JUAREZ, Mexico (Border Report) — It was a friendship born of need inside a cold government shelter in Juarez.
President Donald Trump had just taken office and shut down all avenues to asylum last January.
Newly arrived migrants found themselves staring at soldiers on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande. Asylum-seekers checking the status of their online appointment instead saw messages inviting them to return home.
While many of their peers have done just that in the past seven months, Yamilet, a Salvadoran woman, and Grisel Mendez, a Venezuelan mother of three, remain in Juarez hanging on to hope the U.S. will eventually reopen its doors to those fleeing poverty, political oppression and crime in their countries.
“We could not go to our appointment because they did away with it,” Mendez said. “We were coming to work; we know agriculture. We were not going to be a burden.”
Short on cash and seemingly out of options, Mendez and Yamilet met inside the Leona Vicario federal shelter in Juarez and refused to move their children back to unsafe, gang-infested neighborhoods back home.
They sold candy and trinkets on Juarez streets while their partners sought odd jobs for sustenance in Juarez. The two families moved into a tiny apartment with no electricity. A single lamp with rechargeable batteries guides them at night.
The women have placed their children in Juarez elementary schools. They put away their wares at noon and at 2 p.m. to pick up their kids and walk them home before returning to work. Along the way, they often stop at a communal kitchen near the Juarez Monument Park for a meal.
Yamilet says it is a temporary arrangement because she hasn’t given up on the American dream.
“All this president (Trump) is doing is clearing out the undocumented and the criminals – those who entered to destroy the country. We came here to work. Once he cleans house, he might give us the opportunity to enter into the United States, cleanly, with a permit,” Yamilet says.
Shelters remain nearly empty
Juarez migrant shelter operators such as the Rev. Juan Fierro of Good Samaritan say few migrants remain in the city seven months after Trump took office.
“The people that were with us were waiting to see if there would be a change in (U.S.) immigration policy, if there would be an opportunity to enter the United States,” he said. “They got tired and started leaving. Some traveled to Mexico City, some to Costa Rica, others are leaving for Spain. Either way, they no longer are on the border.”
Good Samaritan had 78 migrants in its dormitories last January. Only 14 remained as of Tuesday
Fierro said other shelters are experiencing a similar situation.
“Some are staying, but it’s a very low percentage because they realized there is no lawful way for them to enter the United States. No one new is coming to the shelter and it’s the same on the streets. Before, we saw (migrants) all over downtown, doing odd jobs. We do not see that anymore,” Fierro said.
In 2023, Juarez officials told Border Report that 26 migrant shelters were known to be operating in the city. Some estimated up to 30,000 migrants were in the city at a time. But most churches that turned Bible classrooms into dormitories have gone back to their routine.
Fierro said he expected Good Samaritan would be busy assisting immigrants deported from the United States but that hasn’t happened either.
“We have seen few deportations through Juarez, really. The (northward) migration flow has greatly diminished, especially migrants from other countries,” the Methodist pastor said.
Juarez safer than Venezuela
Juarez has a reputation as one of the most dangerous cities in the world. That’s because of the 1,000-plus murders committed every year, mostly in working-class neighborhoods besieged by drug gangs.
But compared to Venezuela, it is a paradise, Mendez said.
“Teachers don’t want to show up at schools because of low pay. They show up maybe two days a week, so the children are not learning. There are no medications anywhere,” the mother of three said. “The police are on alert every time you get paid. They see you walking on the street and make up the most ridiculous crimes so they can steal from you.
“Over there (Venezuela), the cops are the ones that assault you, that rob you. I feel safer here.”
According to the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, crime and police violence have skyrocketed in Venezuela since the mid-2000s. Up to 18,000 extrajudicial killings by security forces had been reported in Venezuela as of 2019, per Human Rights Watch.
The U.S. State Department in 2023 reported significant human rights abuses, including “credible reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings, forced disappearance, torture, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment and punishment by security forces.”
Yamilet and Mendez said life in Mexico, as Spartan as their living arrangements are, is a step up from the conditions they fled in El Salvador and Venezuela.
But their goal remains ensuring a better life in the United States for their children.
“We are not going to petition for residence (in Mexico), but we will stay here for now,” Mendez said.