When Dayana Castro heard that the U.S. asylum appointment she waited over a year for was canceled in an instant, she had no doubt: She was heading north any way she could. The 25-year-old migrant, her husband and their 4- and 7-year-old children had nothing left at home in Venezuela.

The US-Mexico border is effectively closed off to migrants seeking asylum in the United States within hours of President Donald Trump taking office, an extraordinary departure from previous protocols that has left many concerned migrants in limbo.

Premier combat troops have been ordered to the southern border, as part of Trump’s militarization of immigration.