Alejandra Perez (right), her former partner Jader Castro (left) and her children Sharlott Barrios (centre), 9, and Juan Sebastian Castro, 5, who are all Colombian asylum seekers, leave after applying for housing at a city government office in downtown Chicago, Illinois, U.S., October 26, 2023. Due to a shortage of shelter beds, Perez and her children ended up sleeping in a tent outside a Chicago police station and then moved to a family shelter, where about a hundred families slept on cots on one floor of the building, Perez said. “We are in a holding pattern,” she said as she waited for her work permit. REUTERS/Carlos Barria