Humanitarian migrant awaits asylum amid mass deportations
As the Trump Administration is ordering certain asylum hopefuls to leave the United States, other migrants wonder if they'll be next.
"Lots of people that entered the U.S. after me and got a Humanitarian Parole have been given deportation orders," Guatemalan asylum seeker Ingrid Arriaza said.
Arriaza would say her life in the U.S. has been a mix of feelings. She explained she still uses a colostomy bag because she hasn't been able to get surgery.
She previously had an operation to remove a tumor from her intestine.
Because of her vulnerable health, she was allowed to enter the U.S. legally using a Humanitarian Parole under the Remain-In-Mexico policy.
Channel 5 News first met Arriaza in August 2021 at a Reynosa migrant camp.
She had just learned Title 42, a pandemic-era rule that expelled migrants back across the border into Mexico, was ending and the Remain-In-Mexico policy was coming back under the Biden Administration. She later asked for asylum.
Now, more than three years later, she was able to get an employment authorization card to allow her to work legally in the U.S. while she waits for the results of her asylum claim.
She lives in Des Moines, Iowa, with a family she met at a church she attends.
Arriaza fled violence in Guatemala. When she entered the U.S., she came with her son. After being shut out by a cousin's daughter, she found refuge at her ex-husband's home in Colorado.
Arriaza and her son eventually moved to Des Moines. Her son's father eventually took him back to Guatemala. Now Arriaza has no family and still waiting on an operation, but she doesn't fear a deportation.
"In these last four years a lot of things have happened in Guatemala and I don't fear having to go back," Arriaza said.
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security ordered nearly a million migrants who entered the U.S. using the CBP One app and received a Humanitarian Parole to leave the U.S.
Arriaza entered before the app was implemented.
"Lots of people that entered the U.S. after me and got a Humanitarian Parole have been given deportation orders," Arriaza said.
She still holds hope she might get asylum.
Watch the video above for the full story.