Assis Brazil.-Dozens of migrants are sleeping in a mosquito-infested, six-room wooden shelter in the Brazilian Amazon, their dreams of a better life in the United States on hold because of President Joe Biden’s decision on asylum.
Johany “Flaca” Rodriguez, 48, was ready to leave behind the hardships of life in Venezuela. She has been waiting at the shelter that houses 45 people in Assis Brasil, a town of 7,000 people on the border with Peru, because others have told her how difficult the journey to the United States has been.
Migrants, police, officials and analysts say Biden’s actions have prompted a wait-and-see attitude among migrants staying in Latin America’s largest economy, at least for now. Like everywhere else along the migrants’ routes to their hoped-for new lives, local communities are struggling to meet the needs of the new populations.
After sleeping on dirty mattresses and half-ripped hammocks and eating rice, beans and minced meat, Rodriguez decided this month that she and her dog Kiko would spend a few weeks with friends in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.
With a headband, leggings and a small backpack, Rodriguez got up early to walk more than 100 kilometers over two days to a nearby town of 27,000 people. There he hopes to earn some money and take a bus to southern Brazil, to one day reach the United States.
“I have to stay here until it’s safer to leave,” Rodriguez said. “I’m not very happy about staying (in Brazil), but it’s what I can do.”
Brazil saw waves of migrants heading to North America in the first part of the year. There were Indians, Bengalis, Senegalese and Nigerians, among others, said Rêmullo Diniz, coordinator of Gefron, the Acre state police group for border operations.
When Biden said he was going to crack down, many people from those groups began staying in their countries rather than heading to Latin America, Brazilian government officials and independent analysts said. For citizens of South American countries, it’s easier. Brazil allows residents of its 10 neighboring nations to stay visa-free for up to two years.
The Biden administration said last week that apprehensions for illegal crossings from Mexico have fallen by more than 40% since asylum processing at the U.S.-Mexico border was temporarily suspended on June 5. Apprehensions have fallen below 2,400 a day for the first time under Biden.
The state of Acre offers a snapshot of the attitude of many migrants, and raises the possibility that Acre and other places of rest could become long-term hosts.
The town of Assis Brasil has little to offer migrants, save the wooden shelter where Rodriguez was staying and a school gym that sleeps 15 men. There are two small hotels and a bus stop used by vans crossing into Peru. It has five restaurants scattered along its main road, two grocery stores and an ice cream shop that features Amazonian flavors like the local fruits cupuacu and tapereba. Migrants often beg for money in the town’s only square.
There are three flights a day to Rio Branco, the state capital, where Jay, 21, arrived from India on his way to the United States to study engineering. He declined to reveal his hometown or last name.
Wearing a white cap that read “RIO DE JANEIRO,” he said it would “take too long if I just sat around waiting” in India.
“It’s a long and very risky trip. But my dream is to study there and I will make it happen,” he said.
Brazil’s westernmost state is a remote enclave in the middle of the rainforest, used by tourists as part of an alternative route to visit Cusco, once the capital of the Inca empire in Peru.
One of the main attractions of Assis for locals is sitting on the benches in its main square Senador Guiomard watching football on TV and eating barbacoa. The founders of the small town arrived in the Amazon in 1908 to start a rubber plantation that 50 years later became a city. Not much has changed since then, despite the BR-317 highway that runs through it, the only land connection between Brazil and Peru. When the inhabitants of Assis Brasil get bored, and they often do, they go to the neighboring Peruvian town of Iñapari for a drink, usually a pisco sour.
Venezuelan migrant Alexander Guedes Martinez, 27, said he will stay as long as it takes to earn more money and perhaps move to Houston, where he has family, in a year. He came with his 17-year-old partner and their 5-month-old baby.
At the Assis Brasil shelter where they were staying last month, he said he hopes to “go (back) to Venezuela and get key documents to try to cross in a better way.”
“I want to be cautious for my daughter,” he said. “Being here helps.”
The Acre state patrol has about 40 officers to patrol 2,600 kilometers of border with Peru and Bolivia. A main highway connects the three countries, but local police say many migrants are also moving through the jungle, some of them carrying drugs.
Cuban immigrant Miguel Hidalgo, 52, tried to reach the United States years ago. He left the island for Suriname, then arrived in Brazil and has no plans to leave anytime soon.
“I like Brazil. I’ve only been here a short time, but people don’t have any prejudices against me, people are lovely,” he said. “I want to live like a human being. I’m not asking for riches. I want to live in peace, to help my family in Cuba.”
Acre Gov. Gladson Camelli told AP he is concerned about a larger influx of South American migrants coming soon.
“Our government has tried to do its part in humanitarian support,” he said.
Assis Brasil Mayor Jerry Correia is also bracing for increased demand. The city hall is feeding about 60 migrants a day and voters are upset in a mayoral election year.
“This is all on our shoulders. This is a policy that the federal government has to handle,” Correia said. “People don’t know what’s happening at our border. We need to be seen.”
#Migrants #stopped #Amazon #difficult #reach
