Long wait over for 85 asylum seekers
April 4, 2021
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Located a short distance from the Rio Grande, the Migrant Protection Protocols Immigration Hearing Facilities in Laredo, shown in this September 2019 photo, are adjacent to the Gateway to the Americas International Bridge.Cuate Santos / Laredo Morning Times
Jose Martinez Lopez and his son arrived in Nuevo Laredo on Oct. 4, 2019 from northern Honduras seeking asylum in the United States. Last week, along with 83 other asylum seekers who have been waiting in Mexico, Martinez and his son were finally allowed to come into Laredo.
On Wednesday, Martinez and his son shared a green folding cot in a florescent-lit room at the Holding Institute. He sat quietly in an Atlanta Braves hat and blue surgical mask as the room filled with the voices of other children singing and yelling, playing on their parents’ cellphones and with toys that had been provided to them. When a train came by, a small girl ran outside in the rain, hands over her ears as the horn blared, and watched it go. A half-full gallon of milk sat on the linoleum tile.