Trump Closes Border, Leaving Migrants in Mexico With Few Options

As panic sank in, the migrants strung two ladders together with rope and placed them over the steel border wall that separated Tijuana from southern California.

“Hurry up, hurry, keep moving!” shouted two men standing at the bottom of the ladder. A young girl from Zimbabwe stood on top and looked down with wide eyes, hesitating before taking her next step.

On Monday, as migrants in Mexico learned that President Trump had canceled all asylum appointments moments after taking office and planned to sign several executive orders sealing the border, one group made a desperate and perilous last-ditch effort to cross into the United States.

One by one, they ascended the wobbling structure, then slid down the other side. Those who made it over helped catch the women and children. But one woman fell to the ground on her way down and lay wailing in pain and grabbing her leg.

“We do this out of need, not because we want to, and that is it,” said Carlos Porras, 39, from Peru, speaking through the fence bars. He also hurt his ankle while jumping and was limping.

Moments later, the group was approached by Border Patrol officers and taken away.

The scene revealed the desperation of migrants who on Monday learned that the border was now effectively closed. All were left to process the emotions, from bewilderment to despair.

“I feel rage, I feel sadness, I feel everything,” said Katherine Romero, 36, a Venezuelan who had waited a year in Mexico City for her Monday appointment and worked different jobs to save for the plane ticket to Tijuana. “I just can’t believe it.”

In a series of orders signed on Monday evening, Mr. Trump effectively closed the nation’s borders to migrants, part of a policy barrage that included a national emergency declaration to deploy the military to the border and broadly blocking asylum seekers.

His administration shut down the CBP One app only minutes after Mr. Trump took the presidential oath earlier in the day. Created by the Biden administration, the app allowed migrants to schedule appointments to gain entry into the United States but had been a target of Republicans.

The program allowed 1,450 people a day to schedule a time to present themselves at a port of entry and request asylum. More than 900,000 people entered the country using CBP One from its launch to the end of 2024.

In a migrant encampment in Mexico City on Monday, Cristian Morillo Romero, a Venezuelan who arrived in Mexico over a year ago, learned that Mr. Trump had ended the CBP One program. He said he didn’t know what that meant for his Jan. 26 appointment in Calexico, Calif.

Then he opened his email. There was a message in English titled “CBP One Appointment Canceled” that explained that existing appointments “are no longer valid.”

“I want to cry,” Mr. Morillo Romero, 37, said. When it finally hit him later in the day, he did.

In Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso, only one group of 100 people was allowed to cross into the United States for their early morning appointments. Then, just before 11 a.m., Mexican border officials said they had received a notification from their American counterparts: No more appointments were being accepted.

“I’m in shock,” said John Flores Bonalte, 36, a Venezuelan who never got to his 1 p.m. appointment. “It’s unfair. We were waiting to cross legally for a long time. It’s been seven months waiting in Mexico for this appointment.”

José Antonio Zuchite, 40, said he left Honduras in September and waited five months in Mexico City before coming to Ciudad Juárez over the weekend “with a lot of hope” for his now-canceled Monday afternoon appointment.

“I don’t have a place to stay,” he said, as his voice cracked. “I don’t have family or acquaintances here. I’m on the street.”

Aline Corpus in Tijuana and Annie Correal in Mexico City contributed reporting.