MANAGUA, Nicaragua _ Barbara never thought she would leave Nicaragua.
But early one morning, she kissed her sleeping son goodbye. She had spent the night watching him in his bed. It was almost his 10th birthday.
"Fue el peor momento de mi vida," Barbara said. It was the worst moment of my life.
It had been nearly a year since Barbara had been left for dead outside her clothing store, a victim of the Nicaraguan government's bloody campaign to silence pro-democracy protests that rose up in 2018.
She knew she had to flee, but she didn't think she could protect her son on the notorious migrant trail. She wasn't willing to risk him.
So the 29-year-old entrepreneur escaped north alone, putting herself at the mercy of the U.S. asylum system _ a system meant to protect the world's most vulnerable.
The San Diego Union-Tribune is not fully identifying Barbara or many of the witnesses interviewed in Nicaragua because of the danger that the government might retaliate against them or their families.
Barbara is in Tijuana, one of tens of thousands of people waiting for a chance to argue for protection in the United States, part of a changing wave of migration that the Trump administration has labeled a crisis.
She exists in a constant state of uncertainty, and she realizes now just how much she underestimated the challenges that still lie ahead.
Idiosyncrasies of the asylum system make anyone's outcome difficult to predict _ even for those whose stories seem to meet the international definition of a refugee. Over its 40-year history, capriciousness and politicized justice have plagued the system.
For the people it chooses to protect, asylum offers a new chance at life. For those it does not, the outcome can be tragic.
Recent policy changes have only made it more difficult for people like Barbara to make their cases.
About six months before Barbara arrived at the border, officials began forcing asylum-seekers to wait for U.S. immigration court hearings in Mexico, where they are often victims of robberies, assaults, kidnappings or worse.
Among them was Barbara.
