CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO – On a recent windy afternoon, motorists at this city border stopped at a red light where a 4-year-old boy sat on his father’s shoulders, who held a cardboard sign that read: “Hello Mexican friend, we are a Venezuelan family. It could help us in something to feed the children. God bless you and whatever your center desires. I’m looking for a job.
A driver of a white four-door Honda gave 29-year-old Abel Oviedo 20 pesos, or about $1. “That’s it,” he said.
“Thank you, may God multiply it,” Oviedo replied.
After 3 hours, he had collected two hundred pesos, or about $11.
“Enough to buy dinner for the kids later in the day,” Oviedo said. “That’s the point, to be enough for them. “
“The bad thing about this is the humiliation we have to endure,” said his wife, Katiuska Marquez, 23, who sat on the sidewalk as their 2-year-old son Matias slept in a stroller despite the dust blowing. and the warmth that radiates from the street.
Oviedo and Marquez left Venezuela five years ago when its economy collapsed and moved to neighboring Colombia, where they met, married and lived for the next 3 years. When the pandemic hit, the circle of relatives left Colombia for Peru to look for work. They arrived in Juarez in March and spent a month and a half relying on the generosity of Mexicans to help feed their families. Son.
They joined thousands of other immigrants who piled up in Mexican border cities ahead of the impending completion of Title 42, an emergency suitability order invoked by the Trump administration at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Since then, immigration officials have used it 2. 7 million times to temporarily deport U. S. migrants. They are not allowed to apply for asylum.
The Biden administration plans to finish Title 42 on May 11, and political leaders and immigrant rights advocates in El Paso and other cities on the southwest border expect asylum seekers stranded in Mexican border cities to enter the United States.
After six harrowing weeks in Juarez — they were arrested in March for begging and sent to a detention center that was razed by a chimney that killed Oviedo’s half-brother, Orlando Maldonado, 26, and 39 other migrants — Oviedo and Marquez couldn’t wait. They crossed the Rio Grande in late April and turned themselves in to Border Patrol agents, hoping to be among the lucky ones who would not have been sent back to Mexico under Title 42.
The gamble paid off: They were cared for and released at an El Paso church that serves as a transitional shelter. But with no money, clothing or food, they are now stranded on the U. S. side of the border, hoping to find a way to Chicago where a friend of a friend can temporarily.
“On the one hand, we feel a little calmer because after all the sacrifices, we are here [in the United States],” Marquez said on a recent afternoon outside the church. “But on the other hand, I feel helpless because we are still in the same economic situation. “
Countless migrants are still waiting to make the same crossing and hope that the completion of Title 42 will allow them to seek asylum in the United States. In preparation for a post-Title 42 border, the Biden administration has implemented a number of policy changes that will create pathways for other people to legally enter the U. S. In an effort to increase the number of illegal crossings at the southern border, immigration officials made a record 2. 3 million apprehensions last fiscal year. which ended in September.
Last week, management also announced plans to open processing centers in Colombia and Guatemala to allow eligible immigrants to legally enter the United States, Canada or Spain without traveling to the U. S. -Mexico border. He also unveiled a new circle of family reunification program for others from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia: Other people from those countries will get background checks from immigration officials on a case-by-case basis if they are already eligible to reunite with their families in the United States.
To deter migrants from crossing the border seeking asylum, the government has suggested since January that they use CBP One, a mobile phone app that allows others to apply for asylum from their home country, or Mexico, and schedule an appointment with immigration officials at a U. S. port of entry. UU. La app offers 740 appointments per day at the nearly 2,000-mile southern border.
If immigrants don’t use one of those options, management has announced it will speed up deportations of others at the border; They may face a five-year ban from entering the country and may no longer be eligible for asylum in the future. As part of a deal with Mexico announced earlier this week, U. S. immigration officials have not been able to do so. The U. S. will deport others from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to Mexico if they cross the border illegally.
On Tuesday, the administration announced plans to send 1,500 U. S. troops to the border to finish off immigration officials on the floor at the end of Title 42.
Meanwhile, advocates who work with immigrants want the government to use federal resources to take in other people rather than deter them.
“If our federal government had actually committed to addressing this humanitarian crisis with dignity, instead of expanding the military’s corps presence at our southern border, it would have sent more lawyers, health care providers, and coordinated emergency response groups to welcome refugees to our border. “said Fernando Garcia, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights, an El Paso-based immigrant rights organization.
Oviedo and Marquez met after moving to Colombia in 2018.
