Migrants at the Border Seek Asylum Despite Policy Confusion
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hundreds of migrants lined up at the U.S./Mexico border for weeks waiting to cross over, seeking asylum, despite all of this confusion over family separation. Our Leyla Santiago is in Tijuana, Mexico with more. And Leyla, behind you are these people that have been waiting for weeks on end. What are they telling you?</s>LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. These are all families that are now on this sort of unofficial list, that they themselves have created, they themselves are managing to get in line to seek asylum in the United States of America at this port of entry, the legal way to do so. And, you know, when I talk to some of them, some of them tell me, look, our plans never changed. We've been in line for weeks now hoping to just get a chance to speak to a U.S. immigration official, but sometimes when you talk to the mothers, especially the mothers that are traveling with small children -- I talked to one woman, she is a mother, a Honduran mother, traveling with her 7-year-old boy, and she said when she saw the images, when she heard the audio of the cries of children being separated, she said she got out of line. She said, I can't do this, and didn't know what to do because for her, going back to Honduras, she says would mean death. So there was a sort of uncertainty that she is dealing with. Since President Trump signed that executive order, she said she's back in line, back in line waiting to seek asylum, in the United States of America. She said she left Honduras because of deadly threats to not only her, but also her child. And she's a bit confused of the back and forth and what is happening in terms of immigration policy in the United States, but plans to at least try to seek asylum.</s>HARLOW: You know, I think oftentimes we feel very detached from what is happening on the ground there and what you're seeing firsthand. I mean, you spent some time in a shelter, right, Leyla, for minors, talking to them about how bad the situation is in their home country, the threats that they face, the reason that they flee, oftentimes their parents putting them on a bus and saying, go.</s>SANTIAGO: Right, that was one conversation that just stuck with me. I spoke to a 16-year-old girl and she said the gangs had been following her for quite some time, finally they got to her and they said, you have two options. 16 years old, keep that in mine. They said you have two options. Either sell drugs or become a prostitute. She went home, told her parents, the next day they put her on a bus to try to get her to her aunt in North Carolina. She said that her mom was crying when she left, and her mom crying, hugged her and told her, I'm so sorry to have to do this to you, but this is for your own safety. That young child, that 16-year-old -- think about that, 16- year-old -- is in this line hoping to seek asylum in the United States.</s>HARLOW: Leyla Santiago, I'm glad you're there live for us in Tijuana this morning. Thank you very, very much. Ahead for us, the mother of an unarmed teen shot and killed by police in East Pittsburgh, Antwon Rose, you see his picture right there, being laid to rest today, and his mother speaking out saying her son was murdered in cold blood.