(CNN) — A migrant shelter in the Mexican border city of Reynosa is expecting a surge in the number of migrants seeking shelter after the United States unveiled an executive action that could result in asylum seekers being turned away after they reach the daily limit or if they don’t meet certain requirements.
The Senda de Vida shelter, located in Tamaulipas state, receives between 40 and 100 migrants daily, according to what its founder, Pastor Hector Silva, told CNN.
Silva said the change in US immigration policy has already affected her shelter. The numbers speak for themselves.
He added: “When we had the Remain in Mexico program, we reached 17,000, which is a large number, and when we left that and entered Title 42, the number rose to 25,000.”
“Increasing deportations will lead to our shelters becoming full,” he warned.
Silva said that the shelter currently provides housing for about a thousand migrants.
On Tuesday afternoon at the White House, US President Joe Biden unveiled an executive action that he seeks to use to influence the situation at the border after the failure of a bipartisan measure taken earlier in this anal.
The new executive measure prevents immigrants who cross the border illegally from seeking asylum — in violation of a decades-old protocol — once the daily threshold is reached. Unless they meet certain exceptions, they will be returned to Mexico or their country of origin.
As politics change and leaders’ positions on immigration evolve, Juan Fernando, an asylum seeker at the Senda de Vida shelter, said he is waiting for his family’s appointment with US immigration authorities.
But as time goes by, Fernando says he sometimes thinks about taking matters into his own hands.
He said: “There are many things one thinks about, even doing stupid things, crossing (the border), and jumping, but my family does not know how to swim, in case we want to venture the hard way.”
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday that his country is seeking to reach an agreement under which the United States would deport asylum seekers and migrants to their countries of origin and not to Mexico.
“We are looking for an agreement so that if they (the United States) make the decision to deport, they do it directly,” he said during his regular press conference in Mexico City.
However, López Obrador noted that the potential increase in the number of migrants does not worry him much.
Through tears, Juan Fernando confirmed that he would continue to wait in the hope of reaching his goal.
He added: “Get asylum, let me enter with my family because here in Mexico you cannot (apply), especially where I come from. The crime is very bad, it is a lot.”
Pastor Silva said the majority of migrants in their shelters are waiting to meet with US immigration authorities to make appointments through the CBP One app, which was launched in the middle of this year to streamline their asylum process.
Silva pointed out that migrants must be patient. “You have to do things well, wait, wait, it’s not easy to wait, but you can do it,” Silva said.
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