A little before noon on Friday, a white Homeland Security bus stopped outside a public bus terminal in downtown McAllen, its doors opening to disgorge a group of about 20 immigrants from Central and South America.

A father carried a sleeping 9-month-old with curly black hair. A mother steered two toddlers toward the terminal.

“They just left us here,” said Norma Navarro, from El Salvador, as the government bus pulled away from the terminal. “We have nothing.”

But each person on the bus had at least one critical possession: a packet of U.S. government-issued documents ordering them to report to immigration officials within 15 days of landing at their new destination, and to appear in immigration court on a set date.

The paperwork confers no legal status, but many immigrants see it as a pass to a new life. Edilberto Lanza Mejia, a 26-year-old from Honduras holding his infant son, described it like this: “It is a permit to enter the United States.”

via Flow of border immigrants overwhelming agencies – Houston Chronicle.