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Many migrants on the border are heading home

Many asylum seekers decide to board buses and head south after giving up on the “Remain in Mexico” program.

Asylum seekers wait Friday at an immigration checkpoint in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to board a bus bound for Chiapas state in southern Mexico. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Honduran migrant Maria Salazar and daughter Isabella, 2, wait Thursday with nearly 200 other asylum seekers in a Nuevo Laredo parking lot after being returned to Mexico by the U.S.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Kevin Marquez and son Kevin David Marquez, from Honduras, wear masks to prevent sickness Friday after being dropped off in a Nuevo Laredo parking lot with other asylum seekers. The two had spent several days at a detention facility after presenting themselves to U.S. authorities and requesting asylum. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Asylum seekers board a Chiapas-bound bus after struggling without basic necessities for days at the Nuevo Laredo border checkpoint parking lot. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

A child sleeps on pizza boxes for a mattress Thursday while camping in a parking lot with other weary asylum seekers.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Jose Antonio Mancia Hernandez, from Honduras, watches over a friend’s 3-year-old daughter at their temporary home in the border parking lot.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Asylum seekers released by the U.S. into cartel-heavy Nuevo Laredo wait Thursday in the glow of the lights of an ambulance treating a sick child.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Some 200 asylum seekers huddle in the parking lot of a Nuevo Laredo immigration checkpoint waiting for buses to Chiapas and Monterrey. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

A man delivers toothbrushes Thursday to migrants camping in a Nuevo Laredo parking lot. Volunteers also brought water, food and supplies, but many were giving up and waiting for transportation to leave.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times )

A Mexican official calls migrants’ names for a list of those traveling by bus to Chiapas. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Migrants take a last look at the U.S. on Friday on the bridge from Laredo, Texas, to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. They were sent to the high-crime city as part of the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” plan for asylum seekers. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Diego Castillo, 17, from Ecuador, looks back at the Rio Grande River toward Laredo, Texas, on Thursday from an immigration checkpoint in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)