Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Reuters

Politics

Loren Elliott

Fleeing Honduras, family stakes its future on asylum in the U.S.

Carolina (C), daughter of Orfa, a migrant from Honduras, sits with friend Jefferson and younger sister Rachel on Christmas Eve inside her family's trailer in Texico, New Mexico, U.S., December 24, 2018. REUTERS/Loren

TEXICO, N.M. (Reuters) - Seventeen-year old Carolina is putting on some snazzy shoes and make-up, talking excitedly to her friends on her phone, getting ready to go out for a party.

The mobile home that she shares with her mother and two younger siblings in Texico, New Mexico, is hardly luxurious. But this town provides her with something that she did not have in her former home in San Pedro Sula, Honduras - safety.

Rachel, daughter of Orfa, a migrant from Honduras, plays in the living room as President Donald Trump is shown on a newscast inside the family's trailer in Texico, New Mexico, U.S., February 1, 2019. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

Here, at least, she can go out.

"There are many gang members (in San Pedro Sula) and they are basically in charge, the streets are really dangerous," her mother, Orfa, said in an interview earlier this month. "I almost never went out, I stayed at home with the children."

Reuters is withholding the surnames of the family to protect their identity because of their uncertain status and fear of Honduran gangs.

A Honduras calendar is fixed to a wall inside the family's trailer in Texico, New Mexico, U.S., February 1, 2019. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

Their troubles in Honduras deepened after Orfa separated from the children's father, leaving her with no source of income and little chance of finding work.

Then Carolina's school friend was raped by gang members, and her daughter was told that "she was next," Orfa said.

Orfa set out with her three children in early 2018 to make the approximately 2,700-mile (4,300-km) journey through Mexico to the United States. They joined one of the 'caravans' of thousands of Central American migrants that have made the trip over the past year in hopes of securing asylum in the United States.

Rachel, daughter of Orfa, a migrant from Honduras, plays with the family's recently acquired dog Scott, outside the second trailer the family moved to in Texico, New Mexico, U.S., November 29, 2018. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

An incensed U.S. President Donald Trump has called the migrants "a tremendous onslaught," sent troops to the border, and pushed for tougher controls and a far more extensive border wall.

After a gruelling six-week journey of walking, riding on top of trains, and hitching lifts, in which the family relied largely on the kindness of strangers to eat, they wound up at a shelter in Tijuana. The Mexican border city has become the temporary home for hundreds of caravan migrants, who wait for their turn, sometimes for months, to formally request asylum in the United States.

Accompanied by minors, Orfa's turn to apply came after a week. The family was transferred to a detention centre in Texas, and then released from custody to await future court appearances, suggesting authorities believed the family had demonstrated what the U.S. government calls "credible fear" of returning home. Trump has derided this practise, referring to it as "catch and release."

Carolina, standing with curlers in her hair in preparation for Christmas Eve, looks out from the family trailer in Texico, New Mexico, U.S., December 24, 2018. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

In San Antonio's bus terminal, the family and other caravan members said emotional goodbyes as they took buses to different parts of the United States.

Gazing out of a Greyhound bus window, Orfa's children saw the blue skies and shrubland of New Mexico for the first time. They have been in Texico since May, living on trailer sites where their cousins and extended family were already.

They are adjusting to life in the United States - shopping at Walmart, learning to drive, adopting a dog. Carolina has become good friends with her Honduran neighbours, Jefferson and Sulmy.

Carolina (R) and younger sister Rachel, daughters of Orfa, a migrant from Honduras, wait for friend Jefferson to fill his gas tank during an outing in Texico, New Mexico, U.S., December 23, 2018. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

But the children are unable to go to school without proof of identity, Orfa said. Finding food for them when she was not allowed to work was challenging.

And hanging over their heads is the decision yet to come on whether they can stay or must return to Honduras. Most asylum claims from Central Americans are ultimately rejected.

"I want to give the children what I can, have them go to school," said Orfa. "They are the important ones. It is not easy here, but maybe the children can study and achieve something."