Devastated and frustrated, hundreds of Venezuelans that languish on the border of Mexico mourned the decision of the Supreme Court of States Joined on Monday to maintain immigration restrictions in the south of the North American country.
“It is a great sadness to know that we cannot pass,” said Edward Acevedo, 41, at the foot of the wall that separates Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez from the United States. The Paso.
“We have been through the jungle, hungry and cold. Many calamities,” added the man who sleeps with dozens of compatriots in a makeshift shelter in a shepherd’s house in Juárez.
“We are human beings! We are flesh and blood! How do we explain that to judges and governors?” Juan Delgado, 38, burst in next to her, wearing only a sweater that poorly protects him from the merciless cold of almost 0ºC.
The crisis in the Caribbean nation ruled by Nicolás Maduro has led millions of Venezuelans to migrate. In recent months, thousands have faced the Darién jungle and crossed various Central American countries in precarious conditions to knock on the doors of States Joined seeking asylum.
With the flow on the rise, Washington launched a humanitarian program in October with 24,000 places offered to Venezuelans who applied from their country. In parallel, and in an attempt to cut the migratory chain, USA it closed their access through its southern border under the so-called “Title 42”, a sanitary measure in force since 2020 within the framework of the covid pandemic.
Thousands, halfway, did not give up. Many repeat that returning is not an alternative.
“The salary in Venezuela It’s 20 dollars, and with that I buy two chickens, how can you live like this? It’s misery,” explains Acevedo, who left his wife and daughter in his country.
“Like Criminals”
Title 42, which closes ports of entry to asylum seekers, disrupted the southern border of the United States.
With the pandemic subsiding, migratory flows have been restored, and those seeking asylum are taking advantage of the gaps they make in the wall that stretches for more than 3,000 km throughout California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
Most are turned over to border authorities. Some are allowed to stay to defend their asylum claim, but others are sent to their countries or to Mexico due to the measure that the Joe Biden administration is trying to defuse.
A judicial decision had ordered the expiration of Title 42 as of December 21, but this Monday the Supreme Court temporarily upheld it, accepting a request from Republican governors opposed to immigration.
The date was eagerly awaited by thousands of Venezuelans in Mexico.
“It was the illusion of getting ahead of all the Venezuelans who are here,” said Ángel Colmenares, who burst into tears upon learning of the ruling.
“Why don’t they give us a chance?” Juan Delgado insisted. “They treat us like criminals and we just want to work.”
“We are the forgotten”
The conditions in which Venezuelans subsist in Mexico serve as a reference for the level of despair. They warm themselves in bonfires in garbage dumps, they wash where and how they can, and many sleep in the streets.
Between lines of migrants from various countries that stretch out at the gates of the United States and on the edge of the cold waters of the Rio Grande, Venezuelans search for themselves selling blankets, gloves and pieces of pizza.
They cross the river with children on their shoulders and light bonfires in exchange for tips that add up to more than a month’s work in their country per day.
But after the night tightens, the majority is collected. “The people from the cartels stop us,” says a Venezuelan who says he has thus lost track of his companions from the shelter. “Some never come back.”
“And when it’s not the cartels, it’s the migra, those are worse,” said the same man, who did not give his name for fear of reprisals.
“One denounces and nothing, we are the forgotten ones, nobody wants us. We get in the way where we go.”
This desperation, some say, is what motivates them to trespass illegally in tiny gaps along America’s 30-foot-high fence.
“They are not going to let us in and I can’t wait any longer,” said a Venezuelan who crossed a small hole in which his body barely fit. “My wife is being killed by a tumor, I need money for the medicines,” said the young man who crossed himself as soon as he set foot on American soil.
Four other Venezuelans entered through the same holes within ten minutes on Monday. They immediately ran to El Paso.
But others insist on wanting to cross legally, and for this reason they question the legal setback.
“One is emigrating with that dream, we all have that dream of getting ahead,” said Manuel Bolívar, 20, in Ciudad Juárez. “They are playing with the emotions of the migrants who have fought to get here.”
AFP