Last July, through the WhatsApp social network, the Venezuelan Rodolfo Castillo (28 years old) received a message in a city on the border with Colombia where he lived. The text that included a life-changing “offer” read: “We take you to the American dream. Because you are Venezuelan they let you in. When you arrive you have a job and an apartment”.
One of the “attractives” included in the messages were videos and photos of New York City authorities receiving groups of immigrants with a package of food as they got off the buses.
In effect, those who offered Rodolfo to “transfer” him from Mexico to the United States after paying the first part in dollars, product of the sale of his few belongings, complied with their offer. After a harrowing and dangerous journey, he finds himself in the Big Apple.
Now, six months later, she has understood that there is no such thing as the “American dream” and her chances of leaving the shelter where she lives in Queens, getting the papers that allow her to work legally, and being able to help the family she left behind are very high. limited. At least in the short and medium term.
In his own words, from the first minute he arrived in New York, he encountered a reality that in no way resembled that described by the coyotes and neither by the organizations in Texas that encouraged him to come to a “sanctuary city,” under a paradigm: “There is more help there”
“Nothing is true. The guides lie to you. They know of your desperation to seek a better life, because in my country what there is is hunger, misery and repression. But getting here to a shelter you are exposed to many risks. There are dangerous people who offer you an ugly path”, comments the young man for whom the rules of the hostel where he lives classify it as a “prison with release hours”.
Rodolfo is just one of the 40,000 immigrants who have arrived in the Big Apple since last spring after having crossed the southern border with Mexico, in the period in which the Biden Administration lifted Title 42, a sanitary measure that had practically closed borders under the argument of pandemic controls.
“Most of us came to work and progress, but unfortunately bad behavior also crept in. People who think they have to pay for everything. And other ungrateful people who complain about everything, ”she said.
The testimony of this Venezuelan, draws with very revealing colors, just one of the most complicated aspects that precedes the migration crisis: the human trafficking networks directed by the so-called coyotes but who are called “guides” by the new Venezuelan migration.
Even the Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, who continues to ask the federal government for financial help in the face of this arrival of migrants without a record, recounted after visiting El Paso, Texas, that he had evidenced on some “web pages” that the traffickers described a city with “streets of gold, work and houses for whoever arrives.”
The coyote variable
In reality, the local laws that force the authorities to offer shelters in the shelter system have favored the false narrative of traffickers to persuade immigrants, who in many cases interpret that they will have housing when they arrive in the “capital of the world”. stable and a varied offer of jobs.
The founder of América Diversa, the Venezuelan Yonatan Matheus, an organization that offers support to people from the LGBTQ community, who have forcibly migrated to New York City, points out that behind this wave of human displacement, driven by a terrible humanitarian crisis, The variable of organized crime that organizes “packages” to bring people and families motivated by the “mirage” of wealth and the lights of the ‘capital of the world’ continues to operate.
“They flee from a nightmare to find another hell. In this 2023, people who actually experience terrible situations continue to arrive. But they are also victims of misinformation, myths and human traffickers, who convince them that they will come to New York or Chicago to improve their lives immediately with assistance programs. And that is very far from being true, ”he recounted.
At least 72 hotels have been converted into emergency shelters in the five boroughs, not counting the stable system of ‘shelters’. And this year the Mayor has repeated endlessly that the City no longer has the resources to house anyone else.
But being received in a temporary shelter is an experience that begins with the hope of getting a job and joining a “normal life.” Not an easy move in America’s most expensive city, which is embroiled in its own systemic affordable housing crisis.
The dealer is mutating
Matheus has observed that behind every immigration relief plan or border policy change, human trafficking mafias adapt quickly and devise new strategies to deceive their victims.
Recently, when the humanitarian parole for Venezuelans who have a sponsor in the United States was announced, networks immediately emerged that offered these sponsorships for up to $5,000.
When on October 12, the federal government resumed Title 42 to not admit immigrants at the border, traffickers took advantage of it to put a higher cost on their services, encouraging hundreds of Venezuelans who “could cross.” But the process involved another thousand dollars.
The formula that persists in the mafias, which operate from border states between Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and all of South America, is that the more complicated things are at the border, their “package” is more expensive.
“Unfortunately, many continue to arrive here motivated by unverified information about what is supposedly a place where the immigrant arrives and almost immediately has thousands of benefits. As activists we must responsibly stand out and shout to the world that this is not true. There is a reception process, but that does not mean that the immigrant should have the expectation of receiving benefits permanently in the long term, ”he stressed.