Marquez, who had just given birth to her first child, David, said she was following David’s biological father. He said he kidnapped and murdered there in early 2020; He discovered that he was promoting drugs.
Later that year, he met Oviedo, who was running to manage a fleet of taxis. They fell in love and Oviedo began helping Marquez buy food and diapers and pay the bills. Almost a year later, Marquez gave birth to Matias.
When Oviedo’s works began to run out, they moved to Peru. The couple first made money by collecting and selling recyclables. Oviedo discovered transient work on the structure before finding full-time works as a coal miner.
Late last year, the couple immigrated to the northern United States with two of Marquez’s cousins, their husbands and children, and Maldonado, whose wife and son remained in Panama until her husband can raise enough money to send them.
“The purpose of providing young people with quality of life and educational opportunities,” Oviedo said. “To give them the kind of life we couldn’t when we were younger. “
They returned to Colombia to begin the journey, joining many other migrants crossing the treacherous Darien Gap, a fatal, roadless stretch of jungle, mountains and rivers that straddle Colombia and Panama. Matías had his birthday in the jungle. familiares 18 days to get ahead.
Oviedo and Marquez said they witnessed horrific things during the hike: parents woke up and noticed their children had been fatally bitten by snakes, and the young men walked alone after their parents were swept away by death while crossing a fast-flowing river.
Marquez, who still breastfeeds Matias, said she thought she wouldn’t make it because she was so tired of walking and holding her child.
“I sat and cried, I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said.
“We were afraid, but by the grace of God it was given to us,” Oviedo said.
TRUSTED SUPPORT NEWS.
They stopped for two months in Costa Rica, where they cleaned the entrances of people’s homes and dug through trash cans to find recyclable parts to sell. They then continued north by bus or hitchhiking through Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. After crossing Mexico, they joined a caravan. of migrants who headed to Mexico City and then boarded 4 other freight trains that took them to Juarez.
The 8 arrived in Juarez in mid-March and moved into a hotel room near downtown before some moved into a one-bedroom space that a Mexican couple let them live in.
Oviedo and Marquez said they continually tried to apply for asylum using CBP One, the cellphone app. But the app crashed or there were no appointments available. An appointment.
In early March, many immigrants attempted to enter the United States by rushing to a port of entry. Immigration officials, some with equipment, blocked and turned away the migrants and temporarily closed the front to the port.
In response, Juarez Mayor Cruz Perez Cuellar ordered a no-easy crackdown on migrants on the city’s streets.
“We ran out of patience,” he said at a March 14 news conference.
Two weeks later, Maldonado, Oviedo and their family were arrested without easy money from motorists and taken to a detention center. The Mexican government released Oviedo, Márquez and their children and told them they could only stay in Juárez for 30 days.
Maldonado, along with other migrant men who were with their families when they were arrested, have been released.
Later that night, a chimney burst at the detention center. The Mexican president said one or more immigrants placed a fireplace on a bed to protest deportation to their home countries. The Los Angeles Times reported that the protest began because the men were being held in a crowded mobile without water.
Maldonado among the 40 migrants who died and 28 others were injured. Security camera footage showed security guards fleeing the medium without opening the mobile doors to let the migrants escape the fire. The incident is still under investigation; The head of Mexico’s immigration workplace has been charged in connection with the fire.
The next day, Oviedo and Márquez joined dozens of other migrants to protest outside the detention center, not easy answers from the government about why they didn’t rescue the victims.
“I was broken, I fell to the floor crying,” Oviedo said. I didn’t need to settle for that. I hope to see [Maldonado] again. “
After 3 weeks of living in the cramped space of a room where the backyard smelled of sewage, Márquez’s cousin, Julianny López, told the circle of relatives that she was headed to the border with her husband and one-year-old son. anus. the luck of her crossing the river.
Marquez told him it wasn’t the threat of deportation.
“But look at us now, do you think it’s a life to live?” replied Lopez as the 3 toddlers ran around the room, yelling at each other jokingly.
Lopez and his circle of relatives then turned themselves in to U. S. agents and were eventually released and taken to a shelter in Las Cruces, N. M. From there they flew to Atlanta, where Lopez’s aunt lives. They will have to appear before the immigration government on the spot. to open an asylum file.
Also Oviedo and Márquez to cross the border.
Four days later, they crossed the shallow Rio Grande and waited for the Border Patrol to apprehend them. At a rehabilitation center, Márquez was placed in a room with her children and other migrant women and their children. Oviedo was placed in another room with other migrant men.
