Migrants are showing up at the U.S. Southern border in historic numbers. Here’s why

"Katastrofa. Katastrofa."

A man named Piotr repeats this like a mantra. On a warm fall evening in Tijuana, he's the first in a long line to request asylum in the U.S.

"Katastrofa," he says again, on the verge of tears. It's the Russian word for catastrophe. Piotr, a middle-aged man who requested that his last name be withheld to protect relatives back home, left Moscow more than six months ago with his immediate family — his wife and two teenage sons.

He says the war with Ukraine . . .