NOGALES, AZ — Every day, immigrants wait at Mexico's northern border to enter the United States; many are seeking asylum and following a newly created legal process. Others cross illegally.
Many wait to make the crossing from places like Nogales, Mexico for weeks or even months.
Some wait at shelters, others at a U.S. port of entry, but they tend to share a common journey, often traveling thousands of miles.
ABC15 and Scripps News have launched this special series taking an in-depth look at life along the U.S.-Mexico border.
It was early morning in February as we walked across the Arizona-Mexico border into Nogales, Sonora. It seemed that with every step we took the landscape changed; the first thing we noticed was a long line of people waiting to get across into Nogales.
Many are regular everyday border crossers, but others have been here waiting days, and in some cases, weeks or months.
A short drive away from the crossing, ABC15 found a shelter where many asylum seekers were waiting for an appointment to present their cases in the hope of receiving asylum.
While some claim to have escaped crime and violence in their home countries, ABC15 met Astrid, “¿Veniste sola [Did you come alone]?” ABC15's Patricio Espinoza asked her in Spanish. She told ABC15 how she traveled from Venezuela with her son and daughter.
Astrid and her family say they left their home last November and traveled more than 3,000 miles, across the borders of seven different countries. With tears in her eyes, she recounted how they walked through man-made jungle trails, and how they used any means of transportation they could find or afford.
She told ABC15 about how often authorities and criminals alike would rob them and take the little money they had.
"Why?" ABC15 asked. Astrid says she wants a better life for her two children, referencing her 8-year-old son Fabian. While Fabian traveled with his mother through the same jungle trails, he seemed innocently unafraid, untouched by the dangers he and his family faced.
“You came across all the way from Venezuela to Central America and were not scared?” Espinoza asked Fabian.
When asked if Fabian remembered when robbers took the money they had, he replied with a “Si... En la selva [yes... in the jungle].”
After finishing the short exchange about their journey, Fabian innocently ran away to play soccer.
The family took a journey his mother was willing to take to provide Fabian and his sister with what she hopes would be a better life across the border in the United States.