Central American migrants await asylum in southern Mexico

[...] the U.N. refugee agency picks up the rent and that of a growing number of immigrant families in this Mexican city of 32,000 people near the Guatemalan border.

The decision to settle in Mexico and not continue to the United States is tied to increased recognition of the risks of crossing Mexico and more recently the hostile rhetoric of President-elect Donald Trump, the immigrants and their advocates say.

According to the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid, about 4,000 of the 6,898 applications it received through October this year made it to the end of the process and of those, 2,162 applicants got refugee status.

Another 414 applicants who did not qualify as refugees received other kinds of government protection and escaped deportation.

More migrants are seeking asylum as information about the possibility spreads, said Rafael Zavala, director of the UNHCR office that opened here a year ago as the number of Central Americans seeking protection rose.