They may only see others through windows, but not communicate with others. They were allowed to shower and officials gave them burritos and apples.
Agents released them on May 1 and dropped them off at the El Paso church, where they can only stay one night. They then joined 1,000 other migrants outdoors at a downtown Catholic church that opens its shelter in the afternoon.
“I feel like a kid in a candy store, that’s how satisfied I am,” Oviedo said.
They have until July 6 to appear before a U. S. immigration service. They are looking to raise enough money to buy bus or plane tickets to Chicago. Oviedo asked church volunteers if they knew of a position he was hiring or if they could simply give it to him. cash to leave El Paso.
They talked about eventually moving farther north to Canada, which they say is a more welcoming country for asylum seekers. They hope to hire them a lawyer with their asylum application.
“I know he’s going to charge me, but I’m a hard worker,” Oviedo said.
We look forward to welcoming you September 21-23 to the 2023 Texas Tribune Festival, our multi-day birthday party of big, ambitious concepts about politics, public policy, and the news of the day, all just steps from the Texas Capitol. . When tickets go on sale in May, Tribune members will save big. Make a donation to enroll or renew today.
This article was originally published in The Texas Tribune, a nonpartisan, member-backed newsroom that informs and engages Texans about politics and state policies. Learn more about texastribune. org.
by Uriel Garcia, Louisiana Illuminator May 7, 2023
CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO – On a recent windy afternoon, motorists at this city border stopped at a red light where a 4-year-old boy sat on his father’s shoulders, who held a cardboard sign that read: “Hello Mexican friend, we are a Venezuelan family. It could help us in something to feed the children. God bless you and whatever your center desires. I’m looking for a job.
A driver of a white four-door Honda gave 29-year-old Abel Oviedo 20 pesos, or about $1. “That’s it,” he said.
“Thank you, may God multiply it,” Oviedo replied.
After 3 hours, he had collected two hundred pesos, or about $11.
“Enough to buy dinner for the kids later in the day,” Oviedo said. “That’s the point, to be enough for them. “
“The bad thing about this is the humiliation we have to endure,” said his wife, Katiuska Marquez, 23, who sat on the sidewalk as their 2-year-old son Matias slept in a stroller despite the dust blowing. and the warmth that radiates from the street.
Oviedo and Marquez left Venezuela five years ago when its economy collapsed and moved to neighboring Colombia, where they met, married and lived for the next 3 years. When the pandemic hit, the circle of relatives left Colombia for Peru to look for work. They arrived in Juarez in March and spent a month and a half relying on the generosity of Mexicans to help feed their son.
They joined thousands of other immigrants who piled up in Mexican border cities ahead of the impending completion of Title 42, an emergency suitability order invoked by the Trump administration at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Since then, immigration officials have used it 2. 7 million times to temporarily deport U. S. migrants. They are not allowed to apply for asylum.
The Biden administration plans to finish Title 42 on May 11, and political leaders and immigrant rights advocates in El Paso and other cities on the southwest border expect asylum seekers stranded in Mexican border cities to enter the United States.
Abel Oviedo carries his 4-year-old son David as he holds a traffic light calling for motorists in Ciudad Juarez at a busy intersection on the outskirts of the city. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune
Oviedo and his circle of family take a break to ask others to replace them on a dusty, windy day in Ciudad Juarez. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune
After six harrowing weeks in Juarez — they were arrested in March for begging and sent to a detention center that was razed by a chimney that killed Oviedo’s half-brother, Orlando Maldonado, 26, and 39 other migrants — Oviedo and Marquez couldn’t wait. They crossed the Rio Grande in late April and turned themselves in to Border Patrol agents, hoping to be among the lucky ones who would not have been sent back to Mexico under Title 42.
The gamble paid off: They were cared for and released at an El Paso church that serves as a transitional shelter. But with no money, clothing or food, they are now stranded on the U. S. side of the border, hoping to find a way to Chicago where a friend of a friend can temporarily.
“On the one hand, we feel a little calmer because after all the sacrifices, we are here [in the United States],” Marquez said on a recent afternoon outside the church. “But on the other hand, I feel helpless because we are still in the same economic situation. “
Countless migrants are still waiting to make the same crossing and hope that the completion of Title 42 will allow them to seek asylum in the United States. In preparation for a post-Title 42 border, the Biden administration has implemented a number of policy changes that will create pathways for other people to legally enter the U. S. In an effort to increase the number of illegal crossings at the southern border, immigration officials made a record 2. 3 million apprehensions last fiscal year. which ended in September.
