EL PASO — Ukrainians fleeing the invasion of their homeland by Russian forces and the subsequent atrocities have begun crossing the US-Mexico border and arriving in frontier cities throughout Texas looking for asylum, refugee organizations inform The Put up.
One group of six refugees arrived in El Paso after making their manner from Ukraine to the Netherlands earlier than flying to Mexico.
The group included Tatiana Soloshchuk, her husband, their three sons, one other mom and her younger daughter. The Soloshchuks had been certain for Kentucky, whereas the opposite mom and little one had been en path to Denver.
“They spent 4 days in Mexico,” mentioned Soloshchuk’s buddy, who translated her responses to The Put up’s questions over the cellphone and declined to present her title. “They got here by means of Mexico as a result of it’s the quickest alternative to get to the USA.”
As with international locations within the European Union, Ukrainians don’t want a visa to journey to Mexico. As soon as Tatiana’s group arrived in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, they turned up on the Paso Del Norte Worldwide Port of Entry and acquired in line to make their asylum declare. They waited for 20 hours, sitting exterior within the chill of the desert night time till they had been seen by a Customs and Border Safety officer who granted them humanitarian parole.
“They’re unhappy and heartbroken,” the buddy mentioned. “They had been scared for his or her sons. The youthful one has bronchial asthma. It acquired dangerous once they within the basement hiding from the bombing.”
After buddies in Kentucky supplied to pay for his or her journey and assist them get settled within the US, the Soloshchuks determined to go, leaving different members of the family and family members behind.
“Many (Ukrainian) households would love to return to the US, however not everybody could make the journey,” Tatiana’s buddy mentioned. “It’s solely due to their buddies in Kentucky that they'll afford to make this journey.”
The Soloschucks don’t know if they'll keep within the US or return to Ukraine in the future after the conflict is over.
“For now, they need their sons to have the ability to return to highschool,” their buddy mentioned. “Training, freedom, security, that’s what’s essential proper now.”
The Soloschucks and their translator buddy might solely spare 5 minutes to speak earlier than a automobile arrived. Their Kentucky buddies had organized for the household to be picked up from the Worldwide Bridge in El Paso and brought to the airport for the final leg of their journey.
Annunciation Home director Ruben Garcia, who runs El Paso’s largest immigrant shelter, advised The Put up his workers are seeing anyplace from two to eight Ukrainians per day.
“We’re seeing only a trickle and so they don’t keep on the shelter for lengthy,” Garcia mentioned.
600 miles away, in Laredo, the native diocese’s chapter of Catholic Charities has acquired not less than 10 Ukrainians at its shelter. Government Director Rebecca Solloa mentioned those that come to her facility arrive from the northern Mexican metropolis of Monterrey, about three hours south of the border by automobile.
“They’ll drive [in] by taxi all the best way as much as the bridge, and so they’ll say, ‘We’re pleading asylum,'” she mentioned. “[Customs agents] will take them down from the automobile and transfer them ahead.”
The shelter counts are unofficial and the true numbers of these crossing the border are most likely larger, since many Ukrainian asylum-seekers bypass immigrant shelters fully once they arrive.
The Biden administration introduced final month that it could welcome 100,000 Ukrainian refugees displaced by the conflict.
The Division of Homeland Safety didn't reply to requests by The Put up for data on the variety of Ukrainian refugees. The Wall Road Journal reported final month that greater than 10,000 Ukrainians had visited Mexico as vacationers within the first two months of this yr, and officers imagine most of that quantity will finally head to the US.
Post a Comment