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WASHINGTON — Lever Alejos arrived in the nation’s capital last week on a bus with dozens of fellow Venezuelans who had traveled more than 1,300 miles from their damaged country to the United States. and waded the water to their chins across the Rio Grande to Texas, some carrying babies.
After being cared for by U. S. border authorities. In the U. S. , the migrants were released in South Texas, free to move anywhere they sought. Alejos, 28, said he presented two options: a $50 bus ride to San Antonio or a loose bus ride to Washington, D. C. , paid through the state of Texas. ” I looked for San Antonio, but I had no money,” said Alejos, who has no circle of relatives in the United States. “They hit me on the bus to Washington. “
A few days later, he arrived in the country’s capital, in the middle of a bus full of tired immigrants. He spent the first night in the plaza in front of Union Station, but found a bed at Central Union Mission, where he hopes to stay until he can. Apply for asylum, get a work permit, and find a job, a process that can take only months.
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A political tactic by the governors of Texas and Arizona to unload the disruptions caused by record levels of migration at the border is beginning to affect Washington, as large numbers of immigrants arriving each week on the governors’ loose buses test the capital’s ability to provide emergency food and housing.
With no cash and a circle of relatives to take them in, migrants are an overwhelming majority of nonprofit immigrants and other volunteer groups, many of whom end up in homeless shelters or park benches. Five buses arrived recently, running over young men and families with nowhere to pass on the streets near the Capitol.
Since April, Texas has taken more than 6200 migrants to the nation’s capital, Arizona, and sent another 1,000 since May. The influx prompted Muriel E. Bowser, the Democratic mayor of Washington, to ask the Defense Department to send the National Guard. it has angered organizations that have helped migrants without any from the city.
A large majority of recent bus passengers are Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-ridden country, and many have also arrived in New York, via Washington. Eric Adams, New York’s mayor, announced emergency measures Monday to allow the city to temporarily build more housing. The mayor, also a Democrat, said the city had taken in 4,000 asylum seekers since May, prompting a 10 percent increase in the homeless population, with about a hundred new arrivals each day.
Venezuelans turn to the offices of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York for help. “Their biggest fear has been finding a place to stay, food for their children,” said Maryann Tharappel, who heads the organization’s immigrant and refugee services.
“New York’s infrastructure is built for that,” he said. “We are at the border.
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona, Republicans, blame President Joe Biden for the record number of migrants crossing the southern border.
Cities along the border in Texas and Arizona have at times been hit by the construction of unauthorized border crossings that culminated under the Biden administration, which sought to get to the bottom of some of the harsh border restrictions imposed by former President Donald Trump.
While thousands of migrants have been temporarily deported under a pandemic-related suitability order known as Title 42, thousands more are allowed to enter the country to apply for asylum because they will be returned to Mexico or their own country.
Officials in the state of Texas and Arizona have taken in many immigrants after they were released from U. S. Border Patrol guard. The U. S. Government provides them with bus rides to Washington in a bid to force the federal government to take up the duty of what they say is a damaged immigration system. .
Once they reach their destination, migrants can stay in the country for months or even years to protect their deportation in court; they are allowed to paint while applying for asylum.
The scenario has worsened in recent weeks with the arrival of so many Venezuelans, who cannot be deported under Title 42 because Mexico will not settle for them and their own government has not reached an agreement with the United States to settle for deportation flights. And unlike most migrants from Mexico and Central America who have family and friends in the United States, Venezuelans arrive with no money and nowhere to go.
The Border Patrol found 110,467 Venezuelans along the southern border in the first nine months of this exercise, up from 47,408 in the entire 2021 fiscal year. In general, unauthorized crossings have decreased with the arrival of summer temperatures.
The scenario has led to back-and-forth with Democratic East Coast mayors in recent weeks. In Monday’s most recent salvo, Abbott sent a letter to Mayors Adams and Bowser, inviting them to the “terrible scenario” on the border with Mexico. .
“Their recent interest in this historic and avoidable crisis is a welcome progression, especially since the president and his management have shown no regret for their moves or preference for the stage itself,” Abbott wrote.
