CIUDAD JUAREZ/TIJUANA, Mexico — Epigmenio Centeno had hoped to cross the Mexican border into the United States in the coming months, but he and his wife have shelved their plans for fear of being separated from their two sons under US President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy.

The family’s quandary mirrors life-changing decisions being made all the way from Central America to the Mexico-US border, as migrant families en route to the United States take pause to consider whether losing sight of their children is worse than the violence back home.

A postal courier from El Salvador, Centeno, 40, began his journey north with his family more than a year ago, when he found himself targeted in a brutal territorial battle between Central America’s two most violent gangs, MS-13 and Calle 18.

The family spent months seeking Mexican refugee status, a step taken by more and more Central Americans heading north, to allow them to avoid extortion or deportation while they gather resources to make the next move into the United States.

The four then slowly made their way up to Ciudad Juarez, where they eventually planned to cross into the United States, hand themselves into USborder patrol and ask for asylum.

But after seeing news reports of wailing children in cages, Centeno said he now planned to stay longer in Mexico, taking a low-paying job in the kitchen of a seafood restaurant rather than risk losing his children indefinitely.

“You leave with the intention of going to the United States, where you can improve your life and that of your sons,” he said, flanked by his two boys, Axel, 9, and Steven, 3.

“But as things stand today, it’s difficult, because if you get caught, they take your kids away. I think I’m going to stay here, in Mexico, and establish myself.”

Parents referred by border agents for prosecution are held in federal jails, while their children are moved into border shelter facilities under the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a Department of Health and Human Services agency.

If more migrants like Centeno choose to stay in Mexico, it could present a new immigration challenge for a country already struggling with a dizzying 11-fold rise in asylum applications from 2013 to 2017.

“I can’t risk that they take my girls away from me,” said Reina Esmeralda, who left El Salvador with her two daughters, and was in the southern Mexican town of Ixtepec, not far from the Guatemalan border. “I’d rather find work here than risk going further and have them taken from me.”

In the border town of Tijuana, a dozen migrant families interviewed by Reuters said they would try their luck, despite the risks.

Josue Mendez and his girlfriend, Carmen Palma, said they left San Salvador with their three children after Palma was pressured by a gang member into becoming his sexual partner.

Mendez, who has already been deported from the United States, said he was advised by other migrants in the Mexican city of Hermosillo that he should apply for asylum at the border gate to minimize chances his family would be split under the new policy.

“Our plan was to cross to the other side and wait for border patrol,” he said, in a migrant shelter in Tijuana, as the family prepared to apply. “They explained to us that it doesn’t work like that anymore, and that it was better to sign up and wait here. So that’s what we’ve done.” — Reuters