Bordering on Despair: The True Cost of the American Dream

On TikTok, migrants post themselves wading through the Rio Grande or crowding into shelters at the southern border. Families also share clips of green card approvals and swearing-in ceremonies, cheering as loved ones become citizens or can finally be reunited with loved ones from their home countries. These images highlight a contradiction: the United States exposes migrants to dangerous uncertainty, yet it remains the world’s top destination for people seeking new lives.

The U.S. foreign-born population reached 53.3 million in January 2025 before dipping to 51.9 million in June, still one of the highest levels ever recorded, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census data. Immigrants now comprise approximately 15% of the U.S. population, a share that has steadily increased over the past two decades.

Migrants take extraordinary risks to get here. Customs and Border Protection reported more than 2 million encounters at U.S. borders in fiscal year 2023, underscoring the number of people who attempted the journey despite the dangers. CBP also logged hundreds of deaths along the border, ranging from drownings to desert exposure, and thousands of rescues of migrants in distress. The U.S.-Mexico border is considered the deadliest land migration route in the world.

Amanda Aguilar is a Staff Attorney at American Gateways, a legal advocacy group for immigrant survivors, in San Antonio, Texas. She has heard firsthand what her clients who are seeking asylum have fled from when coming to the U.S.

“What most of my clients now are fleeing is some sort of political persecution in Venezuela or Cuba,” she said. “You have to make it to this side of the border to ask for asylum, and for a lot of people who are being persecuted, that is the only form of relief they would qualify for.”

Angeles Ponpa reporting

Venezuelans and Cubans stand out in asylum data. In fiscal year 2023, Venezuelans filed nearly 100,000 affirmative asylum applications, while Cubans filed about 78,600, according to USCIS Annual Statistical Report for 2023. Together, those two groups made up almost 40 percent of all new applications.

Decades of political instability, economic collapse, and government crackdowns have driven millions from Venezuela. Cubans, meanwhile, face limited legal pathways to leave the island, prompting many to attempt the journey through Central America or by sea.

Mohaimina “Mina” Haque, from The Law Office of Mohaimina Haque, PLLC in Washington, is an attorney who works with immigrant families and workers, and explained how asylum works depending on how people enter the country.

“Asylums are two types. One is affirmative asylum, those are for people who come properly through proper inspection, properly means proper inspection through the airport, and then they want to seek asylum within one year of their arrival in the United States,” said Attorney Haque.

“People who are crossing the border and coming here, what they’re seeking is defensive, they are defending themselves. When they’re detained… they have a reasonable basis of fear that if they return to their home country, they may face persecution for many protected grounds,” she continued.

U.S. law requires migrants to be physically present in the country to request asylum, which forces those fleeing persecution to cross the border before they can apply for asylum. That rule left thousands of families stranded in Mexico when the Trump administration canceled the CBP One scheduling system in January 2025. Advocates say the cancellations, along with cartel control of border crossings, put migrants at greater risk.

Even when migrants make it into the United States, they often face years in court or detention. The TRAC system reported more than 3 million pending immigration court cases in 2025, the largest backlog on record.

“I have had clients who have been detained for two years, fighting it, losing it, appealing it, winning appeal,” said Attorney Aguilar, who has seen clients spend years in detention fighting their cases.

“And then we’re going to the same judge and then maybe ultimately getting denied again, but they’re willing to sacrifice two years of their life just to not go back to their home country.,” she said.

Those long delays take a toll. Detention facilities, many run by private companies, keep migrants away from families and lawyers. Documents tell of widespread anxiety and depression as cases drag on. Policy shifts between administrations add to the uncertainty, leaving migrants unsure whether new rules will benefit or harm their chances.

Migrants often encounter threats long before they reach a U.S. courtroom. Criminal groups in Central America and Mexico target families waiting along the border.

Attorney Aguilar described one case that stood out to her.

“I had a client who was kidnapped in the Darien Forest, which is the forest between Colombia and Panama, and forced to do free labor for extended periods of time,” she said. “I had clients who have been kidnapped several times in Mexico, like more than one time in Mexico, and that’s really unfortunate because a lot of those people were waiting for CBP One appointments.”

Beyond asylum, other migrants pursue legal pathways such as family or employment-based petitions, which carry their own challenges.

“There are immigrants who come under the family-based petition. There are immigrants who come for employment-based petitions, those are the most common, and then there are people who are special immigrants who went through some war-torn country,” said Attorney Haque, describing the country’s layered legal framework.

Attorney Haque added that the U.S. legal structure often overwhelms new arrivals.

“The law of the U.S. can be a bit complicated for a new immigrant because we have state laws, we have local laws, we have federal laws,” she said.

Migrants continue to pursue these avenues because they want to reunite with families and secure stability.

“What happens afterwards if people cannot come here? Where are they going to go?” warned Attorney Haque about how restrictive policies risk driving talent away.

“And we have seen no one single country remain the superpower forever. It is policies like that that push out talents, and then they go and then they create, you know, and contribute in some other parts of the world. And those talents are well received there,” she continued.

The risks have also grown under shifting enforcement priorities.

In early 2025, the Trump administration expanded deportation operations, increasing the likelihood that migrants without legal status would be detained and removed. Despite those crackdowns, families continue to come, weighing the possibility of deportation against the dangers they face if they stay behind.

That determination explains why migrants continue to risk their lives at the border while others post videos of jubilant citizenship ceremonies. Both sets of images tell the same story: people accept extraordinary sacrifices because the possibility of belonging in the U.S. still outweighs the dangers of getting there.