Alejandra Perez (left), a Colombian asylum seeker, leaves the church where she received donated clothes for herself and her children in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., November 28, 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