PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Hill, Elena TI - “I Need to Keep Me and My Mother Safe”: The Asylum Crisis at the US-Mexico Border AID - 10.1370/afm.2698 DP - 2021 Sep 01 TA - The Annals of Family Medicine PG - 463--465 VI - 19 IP - 5 4099 - http://www.annfammed.org/content/19/5/463.short 4100 - http://www.annfammed.org/content/19/5/463.full SO - Ann Fam Med2021 Sep 01; 19 AB - In Tijuana, Mexico, 16-year-old Joaquin, a refugee from El Salvador where LGBTQ people are persecuted, was hoping for asylum in the United States based on sexual orientation. But as a volunteer physician in Tijuana, I had learned hard lessons about the asylum process—or lack thereof—at the US-Mexico border. In 2020, there was a list of over 15,000 asylum seekers at the border in Tijuana seeking a chance at a new life in the United States, but few requests were granted. The lack of transparency about the realities of this system left thousands of families stranded in Mexico without basic rights such as health care. Health care professionals should be aware of the ongoing asylum crisis and be an active faction in the fight for its reform.