Rosa, a Venezuelan asylum-seeker, walked for four months across nearly half a continent. She was pregnant.
By VOA News
Aug 16, 2022
Rosa is not her real name, but she told VOA that her journey to reach the United States, along with her partner and father of her child, was difficult. Four times during their migration, Rosa thought she was going to lose her baby.
The couple traversed the uninhabitable Darien Gap jungle linking Colombia and Panama before crossing nine countries to face a complex immigration process in the United States.
“Everyone thinks that once you arrive in this country, you will see buildings like the ones in New York City,” Rosa told a VOA reporter who met with her in Washington, D.C., and the eastern state of Delaware.
But since the 19-year-old Venezuelan migrant arrived in Washington on one of the first 120 buses sent by Texas Republican Governor Gregg Abbott, she said her feelings changed.
“Yes, I regret having come to the United States,” Rosa said in Spanish.
Abbott launched the program in April to protest Democratic President Joe Biden’s approach on immigration, chartering buses to send recently arrived migrants from the southern border to the U.S. capital. Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey followed suit in May.
At the D.C. bus station, Rosa told VOA about her plans.
“Work, start fulfilling my dreams, my goals that I have here,” she said.
Now living in Delaware, Rosa is in the late stages of pregnancy. Her partner, who is also from Venezuela and did not want to be identified, also said the United States isn’t what he thought.
Rosa and her partner are required to check in weekly with U.S. immigration officials through a smartphone application. They hope to apply for asylum. In the meantime, they await the birth of their daughter.
“One thing is me telling this story, which is very different from living it,” Rosa said of not knowing if they can stay in the U.S. “Many people don’t understand because they think this is the American dream. But it’s a dream that, in reality, if something were to happen to me here, this dream was not worth it.”
According to border officials, 207,416 people tried to cross the Southwest border in June, a 14% drop from May. Of those, 92,274 people were immediately expelled from the United States under a public health order named Title 42.
Disinformation plays a role
Immigration experts say disinformation is crucial in encouraging unauthorized migration.
At the U.S.-México border, immigration experts say some migrants cross into the U.S. without authorization and then wait for border officers; others present themselves at a U.S. port of entry and ask for help.
Immigration attorney Miriam Osorio says many have false expectations. Upon arriving at the border, he told VOA, they believe officials “are going to let me in … I am going to have a work permit, I am going to have benefits and I am going to start living peacefully in the United States.
“That’s not so true,” he said.
Luis Paoli, who has worked for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency as deputy chief counsel, says migrants allowed into the country receive a U.S. government document, but it doesn’t grant legal status.
Paoli says the document, known as a notice to appear, gives migrants 30 days to check in with U.S. immigration authorities once they arrive at their final destination in the United States.
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