Every day, Nidia Montenegro spends hours checking her cellphone, hoping to receive a long-awaited appointment with US border officials to seek asylum in the United States.

The 52-year-old Venezuelan migrant in Mexico says she fears her appointment will not come before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20, when he has vowed to scrap a slew of programmes that have allowed migrants to enter the US legally — including the government app that Montenegro is using to try and get her appointment.

That could leave thousands of migrants like Montenegro in limbo and facing the choice of trying to cross into the US illegally, staying in Mexico, or returning home.

Given those options, Montenegro says she would return home, more fearful of the violence she has encountered while travelling through Mexico than the hardship she left behind in Venezuela.

"I am traumatised. If I don't get the appointment, I will go back," she said, disheartened.

"There is always the threat of cartels that kidnap us," added the woman, who says despite thinking about returning home she does not have the money to do so.

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