However, the activist demands that in order for New York to improve the response to this crisis for those who are already here, it must review its care plans and especially listen to community organizations that really know the cultural reality of this population up close.
without a consulate
In this crossroads of stories of hundreds of people who came to a non-existent “promised land”, some -as the months go by- show little enthusiasm about their future.
For example, another Venezuelan, Mariana Guerrero, 25, was pregnant when she was trapped in Mexico last October due to the obstacles that arose to appear at the border posts of the United States. At that moment, her “guide” (her coyote) changed the conditions of the “service” that she was offering him.
“Once we arrived in Mexico and the news of the closing of the border was known, it doubled the figure of what we had agreed, because everything was more difficult. Fortunately I escaped from their clutches, but I live under threats with the family that was left behind. I want to tell my countrymen (that) not expose themselves to these criminals. Nothing they tell you is true,” said the young woman who lives in a shelter in the Bronx.
During the dangerous journey, Mariana lost all her documents. She arrived in the country with her wearing it. And with her son in her womb. Nothing more. And with the added challenge of proving who she was, what her name was, where she was from, in order to continue with her “dream”.
“As here, there are no Venezuelan ambassadors or consulates, they cannot even issue us a consular license based on the photo I have on my phone of the passport and my identification. On top of everything, we don’t have the support of anything else. It is almost a miracle that they let me pass”, confessed the South American.
Since March 2019, these South Americans are the only Hispanics in New York City who have completely closed the door to a series of consular procedures, which, among other aspects, prevents them from renewing or extending their passports, a key support for a foreigner can prove his nationality and identity.
When the United States validated the interim government of Juan Guaidó three years ago, ignoring the presidency of Nicolás Maduro, a group of officials symbolically took over the consulate headquarters on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. From then on, not a single service or relief has emerged for citizens whose presence doubled over the past year in the Big Apple. Not counting the entire tri-state area.
“We are orphans. There is not even access to a consular representation that guides Venezuelans, that offers some additional services to some newcomers who run many risks because they are uninformed. It is a tragedy!, describes Robert González, founder of the organization Por Amor a Venezuela, for more than 15 years.
For example, last month Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Holguín visited New York City, where there has also been an increase in the immigration of people from that South American country, warning its nationals “not to fall into the trap of coyotes”.
In fact, he assured that his main objective in the coming months is to confront these mafias by all means. In recent weeks they have dismantled three gangs, made up of 70 members.
In parallel, the consulates of countries such as Nicaragua and Haiti where the flow of people has increased, also towards the city, maintain orientation and identification operations. Some actions that for Venezuelans, who mean 90% of new migrants, do not exist.
Nobody talks about coyotes
But as Venezuelan activists agree, in that country neither the Nicolás Maduro regime nor the opposition leaders make any reference to this issue. Much less are there internal strategies that try to stop the criminal action of human traffickers.
“In Venezuela there is a vicious circle that feeds the action of coyotes. Rather, there is the certainty that the same regime protects them ra in some way We live this calamity of forced displacements that lead thousands to an abyss. And nowhere, neither here nor there, is there enough talk about the underlying reasons that cause this calamity that expels Venezuelans. In many cases, they arrive here at a reality that could be worse”, remarks González.
The activist says that after the migration process in search of the “American dream”, a large part of his compatriots, especially those who arrived since 2022, came “guided” by criminal groups, who for their own interests, described a very simple panorama. .
“Upon arrival they find out that there is a system that certainly offers them a refuge. But up there. No more than that. The chances of obtaining a work permit are slim, for most. And even the possibility of formally requesting asylum, ”he stressed.
Among the false beliefs that González has observed is his countrymen, is that, for example, many think that the identification of the City of New York (ID NYC) gives him a certain status, that when taking safety courses to work in construction (OSHA) It is equivalent to a work permit.
In certain cases, many think that just by turning themselves in to border authorities and being released, they already have an approved political asylum. Or at least requested.
A Venezuelan wave:
- 150,000 Venezuelans managed to enter US territory through the border with Mexico during fiscal year 2022, an increase of 293% over the previous year.
- Approximately 28,000 of these people are currently in shelters in the Big Apple, which means the largest number of immigrants housed in ‘shelters’ in the history of this city. (This data is unofficial)