Mexico’s bloodiest election in history sends new asylum-seekers to the US border

Several Mexican migrant families told CNN they were fleeing the fallout of this month’s bloody national elections, which saw dozens of political candidates killed.

Norma regrets ever having called the police. A shop owner and local coordinator for a political party on the outskirts of Mexico City, Norma called authorities in November to file a complaint about noise coming from the building next door to her house. The building was being used by a rival political party, she believes. Norma doesn’t know what resulted from the police investigation, but the 35-year-old began receiving intimidating threats. Strange men began to approach her in the street and warn she didn’t have long to live, she said. She tried moving to a relative’s house, but noticed that she was being followed on the way. When that rival party won the municipal elections two weeks ago, Norma decided to leave town, she said, fearing that she would be further targeted. “After the vote, it got ugly in my city,” she said. CNN is using only her first name due to concerns for her safety. CNN met Norma on a dusty road in southern Arizona, just moments after she and her three children – 13, 8 and 2 years old – climbed across the low fence that separates Mexico from the United States.