Last week, management also announced plans to open processing centers in Colombia and Guatemala to allow eligible immigrants to legally enter the United States, Canada or Spain without traveling to the U. S. -Mexico border. He also unveiled a new family circle reunification program for others from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia: Other people from those countries will get background checks from immigration officials on a case-by-case basis if they are already eligible to reunite with their families in the United States.
To deter migrants from crossing the border seeking asylum, the government has suggested since January that they use CBP One, a mobile phone app that allows others to apply for asylum from their home country, or Mexico, and schedule an appointment with immigration officials at a U. S. port of entry. UU. La app offers 740 appointments per day at the nearly 2,000-mile southern border.
If immigrants don’t use one of those options, management has announced it will speed up deportations of others at the border; They may face a five-year ban from entering the country and may no longer be eligible for asylum in the future. As part of a deal with Mexico announced earlier this week, U. S. immigration officials have not been able to do so. The U. S. will deport others from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to Mexico if they cross the border illegally.
On Tuesday, the administration announced plans to send 1,500 U. S. troops to the border to finish off immigration officials on the floor at the end of Title 42.
Migrants crowd around a pickup truck after a local couple stopped to donate outside El Paso’s Sacred Heart Church on Jan. 9. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune
A migrant woman rides a donated scooter outside Sacred Heart Church in El Paso on Jan. 6. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune
Meanwhile, advocates who work with immigrants want the government to use federal resources to take in other people rather than deter them.
“If our federal government had actually committed to addressing this humanitarian crisis with dignity, instead of expanding the military’s corps presence at our southern border, it would have sent more lawyers, health care providers, and coordinated emergency response groups to welcome refugees to our border. “said Fernando Garcia, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights, an El Paso-based immigrant rights organization.
Oviedo and Marquez met after moving to Colombia in 2018.
Marquez, who had just given birth to her first child, David, said she was following David’s biological father. He said he kidnapped and murdered there in early 2020; He discovered that he was promoting drugs.
Later that year, he met Oviedo, who was running to manage a fleet of taxis. They fell in love and Oviedo began helping Marquez buy food and diapers and pay the bills. Almost a year later, Marquez gave birth to Matias.
When Oviedo’s works began to run out, they moved to Peru. The couple first made money by collecting and selling recyclables. Oviedo discovered transient work on the structure before finding full-time works as a coal miner.
Late last year, the couple immigrated to the northern United States with two of Marquez’s cousins, their husbands and children, and Maldonado, whose wife and son remained in Panama until her husband can raise enough money to send them.
“The purpose of providing young people with quality of life and educational opportunities,” Oviedo said. “To give them the kind of life we couldn’t when we were younger. “
Abel Oviedo and his sons, David, 4, left, and Matias, 2, eat rice at the space where the circle of relatives stayed in Ciudad Juarez. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune
Katiuska Marquez tries to replace the diaper of her 2-year-old son, Matias, as he playfully slides out of bed in the Ciudad Juarez space. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune
They returned to Colombia to begin the journey, joining many other migrants crossing the treacherous Darien Gap, a fatal, roadless stretch of jungle, mountains and rivers that straddle Colombia and Panama. Matías had his birthday in the jungle. familiares 18 days to get ahead.
Oviedo and Marquez said they witnessed horrific things during the hike: parents woke up and noticed their children had been fatally bitten by snakes, and the young men walked alone after their parents were swept away by death while crossing a fast-flowing river.
Marquez, who still breastfeeds Matias, said she thought she wouldn’t make it because she was so tired of walking and holding her child.
“I sat and cried, I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said.
“We were afraid, but by the grace of God it was given to us,” Oviedo said.
TRUSTED SUPPORT NEWS.
They stopped for two months in Costa Rica, where they cleaned the entrances of people’s homes and dug through trash cans to find recyclable parts to sell. They then continued north by bus or hitchhiking through Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. After crossing Mexico, they joined a caravan. of migrants who headed to Mexico City and then boarded 4 other freight trains that took them to Juarez.
The 8 arrived in Juarez in mid-March and moved into a hotel room near downtown before some moved into a one-bedroom space that a Mexican couple let them live in.
Oviedo and Marquez said they continually tried to apply for asylum using CBP One, the cellphone app. But the app crashed or there were no appointments available. An appointment.
In early March, many immigrants attempted to enter the United States by rushing to a port of entry. Immigration officials, some with equipment, blocked and turned away the migrants and temporarily closed the front to the port.
