The streets of downtown El Paso, in the state of Texas, witness the arrival of hundreds of migrants who camp out waiting to move to other cities in the United States. Added to the uncertainty of not knowing what awaits them in the country, they now add the fear of being victims of discriminatory or violent acts.
He incident occurred in Brownsville This Sunday, at a bus stop near a migrant shelter, where at least 8 people died and ten others were injured after being hit by a car, it is highly commented among migrants who sleep outside the Sacred Heart Church. .
According to them, the event in that border city is another example of the anti-immigrant sentiment that awaits them in the US. “We are concerned about what is happening. Who doesn’t?” he assured the voice of americathe Venezuelan Javier Alejandro Mendoza.
“Suddenly what happened to them can happen to us. You don’t know. Anything is expected,” added the young man who, according to what he said, has been sleeping on the street for three days after spending nearly two and a half months on the way from his native Venezuela.
In Photos | Life in a migrant camp in El Paso, Texas, days from the end of Title 42
“They don’t want us anywhere”
For the hundreds of migrants clustered in the makeshift camp on the outskirts of Sacred Heart, it’s a difficult situation. The vast majority risk their lives and safety on the perilous journey, all to achieve a dream of prosperity to which they feel they are also entitled.
Many feel that they are not taken into account, nor are they seen as human beings desperately seeking a way out of the difficult situation in their countries of origin. Many, like José, have come fleeing violence in their native El Salvador.
“They don’t want us anywhere, I feel that we are persecuted in different places, they see us as a demon, I don’t know,” he warns frustrated in conversation with the VOA from a corner on the floor.
José, who has already been deported once from the US, crossed the border again after being beaten by agents in Mexico. There is nothing left behind, he assures him.
“What you need is to get ahead, a job. Thank God I don’t have a vice, I don’t hurt anyone, I just want a life, a job, a place to go and that my human rights be respected,” he asks.
A series of troubling incidents
Most of the migrants interviewed by the VOA in El Paso they confess to being concerned about the violent events that have involved migrants, especially the most recent one in Bronwsville.
That border city, like El Paso, is among the places where the largest influx of migrants is expected after the end of Title 42next May 11.
Authorities have already apprehended the driver, who has an extensive criminal record and is now faces eight counts of murder. When asked by the press, the Brownsville police chief, Félix Sauceda, identified the person responsible as George Álvarez and did not rule out that the hit-and-run was intentional.
Sauceda added that some of the victims were from Venezuela and that they are still working to identify them. Meanwhile, in a release published this Monday by Foreign Minister Yvan Gil, the Venezuelan government asked that it be investigated whether it was a hate crime and xenophobia.
This event joins other recent cases of xenophobic violence, such as the murder of a man in November 2022, when two brothers residing in Texas shot at a group of migrants who were looking for water near the border. One of the most notorious was mass shooting in a shopping center of El Paso, which left at least 22 dead, including several Mexican citizens, in August 2019.
The current migratory crisis in the country, which has seen its borders overwhelmed in the last two years, is also one of the most controversial issues today, which pits politicians and citizens against each other for and against tougher measures to avoid migration. increase in immigration.
Added to all this is the unusual occurrence of acts of violence with weapons and mass shootings in the US, which have led President Joe Biden to renew this Sunday his call to Congress to pass gun control bills.
Xenophobia is something that also worries the Biden administration, which has insisted on several occasions that “the United States is a country of immigrants.” The government has promoted various measures to boost regular migration while trying to find a solution to the crisis on the southern border.
“People come to the United States for many reasons. To seek new opportunities in the strongest economy in the world. You can’t blame them for wanting to.” said the president in January, whose ancestors emigrated from Ireland.
In September 2021, the media interviewed members of Hispanic roots in Biden’s cabinet, including the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas.
Mayorkas, of Cuban origin, said at the time that a positive point of the administration is that it has worked to impose its vision on immigration, as well as to “erase” the xenophobia, sentiment and actions against immigrants that were imposed. in the previous government, alluding to the management of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021).
However, concern for security is very present among migrants like Analís, who preferred to be identified with an alias. The young Venezuelan recognized the VOA that she was terrified to learn that the Brownsville victims “were sitting on the sidewalk, just like us.” On the outskirts of the Sacred Heart, migrants settle in however they can, very close to the street.
She added that her family in Venezuela contacted her anguished about her situation in the US.
Another Venezuelan, Marcos Márquez, shrugged when asked why he thinks these incidents happen. “It must be because they are afraid that we will harm them, but we do not come to harm anyone, if not to work, to meet some goals, to help the family that is in Venezuela.”
“When I was here looking for work, there were many Americans who came with banners with Don’t hire scumbags [no contraten escoria]ugly, dishonest words and it has always been like that, but what people want is to work, get ahead,” insisted Salvadoran José.
Fleeing from invivible realities
For many of the migrants interviewed, these events demonstrate a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment.
“Yes, I’m afraid, because unfortunately one comes here to try to get ahead and seeing these things like this is painful. We all come for a better future, to support this country and then you see those things, those accidents, and you it puts one’s soul like nothing. It’s sad, there have been not one, but several incidents,” he told the VOA Venezuelan Leonardo Fereira.
After hundreds of kilometers, with hardly any possessions, tired and with threadbare clothes, migrants understand that they can generate mistrust, but they just want to make those who live in the US understand that those who do wrong are not the vast majority.
“I am not here to stay permanently, because if my country recovers, I will go back, that is, because that is our country, but today, unfortunately, Venezuela is unlivable, and we came here to see if we can take our children forward, because there it becomes very difficult”, lamented Fereira.
Many, like the Salvadoran José, would like “there to be some program that protects immigrants, where people can go to complain about mistreatment at work, wage abuse, and that the US, Canada and other countries can open people up to the door they need to leave their countries”.
However, not everyone has had the same experience. The Colombian Carlos Mario assures the VOA that in “Mexico they treat worse” and that the experience in Texas so far has been good.
“In the US up to now they have treated us well, the people are very good people, a lot of welcome with the migrant, later we do not know what will happen,” he acknowledged.
[Con información de Reuters]
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