Victims of violent cartels tell the BBC that they are now hiding from US authorities

She had promised her daughter a trip to Disney World in Florida – but what was originally planned as a vacation became an escape route from Terror.

Gabriella, not her real name, is from Guajakil, Ecuador, where she has been directing what she calls the “normal middle -class life”: he worked on a television channel for 15 years, had a mortgage, and her daughter attended a private school.

When she read titles for violence rising in Ecuador – Bands struggling with cocaine trafficking routesMurders that are spread and spread – she suggested that the blackmail is aimed at “millionaires”.

Then came the first threat: a phone call warns her to pay a band or be shot. The caller knew her workplace and her registration plate.

At the time of her planned world vacation in Disney, her daughter’s grandfather was abducted.

Her family was asked to pay tens of thousands of dollars and received videos showing that his fingers were cut off. He was eventually killed, his finger left in a bottle as a mockery – case reported by the BBCS

Fearing that Gabriella would not be safe in Ecuador, her partner told her to take her daughter on the trip and not return.

Gabriela is now one of the millions in the United States with hanging asylum requests. Although accurate figures are not available, many Latin American candidates say they have been expelled from a cartel violence, which has risen in several countries, including Ecuador.

But immigration law experts say it is more difficult for them to plead in their case in the United States.

The US Asylum Act acknowledges five grounds to protect asylum based on the Refugee Convention, prepared after World War II. They are a persecution based on: race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

The current US Civil and Immigration Service says the asylum can be provided to those who run away from the pursuit of one of these five groups, but the cartel violence does not fit well with any of these categories.

This law is the subject of “very, much interpretation”, according to Kathleen Bush-Joseph of the Institute for Migration Policy.

During the first term by US President Donald Trump to service, his administration makes it difficult for people to seek asylum of abuse of gangs or domestic violence – two categories that seem to be related to crimes between people at nominal value, but in many countries are related to systemic issues of justice and corruption.

The Trump General Prosecutor raised the lawyer’s lawyer on these allegations, issuing a directive that “the applicant must show that the government justifies private actions or demonstrates an inability to protect the victims.”

This can be difficult. Gabriela says reporting threats in a country like Ecuador can be risky. “If you are lucky enough and get the criminal, he will probably go out the next day and try to kill you in revenge.”

While the Biden administration overturns this legal interpretation, the law remains unchanged and those who run away from the cartels feel in the limbs.

Donald Trump also made criminal cartels in the goal of his immigration policy – Determining some as terrorist organizations and The deportation of the ones he claims are related to themIn some cases, without providing evidence.

Mrs. Bush-Joseph says it is too early to say how this will play in the courts, but it can go “in both ways” for those who run away from the violence of the cartel.

This could categorize some of them as victims of “terrorists”. But there are fears that those who were forced to pay for blackmail can also be accused of providing “material support” to these groups – even if it was forced.

Gabriela agrees with Trump that cartel members are “terrorists” and believes that his government should therefore recognize her and others as victims: “I would like the president to provide asylum to those who run away from the violence of these terrorists.”

Mario Russell, CEO of the US -based migration center, believes that the legitimate definitions of what he may claim for asylum must be updated.

He says that for now, most victims ultimately claim the asylum of political reasons, arguing that the cartels have so much social and political force that they act “as if they were the ruling entity.”

“The problem is that these people suffer from violence and persecution, and under persecution we mean horror. There is fear for their lives.”

Gabriela says that in her asylum interview – for which she has not yet received a date – she plans to ask for political asylum. She claims that due to the fact that some police officers and judges in Ecuador were corrupt and had ties with gangs, she did not feel that she would have been protected by the threats that members of the gang made against her in her homeland.

Russell says about 70% of all asylum requests have already been rejected. According to him, what has changed in the Trump administration is the increased retention of migrants who are in the country irregular but seek asylum.

A record 60,000 people are already in detention while expecting to present their cases, data show.

He “changes this equation,” says G -n Russell, because they “can no longer live their lives relatively calmly” while waiting for a decision on their request. The detention, he adds, is “used” as a way to encourage people to refuse and voluntarily accept deportation.

President Trump’s recent executive orders have expanded deportations and US powers to immigration and customs law enforcement (ICE), including stopping entry for many undocumented migrants.

The result, says Mrs. Bush-Joseph, is an environment in which the judges are facing “enormous pressure” to refuse cases that are not considered legal.

Easy political cases can be approved quickly, but the cartel affairs are difficult and are often rejected at the first examination, she says. These candidates must “fight for protection” while facing “the highest risks of deportation,” she adds.

For candidates like Gabriela, this means living in a lock effectively. “We’ve been afraid since President Trump took office,” she says.

She has a job permission until her asylum request is exceptional and works long changes to manual labor at the US factory. “Our life consists of work, home, work, nothing else. I don’t want to expose us to another trauma.”

“It is stressful, that we cannot go out, relax, forget our injuries,” she says, adding that she is afraid to be reported and arrested.

She is worried that the speed limit follows, the fears that any mistake can justify her deportation or reject her request. She responds to all politely, even when she has experienced racism.

Gabriela’s fears are shared by Maria, a lesbian from the Ecuadorian city of Duran, who is ranked as one of the most common in the world. The band also tried to blackmail her by sending her threatening text messages.

She filed a complaint with the Ecuador prosecutor’s office, but a week later, criminals removed her from their motorcycle, warned her to pay and said, “Because you think you are a man, you think that nothing will happen to you.”

Maria sold the bike and fled to the United States, where he now works as a dishwasher in New York.

She told us to the immigration officials about the complaint she filed in Ecuador, but hearing her refuge was not scheduled until 2028, but for Maria, that means that “she can’t enjoy life.”

“You have to hide, you don’t know when an attack can happen,” she explains.

In the US, there is a lag in the United States of about four million asylum cases waiting to be heard, and it takes years for many like Maria.

Louis, a taxi driver who escapes from Duran to the United States after bands tried to blackmail drivers from his cooperative, is another.

“I never thought of emigrating. But so many of my friends were killed,” he tells those who refused to pay.

According to the Spar & Bernstein Immigration Law FirmInstead of helping the cases of people who have fled the gang violence, the definition of the US government for some cartels as terrorist groups may actually lead to some applications inadmissible.

People who have paid smugglers to help them get to the US, or those who have worked in a cartel -controlled city and paid money for protection, can be seen as connections to the groups themselves, from which they are trying to escape – and see their refuge.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services Matthew J. Traager says the American Asylum Act defends “a very limited number of alien persecuted.”

He also accuses the lag of “fraudulent and frivolous” claims made under the Biden Administration and says the new legislation would increase asylum fees to reduce fraud.

“In anticipation of a asylum request, he does not make alien immunized by the application,” he adds.

Meanwhile, Americans seem divided into Donald Trump’s immigration actions. The June Pew Research survey found a 60% disapproval of most asylum applications; 54% resist increased raids. But the support is very divided by party lines.

Most (65%) support the legitimate pathways to remain immigrants to remain homeless immigrants, while 23% worry that they or someone close can be deported.

Gabriela, Maria and Louis insist on those who run away from the cartel violence are misunderstood. They accept why criminals can be deported, but they believe that the law -compliant immigrants who “pay taxes” deserve to remain.

“We want what everyone wants: Work, live in a state of legislation and order and no longer live in terror without knowing whether you or your child will return home.”