In response, Juarez Mayor Cruz Perez Cuellar ordered a no-easy crackdown on migrants on the city’s streets.
“We ran out of patience,” he said at a March 14 news conference.
Two weeks later, Maldonado, Oviedo and their family were arrested without easy money from motorists and taken to a detention center. The Mexican government released Oviedo, Márquez and their children and told them they could only stay in Juárez for 30 days.
Maldonado, along with other migrant men who were with their families when they were arrested, have been released.
Later that night, a chimney burst at the detention center. The Mexican president said one or more immigrants placed a fireplace on a bed to protest deportation to their home countries. The Los Angeles Times reported that the protest began because the men were being held in a crowded mobile without water.
Abel Oviedo cries as he waits for news of his half-brother, Orlando Maldonado, who died in the middle of the night in a chimney at a migrant center in Juarez last March. Maldonado was among the 40 migrants who perished in the chimney. Oviedo and his circle of relatives had been detained there the day before, but were released. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune
Migrants lay flowers at a makeshift memorial on March 28 near the front of the Juarez migrant center, where a chimney killed 40 migrants. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune
Maldonado among the 40 migrants who died and 28 others were injured. Security camera footage showed security guards fleeing the medium without opening the mobile doors to let the migrants escape the fire. The incident is still under investigation; The head of Mexico’s immigration workplace has been charged in connection with the fire.
The next day, Oviedo and Márquez joined dozens of other migrants to protest outside the detention center, not easy answers from the government about why they didn’t rescue the victims.
“I was broken, I fell to the floor crying,” Oviedo said. I didn’t need to settle for that. I hope to see [Maldonado] again. “
After 3 weeks of living in the cramped space of a room where the backyard smelled of sewage, Marquez’s cousin, Julianny Lopez, told the circle of relatives she was heading to the border with her husband and one-year-old son. their luck crossing the river.
Marquez told him it wasn’t the threat of deportation.
“But look at us now, do you think it’s a life to live?” replied Lopez as the 3 toddlers ran around the room, yelling at each other jokingly.
Lopez and his circle of relatives then turned themselves in to U. S. agents and were eventually released and taken to a shelter in Las Cruces, N. M. From there they flew to Atlanta, where Lopez’s aunt lives. They will have to appear before the immigration government on the spot. to open an asylum file.
Also Oviedo and Márquez to cross the border.
Four days later, they crossed the shallow Rio Grande and waited for the Border Patrol to apprehend them. At a rehabilitation center, Márquez was placed in a room with her children and other migrant women and their children. Oviedo was placed in another room with other migrant men.
They may only see others through windows, but not communicate with others. They were allowed to shower and officials gave them burritos and apples.
Oviedo, Marquez and their children wait to receive dinner at an El Paso immigrant center on May 2. The couple prepares to cross the border instead of waiting until other family members controlled crossing and were allowed to remain in the U. S. U. S. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for the Texas Tribune
Oviedo and Matias walk down the hallway of a migrant center in El Paso on May 2 after the circle of relatives received a threat and crossed the Rio Grande and then surrendered to Border Patrol agents. They were released soon after. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune
Agents released them on May 1 and dropped them off at the El Paso church, where they can only stay one night. They then joined 1,000 other migrants outdoors at a downtown Catholic church that opens its shelter in the afternoon.
“I feel like a kid in a candy store, that’s how satisfied I am,” Oviedo said.
They have until July 6 to appear before a U. S. immigration service. They are looking to raise enough money to buy bus or plane tickets to Chicago. Oviedo asked church volunteers if they knew of a position he was hiring or if they could simply give it to him. cash to leave El Paso.
They talked about eventually moving farther north to Canada, which they say is a more welcoming country for asylum seekers. They hope to hire them a lawyer with their asylum application.
“I know he’s going to charge me, but I’m a hard worker,” Oviedo said.
We look forward to welcoming you September 21-23 to the 2023 Texas Tribune Festival, our multi-day birthday party of big, ambitious concepts about politics, public policy, and the news of the day, all just steps from the Texas Capitol. . When tickets go on sale in May, Tribune members will save big. Make a donation to enroll or renew today.
This article was originally published in The Texas Tribune, a nonpartisan, member-backed newsroom that informs and engages Texans about politics and state policies. Learn more about texastribune. org.
Louisiana Illuminator is owned by States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported through grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains its editorial independence. Contact editor Greg LaRose if you have any questions: info@lailluminator. com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and Twitter.
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