MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Guillermina Flores had lost her $130-a-month job at a clothing factory and the 29-year-old single mother was struggling to feed her three children. So like tens of thousands of others across Central America, she decided to leave her homeland and seek a better life abroad.

“It’s hard to think that I will leave and they will stay, but it’s even harder when they ask for things I can’t give them,” a teary-eyed Flores said as she stood in line for a visa.