El Paso (USA) (EFE).- Venezuelan Luis Gutiérrez, one of the hundreds of migrants who are arriving these days in El Paso (Texas), tells EFE that he knows nothing of Title 42, a directive of expedited expulsion of migrants at the border that is expected to cease to be applied in a week.
Gutiérrez, 33, says that he entered the United States illegally through a hole measuring 30 by 30 centimeters and advises those who face this odyssey to “have strength because the road is rough.”
Of Title 42, a measure activated by the now former president Donald Trump (2017-2021) with the excuse of the pandemic in 2020, he knows nothing, nor is he interested. He only says he has “faith in God” to be able to help his wife and children that he left behind in Venezuela.
“We are not soaked in anything from the title, none of that; we are ignorant of it. I don’t know what can happen when it’s over, ”he says surrounded by migrants in El Paso, a city on the border with Mexico that declared an emergency last Monday due to the massive arrival of foreigners.
Gutiérrez sleeps for now with his brother José and some friends on a street, and tells that he covers himself with cardboard, while his dream of coming to Chicago to work comes true.
The journey through Mexico of Venezuelan migrants
The Venezuelan had already been expelled from the United States on a flight that took him to Matamoros (Mexico). He refers that he and others were handcuffed, deceived, told that they were going to be taken on a flight to Arizona (USA) and to look for his relatives, but he ended up back in Mexico.
But he returned to the border and asking other migrants he reached the “hole” and crossed it after waiting two nights for the Border Patrol to leave. “It was very hard because the migra does not move away from where the hole is,” he says.
“Mexico for us was a difficult journey. We spent two and a half months walking, hitchhiking, asking people for help, ”she recalls.
He recounts that he tried to legally enter the United States through the CBP One mobile application, but he spent three months trying and could not access.
Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans seeking asylum, who can advance the process through this tool thanks to a humanitarian program of the Government of President Joe Biden with these nationals, have complained about the difficulties of this application.
They don’t know US laws
For his part, his 30-year-old brother José told EFE that this permit “is useless and that “la migra” returns it, that the “real” paper he needs is one that allows him to have a job to help to his wife and three daughters that he left behind in Venezuela.
As a Venezuelan, José Gutiérrez has the possibility of receiving humanitarian relief, which also requires that he have a sponsor in the United States. However, the immigrant does not believe in that possibility.
“I have no support from anyone (…), no one has given me a penny to get here, only God, I owe everything to God (…). If he has me here sleeping (on the street) it is for a reason, ”he says.
He also says that he does not know much about Title 42 and confesses that they come with “ignorance” about US laws. He is also anguished at being expelled again, since it is the second time he has tried after a months-long journey through Latin America.
For Gilbert García, who also chose to enter the United States illegally, the Darién jungle, on the border of Panama and Colombia, was an ordeal. He points out to EFE that he does not recommend doing it, especially with children. “It’s something I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” he says.
He assures that he is happy to be “on this side” and that he wants to work in the fields as he did in his country.
However, he feels “confused”, he does not have money to get to Chicago and he did not process the humanitarian permit for the application.