Mothers crossing the Mexico-U.S. border risk everything to reunite with their children
Human smugglers charge thousands for crossings with narrow chance of success, advocates say
Maria says the smugglers formed a human ladder and told her to climb up by grabbing their shoulders and the steel bars of the border wall between Mexico and California.
asserted
smugglers → cross → Mexico
The human smugglers picked a spot along the border wall near Tecate, a municipality about 50 kilometres east of Tijuana.
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smugglers → pick → Tijuana
It was June, and Maria was trying to return to the U.S. to be reunited with her twin sons and husband in California.
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Maria → try → California
She was with a group of about five others also trying to cross.
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She → try → others
Maria says a young man was the first to scale up the human ladder and over the border wall.
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man → say → wall
She was told to go up next and started to climb.
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She → tell → ?
"Then I heard and saw that [U.S. Border Patrol] trucks started to arrive," said Maria, in an interview earlier this month with CBC News at the Instituto Madre Asunta shelter for women and children in Tijuana.
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Maria → hear → Tijuana
Maria says she fell back on the Mexican side and landed among shrubs with thorns and the group started running.
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group → say → thorns
She says she doesn't know what happened to the young man who made it over the wall.
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who → say → wall
CBC News is not using Maria’s full name because she fears repercussions for her attempts to enter the U.S. twice in the past 10 months.
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she → use → months
While migrant caravans from Tijuana have disappeared and this Mexican border city of about 2.3 million is no longer the waiting room for entry into the U.S., there are still people seeking to cross.
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city → disappear → U.S.
Many who risk the journey have been separated from their families by deportation, including mothers who are trying to get back to their children, advocates say.
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advocates → risk → children
And they're choosing more dangerous, clandestine routes that cost tens of thousands of dollars with narrow margins of success.
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that → choose → success
She says she fell back on the Mexican side and landed among shrubs with thorns and the group started running.
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group → say → thorns
She doesn’t know what happened to the young man who had made it over the wall.
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who → know → wall
Maria says her husband, who is still in California, arranged for her failed attempt to cross the border in June, but she doesn't know how much he paid.
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he → say → much
"The only thing I know is that we owe money."
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we → know → money
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Vitalina Pietrobiassi, the director of the shelter run by the Catholic order of Scalabrinian Missionaries, says the Mexico-U.S. border is a place of "pain" and "separation" for many.
"
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border → fight → many
The women who are deported come here to find a way out of their desperation," said Pietrobiassi.
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Pietrobiassi → deport → desperation
Smugglers charge up to $25,000 US
Next door, Raul Ochoa is the executive director at House of the Migrant, a shelter for men also run by the Scalabrinians.
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Ochoa → charge → Scalabrinians
He says that based on conversations he's had, human smugglers in the area are now charging between $15,000 to $25,000 US to move people across the border.
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smugglers → say → border
The low end of the smuggling price spectrum may mean following a guide to a remote spot where surveillance is weak, Ochoa says, adding that paying top dollar could get you guaranteed passage through a port of entry under an arrangement with a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent.
uncertain
paying → mean → agent
Crossing into the U.S. right now has a low probability of success, he says, even if one has the money to pay human smugglers known as coyotes.
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one → cross → coyotes
"The border is basically sealed, there is a lot of security, and the price to pay a coyote is extremely high."
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price → seal → coyote
Dina Ramos is also staying at the Instituto Madre Asunta.
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Ramos → stay → Asunta
Ramos, a mother of six children who were all born in the U.S. where she lived undocumented for more than 20 years, says she was caught by U.S. authorities on Sept. 13, while trying to slip across the border.
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she → bear → border
Ramos would not share details of her crossing attempt, but says she was trying to get back to her family in the U.S. after she returned to Mexico in July to see her ailing parents.
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she → share → parents
"My children are over there, on the other side, and that's what hurts," she said.
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she → hurt → side
Ramos says she's desperate to be with her children and plans to find another way across the border.
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she → say → border
"One does many things for love," she said.
"I am going to ask for direction from God.
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I → do → God
I have faith in Him and He is the only one that can help me."
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that → have → me
Applying to come to Canada
Ramos was one of more than 10,000 people intercepted since last October by U.S. border authorities in the San Diego Sector.
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Ramos → apply → Sector
The sector covers roughly 96 km of land border from the Pacific Ocean west of Tijuana to the Tecate region.
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sector → cover → region
This figure is a sharp drop from the approximately 320,000 apprehensions recorded in that area between October 2023 and September 2024, according to U.S. border data.
uncertain
figure → record → data
U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a statement on Sept. 16 saying that apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border had dropped by more than 90 per cent since December 2023.
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apprehensions → issue → December
Tijuana immigration lawyer Soraya Vazquez, deputy director of Al Otro Lado, an organization that provides legal and humanitarian support to migrants and refugees, says many of the people still willing to risk crossing the border are deportees trying to get back to their families.
asserted
many → provide → families
"It's something that is still happening, most of all, yes, with deported mothers who left their families, their children," said Vazquez.
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Vazquez → happen → families
"They will always have a yearning to return."
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They → have → yearning
For Maria, staying in Tijuana is not an option.
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staying → stay → Tijuana
She says she wants to get back to her twin sons — one is set to join the U.S. Marines — and her husband.
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one → say → Marines
…and 26 more, not listed.
The Aporia
