“My greatest fear was not that they would deport us, it was known that one would lose the money invested and that was it. Every night I only asked to be alive, that they not kill us, “he says. Milena*, 23, who traveled with her husband, Daniel*, and their one and a half year old baby with the illusion of reaching the United States.
The odyssey began the first week of April. The couple had heard close testimonies of people who had achieved “their dream”, and believed that, knowing the route, it would be easier for them.
(We invite you to read the multimedia special: Illegal migration of Colombians: life in the hands of ‘coyotes’)
Every night I only asked to be alive, that they not kill us
“The expenses were more and more, we did not have a good job, the little that arrived was no longer enough,” says the young woman among the reasons why they decided to travel.
The couple paid the “coyote” 1,600 dollars from Colombia through a transfer, the rest they had to deliver when crossing the border.
(Also read: The hole: story of a Colombian kidnapped and deceived by a coyote in the US)
The route
There they locked us up in a house all night, they gave us water, sardines and cookies for food. If the child was given normal food
This uncertain journey began with a flight from Bogota to Mexico City. They carried the itinerary with each of the activities they were going to carry out. At Immigration they were asked what they wanted to do, to which they replied: “Just get to know, we are tourists.” “We had paid for everything, we took a turibus and stayed only two days,” says Milena.
So far everything seemed to be going according to plan. However, everything began to get complicated at his second stop: Tijuana. “When we arrived at the airport, Immigration detained us along with other Brazilians, Cubans, and Peruvians. We were like 30 people. At the beginning we said that we were going to be tourists and Immigration told us that in Tijuana there was nothing touristy, that we better tell the truth.”
(Also read: The journey of the mother who died with her daughter looking for the ‘American dream’)
“We decided to tell the truth and they told us to wait for a bus to pick us up and take us to the border. There they locked us up in a house all night, they gave us water, sardines and cookies for food. The child was given normal food”, highlights the young woman. In that place they were only allowed to be with the clothes they wore, not an additional garment, and without any kind of communication. It was the first time they had been completely disconnected from the family since they had set out on the trip.
The next morning they were given a supposed document that allowed them to stay in Tijuana for five days in a shelter. “They told us that they were not going to charge us anything, that everything was free. We slept on mats and more and more people arrived, the list was endless.
(Also: Death in the ‘hole’: the tragedy of Bogota crossing the US border)
They called all the husbands or those who were in charge of the families, locked them in another room and told them that either they would give us money or they would simply deport us.
With the arrival of the new shift -at 8 am- everything began to change. “They called all the husbands or those who were in charge of the families, they locked them in another room and told them that either they would give us money to take us to the shelter or they would simply deport us. We all gave money because by that time we had already spent a lot of money to be there”, he says. Daniel gave them 200 dollars for the three (809 thousand Colombian pesos) to be able to leave.
Then they took a Didi that took them from Tijuana to Mexicali. They were advised not to take the bus or plane because they risked being detained again. “Throughout the entire journey we left quietly, without mentioning anything about the trip, as if we didn’t know each other,” he highlights.
They arrived at a hotel in Mexicali, a border city between Mexico and the United States, where they stayed for a day and a half. They preferred not even to leave the hotel because of the insecurity that it transmitted to him. “The first ‘coyote’ that was going to pick us up told us that things had gotten ugly and that he couldn’t pick us up and he gave us the name of another gentleman who would pass for us. He told us to get out of that hotel because the people who stayed there were stopped in the next few blocks.”
Milena says that in Mexicali she felt fear in every corner. “Everything was very suspicious, one went out and did not feel safe. There were people who looked at you very strangely. We ran out of that place.” The family arrived at a hotel on the highway, on a main road, where they were transported by another contact of the ‘coyote’ at three in the morning. A journey where they not only had to take care of the mafias but of the same authorities that ask for bribes to let them pass.
(Also: The Colombian who drowned crossing ‘El Hueco’ into the United States)
Everything was very dark and it was too cold, it was around 5 in the morning because they had told us that after 6 in the morning no one could pass or they would kill us.
“When we were already reaching the border, going down a bridge, Immigration detained us. The police first approached the driver and began to read the conversations on his cell phone and intimidated him by telling him that what he was doing was human trafficking and that he could go to jail, that he had to give them money and they took $600 from him,” Milena denounces.
But the most terrible thing, as he says, came later: “Everything was very dark and it was too cold, it was around 5 in the morning because they had told us that after 6 in the morning no one could pass or they would kill us. They took my husband to the back of the car and they searched him, my husband had money in a shoe and he managed to slip it under me and I hid it in my son’s diaper because they wouldn’t touch him. They made him take off his pants, his socks, his shirt… Everything they were wearing in search of money”. In that search he was finally forced to hand over to the officers about 400 dollars.
“We told them that the money we had was the only thing we had to get ahead in the United States, that we didn’t have any more and that we did it because we wanted a better future,” he points out.
After the officers believed that they had taken all the money they had, they let them pass at the end of the border. “When we arrived at the border we were the only ones, the driver only told us to get off in the sand and that there we would find some stones that we had to climb. When we got out of the car we no longer knew where to go because everything was sand and we did not see stones. Then we saw some stones, but very sharp ones and we preferred to continue walking further on and cross for eight minutes”, he highlights.
On the other side, in Yuma, was a Border Patrol officer, who took the data. The man, they say, asked them to remove their shoelaces and that they should wait for a truck to pass by them. Then more and more migrants began to arrive to join the new journey.
Arrival in the US
“Again they told us to turn off our cell phones and I lost contact with my family again, I couldn’t tell them that we had managed to get through,” he says. The couple and the baby were transported 30 minutes from that place, where they were placed in tents.
The first apartment we arrived at had rats and was completely abandoned
“There were like 8 little houses. There they locked up many women, most of them Haitian, who had children and divided those who were alone.” Two days later they were placed in another shelter where their things were returned and they were allowed to speak with their relatives.
They were in a shelter in Somerton, Arizona, and left for New York. About 3,700 kilometers in which it took four days by bus.
Arriving in New York they thought their luck would change. But for one night they had to sleep on the street, in the open, another night on a sofa in an office that serves migrants and in the last week they finally managed to be assigned a home. “The first apartment we arrived at had rats and was completely abandoned. We came back and they changed us for another one, which, although it is deteriorated and has the minimum, allows us to protect ourselves on a roof, ”he highlights.
Milena, Camilo and their baby have already served the first summons in court in search of asylum. The uncertainty continues for them, but they are grateful to be alive. “I only look for the best for my son, what I did not have. Although we came out of this well, I don’t know if he would repeat it, ”she emphasizes.
ANGY ALVARADO RODRIGUEZ
ELTIEMPO.COM
[email protected]
Twitter: @angyalvarador
#journey #couple #baby #illegally #migrate