her eyes. "I cried hysterically and another one of the gang members told me 'You're in Mexico and nothing will happen to you.'"
The gang members sent her on her way to Mexicali, where she has been waiting for almost three months while her U.S. asylum request is being processed. Flores added that she hopes to find her two sisters in Phoenix.
With assistance from the shelter and volunteers, children like Flores' are kept busy with activities, sports and English classes. Everyone there also receives medical attention as needed, according to Gallardo.
Cuban grandmother Yusmin Vazquez, 53, fled with her 6-year-old grandson after being harassed for participating in a civil protest against the government last year. Her daughter left last year because she also was harassed and feared for her life after participating in the same protest. Vazquez flew to Nicaragua, then took ground transportation into Mexico.
Vazquez said she was kidnapped in Chiapas and held for a few days, but one of the kidnapper's relatives let her go one day at 4 a.m. and gave her bus fare to Tapachula, in southern Mexico near the Guatemala border. From there she made her way to Mexicali with her grandson. She hopes to make it to Tampa, where her daughter lives now.
Some immigrants may spend only a day or two at the shelter, while others might remain up to one year, Gallardo said. But all of them hope to be granted asylum in the U.S.
Vanessa Olivos, 20, left Michoacán after her brother was murdered.
"The cartel wanted my family to work for them. I was kidnapped and drugged," Olivos said. So she left, along with her partner, Esmeralda Manzo Manzo, and her partner's family. They all hope to be given asylum in the U.S. because "we could be murdered if we return home."
