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- Undocumented women and children file through this Tucson bus station daily
- They're part of a surge of Central Americans crossing into the United States
- They know their next destination -- to reunite with family here -- but little else is certain
- Will their three-month parole be extended? Or will they be deported?
Tucson, Arizona (CNN) -- A mother and daughter lean against the bus station wall, huddled together under a cream-colored blanket. Their eyes droop as exhaustion sets in.
They spent the past few days in detention, and Ana Maria worries about what the future holds.
But even as questions swirl in her head, this 28-year-old mother says one thing is certain: "I do not want to go back to Guatemala."
It's been three years since she last saw her husband, who works in a restaurant in Portland, Oregon. Now he's just three bus rides and 34 hours away.
She's excited to bring her family back together, find a job that pays well and watch her 10-year-old daughter Greisy succeed in school.
"We came here," she says, "to fight."
Ana Maria and Greisy are part of a surge of mothers and children from Central America who authorities say are illegally crossing the border into the United States.
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Dozens of them file through the Tucson bus station daily, carrying papers stamped with the date they could be deported.
Everything is up in the air. The only thing they know for sure is where they're going next.
If they were Mexican, it's likely officials would have swiftly deported them back across the border. And if the federal government had more space to hold undocumented families, they could still be in detention.
Instead, officials have been releasing these mothers and children on parole, dropping them off at bus stations like this one and giving them a month to report to immigration offices around the country.
It's a dramatic scene playing out across Arizona and Texas as the number of people from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador crossing the border grows.
Daniel's journey: How thousands of children are creating a crisis in America
At the Tucson station, it started in September with a few people trickling in each day. Now the numbers have grown so much that volunteers come here daily, too, spending hours handing out donated clothes, food and supplies for the journey ahead.
America's newest undocumented immigrants ask them a chorus of desperate questions.
Watch 'Documented' Explore the journey out of the shadows led by undocumented immigrant and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas. CNN Films' "