If you read one thing: The Valera family spent months traveling through jungles and deserts, crossing rivers and traversing mountains, working their way through seven countries to reach the U.S. Their journey, and the separation and anxiety they've experienced since finally arriving in the U.S. and applying for asylum, offers a window into the realities many Latin American migrants face coming to this country and the complicated web of obstacles they meet once they're here.
Jhair Romero and Raquel Natalicchio begin the story like this…
In a dusty field between the Rio Grande and El Paso border wall, Dailiris Valera last saw her family whole.
The 41-year-old, her husband and their five children and infant granddaughter were caked in sand and exhausted from months of trekking through South and Central America, having endured days in that field with little food or water. Surrounding the Venezuelan family in the makeshift encampment in May were hundreds of other migrants trying to enter the United States as Title 42, the pandemic-era policy that fast-tracked expulsions, was set to expire.
From the moment border officials processed the Valeras, hours after the policy lapsed, their lives were thrown into a whirlwind that hasn't let up. With little money and separated from one another, they've bounced haphazardly from city to city in search of a home.
My thoughts: If you only read one story from start to finish today, I highly recommend it be this one. Very few news stories about migrants and the southern border paint such a vivid picture of the experience and sacrifices these families and individuals make to come here or what their lives are like after they arrive.
Read the full story here.
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