Migrants race against the clock to reach the US-Mexico border before Trump takes office

When Altagracia left Honduras to embark on the months-long journey to the US-Mexico border, she had two clear goals on her mind: reach the United States to claim asylum and reunite with her children living there.

When Altagracia left Honduras to embark on the monthslong journey to the US-Mexico border, she had two clear goals on her mind: reach the United States to claim asylum and reunite with her children living there. But after leaving her hometown of Siguatepeque, in Honduras’ central highlands, she learned that Donald Trump had won the US election touting a crackdown on immigration – one that she feared could shrink her chances of reaching the US after a nearly 3-month trip through central America and Mexico. Speaking from a shelter in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca in December, the 39-year-old told CNN she was racing against the clock to reach the US’s southern border with Mexico before Trump’s January 20 inauguration. “We’ve been told that when Trump starts, he won’t let us in,” Altagracia, who asked CNN not to share her last name over fears it would impact her asylum claim in the US, said on a phone call. Altagracia is one of several migrants CNN spoke to who are racing to reach the US-Mexico border before Trump returns to the White House. Her concerns, she says, stem from Trump’s rhetoric around mass deportations and closing the border altogether.