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by Valentina Martelli 05 December 2019Pablo and his family hold a number. Indicates that in front of them there are "only" 40 others. Then they can finally apply for asylum. They wait patiently for this moment to come in five months. Pablo wants to take his wife and two children away from the growing violence of the Mexican cartel.



Tijuana, northern border with the United States. Only a year ago daily at the center of the chronicles for those caravans of migrants that had moved like a tidal wave starting from Central America. Fleeing poverty, drug trafficking, political persecution of their native countries - Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador - there were thousands of people. They had moved on foot and then faster and faster by bus and by volunteers. Families, men, women and children had arrived in Tijuana, pushed by the media tam-ram that, like the passing of the storm, had calmed down.

The images of those days told of protests and attempts to cross the border rejected by tear gas, but also dramatic hygienic conditions and overcrowding of the centers where, those thousands of human beings, had been crammed. We had them videos, interviewed, we were indignant about how they were treated then, perhaps, driven by other emergencies, we had abandoned them.

Today, about a year from those days, the situation on the outskirts of San Ysidro is no different. Waiting there are between 6500 and 7000 Mexicans. This was stated by 'Al Otro Lado' organization that defends the rights of immigrants and provides them with pro-bono legal services. And this number contains only those who try to escape from the violence of the Mexican cartel that is now expanding, in a sprawling way, throughout the south of the country. Then there are the others. Those who come from farther away and who camp near the border in the Tijuana that, already poor, is now exhausted.

All on the waiting list to present a first request and subject to metering the policy - already used at times since 2016 - of "measurement" of asylum seekers at the border that allows migrants to enter the United States only if there is enough space in detention facilities.

The metering, should not be applied to Mexican migrants, because it forces them to wait in the same country from which they flee, but in order not to penalize those who come from farther away, it was also implemented for them.

However, the sudden increase in the number of Mexican families seeking to seek asylum in the United States is causing concern for immigration experts from both countries. The fear is of a new frontier crisis that would put at risk the fragile relations established between Trump and López Obrador.

The Mexican president has to worry about because the country is about to record the record for the most violent year. An average of 90 deaths a day. Seventeen thousand people killed in the first six months only.

Pablo tells that 17 days ago, 17 migrants were brought into the United States, 16 of them were Mexicans, one from Cameroon. In his hand he holds that number which represents hope, while together with his family he returns to the shelter where he spent the last five months.