MESILLA: Ovidio Lopez Tum sold tortillas in his hometown of Chicaman in Guatemala to support his wife and eight children.

But after being wounded in machete and grenade attacks by extortionists, the 53-year-old Lopez said he decided to flee to the United States.

To bolster his request for asylum, he brought along documentation of his injuries — cuts to his head and fingers from the 2014 machete attack and shrapnel wounds from the 2017 grenade blast.

He also brought along his 12-year-old daughter, Ingrid Maribel, hoping to provide her with an education she could not receive at home.

Lopez and his daughter are among the thousands of migrants from Central America turning up at the US southern border with Mexico.

President Donald Trump has described the situation there as a humanitarian and security crisis and is engaged in a standoff with Congress over his demand for $5 billion to build a border wall.

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