This immigrant left the US for Canada. Something stood out to her at the border | CNN

Gemima Cadet took one last look around her room in Lake Worth, Florida. She’d already given away paintings that she’d poured her heart into, and books she loved to read. But even in a vacant room with empty hangers dangling in the closet, there was still one thing left that she loved and wanted to remember: the light. Living in Florida for more than half her life, the 32-year-old had come to know it well. The way the sun streamed through her window gave her strength on many a difficult day. Cadet and her mom were leaving their home and heading north toward an uncertain future. It was a journey many Haitians like Cadet have made. During the first Trump administration, a road from upstate New York to Montreal became a well-known crossing point. But since then, the rules have changed significantly, and it’s much harder to make asylum claims at Canada’s border. Still, some are trying — including Haitians whose deportation protections in the US have been revoked. “Some people … knowing fully well all the risks and all the troubles, they’re like, ‘I will give it a shot, and I will try, because I have nothing else, and I cannot go back to Haiti,’” says Fedora Mathieu