A new wave of migrants coming largely from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua are being released in the U.S. to seek asylum. | via NPR
Venezuelan migrants Kimberly González and Denny Velasco and their children wait for a bus at Mission: Border Hope in Eagle Pass, Texas.
He took out a dry change of clothes, a small bag with his documents, some throat lozenges, and — most importantly — his smartphone. NPR spoke with dozens of migrants, who said they're choosing to cross here because they've heard from other migrants that the journey is relatively safe. "Our main purpose is to help them continue their journey," said Valeria Wheeler, the group's executive director.
The Border Patrol was right. Mission: Border Hope is now serving about 500 migrants a day, or more. When NPR is there, many of them are either charging their smartphones or talking into them — trying to sort out their travel plans, or getting money from friends and relatives to pay for their tickets.Valeria Wheeler is the executive director at Mission: Border Hope.
Still, the journey was dangerous, she said. They had to cross the jungle in Panama, and avoid drug cartels in Mexico. When they finally got to the Rio Grande, the river was high. It took them four tries to cross."I never asked my baby girl if she wanted to come. I never asked [my son] if he wanted to make the journey," he said."Even though we are doing it for them.
"Being in a border town, you kind of grew up with this," Morales said."A big percentage of them are passing by. They're not staying here.""We've been short staffed for the past three years, hiring and hiring and hiring. And people in the U.S. don't want to work," he said."What's broken with our system, that we can't get people to work right now? Yet you have these people coming in that want to work.
"It looks like they're changing here," Valderrama said, pointing at large piles of discarded clothes, water bottles, shoes, backpacks, garbage bags and more. "Unless you have people responding and out here working, it's just a visual effect. It's not deterring anybody," he said. "I see why they're coming over. If the doors are open, the welcome flag is up," he said."If I was from that side, I'd do the same thing."José Albornoz encounters Luis Valderrama on the banks of the Rio Grande. A sign on Valderrama's property guides migrants to turn themselves.It's just then that the interview with Valderrama was interrupted by José Albornoz.