Within Our Borders Miguel Tomas Martinez Huerta now runs his own business at the Cocos La Iguana in Tijuana, Mexico. He was deported from the United States after living in California for 10 years and raising a family there. "I couldn't believe that I was deported. For the first five years I couldn't believe I had a wife and young daughters in California and I was sent to Mexico to live without them," Huerta said. Helped along the way, he says he found solace in working and letting go of drinking and starting his own fruit business stand. On the first day of the new Migrant Protection Protocols instituted by Homeland Security, on Jan. 25, 2019, Nya, foreground, who is from El Salvador, says goodbye to Maria (background), who is also from El Salvador, as she gets into a van with her child, headed to San Diego for processing for possible entry into the United States. However, Maria may soon have to return to Mexico due a more stringent policy for obtaining asylum in the United States. Locals on the Tijuana side of the border wrote anti- deportation comments on the wall prototypes that President Trump showcased in 2018. “We have been waiting for around three weeks,” says Ana Madrid Gomez (center), who laughs with her daughter, Sasha Madrid (far left) as they pass the time at the port of entry in Tijuana. All members of her group, including Taina Leiva, and her daughter, Ruth Leiva (far right) are migrants originally from Honduras. A population of Haitians, including this child playing with his toy truck, have traveled to Tijuana hoping for their number to be called to obtain asylum in the United States. They are waiting at the Benito Juarez shelter in Tijuana. Jose Neva, center, uses his phone to capture a man attempting to climb the border fence. “I just got here a week ago, but I’m trying to make it work. I want to go back to the other side the legal way, so I’m filing paperwork,” said Neva, who has two children living in Riverside, California. thA long line of people wait to cross back into the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in January 2019. This Tijuana/San Diego border has 63,000 pedestrians passing through every day. Added to these numbers, continuing uncertainty surrounding the negotiations for funding the wall and controlling entry into the United States has added to the chaotic life along the border.
