Fernanda González
Fernanda Gonzalez / Vaquero Radio
An immigrant family said it had no other choice but to leave its country due to political and labor issues, starting its journey in Venezuela and making it through the Darién Gap.
After that, the Venezuelan family traveled through countries, such as Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras, until it arrived in Guatemala, which it describes as the worst experience of them all.
“In Guatemala, for us, well for me, it was the worst experience,” said a Venezuelan family member who asked to remain anonymous in Spanish. “The police would intercept us, rob us head-on, take our money, our belongings, search us, take us down, take us back up again. Guatemala was the worst thing I experienced because of the psychological terror. The worst thing is that they were not criminals; it was the same police, the same army.”
The Venezuelan family said each person started with $1,300, but at the end, the expenses went up to $10,000.
“The thousand-and-one stories, horrible things,” a Venezuelan family member said in Spanish. “Fortunately, even though we had a bad time, the least bad thing we experienced was the Darién Gap. But, we saw dead people, people who had been walking for 15 days, they could no longer walk. People who were starving to death, dead and drowned children, a terrible thing.”
While the Venezuelan family risked its well-being, a Border Patrol agent reaffirms it is dangerous to cross the border illegally.
Border Patrol Agent Andres Garcia said the Rio Grande Valley sector has always been active in terms of illegal entries and narcotics.
He elaborated that the danger an immigrant may experience while crossing the border illegally will come from the river.
“The border itself, a lot of people forget about it, but geographically speaking, the first line of resistance, it’s not going to be us,” Garcia said. “It’s going to be the river. It’s always danger. The Rio Grande itself. I know that in Mexico it has the name ‘El Rio Bravo;’ it has taken a lot of lives through all of its history.”
According to Garcia, the procedure a Border Patrol agent implements when processing an immigrant first begins with an inspection. In the event individuals are not legal residents of the U.S., they are taken to a processing center where their information is obtained, including criminal record, immigration record, a biometrics exam and their home country. However, the process might differ per case.
In the Rio Grande Valley, the biggest influx of immigrants comes from Honduras, followed by Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol website.
UTRGV Professor of Political Science Mark Kaswan explained immigration is the decision of an individual to move to another country and anyone who migrates illegally is breaking the law and runs the risk of being deported.
Kaswan said people are crossing illegally because they are unable to use legal methods.
“The reason why so many people are crossing illegally is because the law makes it illegal,” he said. “The fact of the matter is that the law doesn’t reflect current conditions. People who feel the need to come to the United States for one reason or another are unable to use legal methods.”
Kaswan explained the issue stems from President Joe Biden’s humanitarian approach compared to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s belief for stronger immigration laws.
“Simply put, the issue between Biden and Abbott is that Abbott thinks that the federal government should be taking much stronger steps to prevent people from crossing into the United States,” he said. “The Biden Administration is kind of [in] a tough position. So, the Biden Administration has tried to reverse a lot of the Trump Administration actions and take a much more humanitarian approach.”
Kaswan said that according to the U.S. Constitution, issues regarding border security are matters of the federal government and immigration laws also fall under the authority of the federal government. He added states cannot enforce immigration laws.
This is Fernanda Gonzalez for Vaquero Radio.