Fabien Levy, press secretary to the Mayor of New York, made this statement: “Instead of an opportunity to take photographs at the border, we hope that Governor Abbott will focus his power and resources on offering and resources to asylum seekers in Texas, as they have been. He works hard in New York.
The texas governor and mayors agree on one thing: All 3 call on the fed to act.
“The immigration crisis facing our city and our country due to the ruthless political game of the governors of Texas and Arizona will need to be addressed at the federal level,” Bowser wrote in a letter to White House officials.
Requesting a D. C. Armory processing center and the activation of the National Guard, he said the number of migrants had reached a “tipping point” that had “surpassed” the district’s ability to handle them.
Bowser’s request was rebuked by immigrant advocates who said he had ignored repeated requests for housing space, a respite and immediate coronavirus testing for migrants, among others.
“The last thing we have is a militarized reaction to a humanitarian crisis,” said Andrea Scherff, one of the lead organizers of the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, a coalition of grassroots groups.
Noting that Washington is a sanctuary city for immigrants, he said, “We meet everyone’s housing needs.
Biden’s management said it had been in contact with Bowser, but Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said the governors were immigrants as a “political tool” for their own ends.
“There is a procedure for managing migrants at the border. It’s not that,” he said, adding that the administration continues to deport some immigrants, detain others and release those who may be taken into the care of locals. non-profit organizations “pending treatment”.
Fifteen network and religion teams in Washington opened their doors to migrants, providing them with meals, showers and hygiene items during the day. many volunteers have contracted COVID-19, Scherff said.
“Mayors have played into the hands of Republican governors,” said Adam Isacson, a Latin American researcher in Washington who studies the border.
“Of course, they make noise about the arrival of immigrants because those who need refuge are weighing on society in their cities,” he said. immigration, adding measures such as the construction of border walls and the elimination of asylum.
Recently, one night, migrants getting off 3 buses were greeted by volunteers and by SAMU First Response, a foreign aid organization that won an investment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and began operating in Washington in late June.
They won water bars, pizza and granola, and some won tickets to continue the journey. At 1 a. la street. This created an image: homeless Americans on one side of the square; on the other, migrants with their meager belongings scattered on the ground, all unable to see the Capitol.
Tatiana Laborde, director general of the UAS, said her organization had enough budget to buy tickets to other destinations for about a third of the migrants it provided facilities to. she said.
Ten councilmembers sent a letter to the mayor of Washington urging him not only to seek federal assistance, but also to free up the contingency budget and recruit members to help migrants, as well as provide COVID testing, isolation hotels, and other resources.
“This is a crisis created by Republican leaders in other states, but unfortunately, it’s up to the mayor to allocate resources locally,” said Brianne Nadeau, the councilwoman who prepared the letter.
Many Venezuelans said they came to the United States because they had the idea that the country’s doors were open.
“On TikTok, we saw that other people entered the United States easily,” said Yennifer Ortiz, who made the video with her partner, Luis Moreno, and their 5-year-old daughter, Sofia.
His adventure to the United States lasted forty-five days, adding up to nine days through the dangerous jungle on the Colombia-Panama border known as the Darien Gap, Moreno said.
When they arrived in Texas, they had no cash and were content to board a loose bus to Washington. “They told us there would be other people here to catch us,” Ortiz said.
When his bus arrived around 8 a. m. In one day, volunteers directed them to a respite halfway through a church, where they bathed and won a change of clothes. They spent their first night on the park benches and have been bouncing around among Americans ever since. ‘ houses, they said.
Juan Rojas, 22, said that when he and a friend arrived in Washington, they were sent to a shelter in the town where most Americans live, where they didn’t feel welcome.
“The boys were yelling at us and we couldn’t feel a word,” he said. “It’s transparent that they didn’t need us there. ” The couple left after two nights and spent a week sleeping on the street, he said.
In recent days, Rojas said, they have been housed through a “woman who is helping migrants” some nights and in hotels organized through volunteers on other nights. He said he had still defected from the United States after his odyssey.
But he’s not optimistic. ” In Texas they told us that here we would have help for housing, paintings and everything we needed,” he said. “It’s all a lie. “
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