A migrant shares his story

On a recent Saturday night in Brooklyn, I received a WhatsApp message: โ€œMax buenas tardes.โ€ Max good evening.

โ€œUna pregunta estaba en el metro horita Max.โ€ A question: Were you in the subway just now Max?

โ€œTenรญas una camisa azul.โ€ You were wearing a blue shirt.

I had met the sender โ€“ Xavier, a 22-year-old Venezuelan โ€“ย just once, eight months prior. He had been living in a Colombian shantytown, plotting a journey to America.

It turned out he had made it.

Necoclรญ, Colombia

Xavier was among the people I met while reporting on the surge of migrants coming to the United States via Colombia. We were in Necoclรญ, a palm-tree-lined human trafficking hub.

Necoclรญ is the last town before the Dariรฉn Gap, the gang-controlled jungles of Panama. Migrants come from all over the world to live in Necolรญโ€™s shanties, where they sell snacks, recycle, steal โ€“ do whatever they can to afford passage to America. The town is full of South Americans, Africans, and South Asians who have come thousands of miles for that purpose. Along its humid streets, vendors sell tents, boots, and lanterns for the trek to the US.

Xavier and his 11 family members were among the people preparing for that trip. They were tired of South Americaโ€™s poverty and violence, and they had heard the American border was โ€œopen.โ€

In the mid-2010s, Venezuelaโ€™s economy imploded under the weight of mismanagement, corruption, and sanctions. Xavier and his now-girlfriend Kerlis didnโ€™t know each other then, but they were both among the millions who ended up unable to find food or medicine, let alone opportunity. They both fled the country in 2016.ย 

The then-15-year-old Xavier found himself wandering the continent in search of work: He started in Colombia but ended up in Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Ecuador. He worked in construction, restaurants, barber shops โ€“ย anywhere that would enable him to survive.

Kerlis, meanwhile, stayed in the notoriously dangerous Venezuela-Colombia border city of Cรบcuta. Working odd jobs in the violence-ridden barrios, Kerlis became pregnant. In 2018, she had a boy, Greiker.ย 

โ€œAs the child grew, I left Cรบcuta,โ€ she told me. โ€œI lived in a neighborhood where people were being killed all the time. So I was scared and decided to start backpacking, walking, and then I left Colombia.โ€

Soon after, she met Xavier. The couple started wandering South America in search of money and safety together.ย 


In mid-2022, they learned that the American border was โ€œopen.โ€ Xavier, Kerlis, and her family assembled in Necoclรญ, where they began saving up to pay the traffickers.ย 

I met and interviewed them during that process and asked how they felt about traveling to the US.ย 

Xavier, in a blue hoodie second from left; Kerlis in white to his right

โ€œAnxious,โ€ Xavier told me.ย 

โ€œFear,โ€ said Kerlis. โ€œI, as a mother, feel very afraid for my son. Because you donโ€™t know what youโ€™re going to find on the way there. One hears many stories.โ€

All aspiring migrants to the US have heard the stories: Men robbed and murdered; women raped; children bitten by snakes. The journey to America isnโ€™t for the faint of heart.

The first obstacle is the Dariรฉn Gap, where migrants have to survive the human traffickers and the jungleโ€™s wildlife, mountains, and rivers. Next is Central America, where they have to dodge gangs and police, who are often as bad as them. Last is Mexico โ€“ the most notorious country on the migrant route. Stories abound of migrants being kidnapped, left in the desert, or jailed after being forced into becoming drug mules.ย 

But Xavier and Kerlis โ€“ย like millions of other migrants โ€“ deemed the risks worth taking.ย 

โ€œWe don't want to always stay in the same cycle, unable to improve, unable to climb up,โ€ Xavier said. โ€œWe want to workโ€ฆ.We want to lift ourselves up.โ€

โ€œ[In the US] everything would improve,โ€ Kerlis predicted. โ€œEverything โ€“ everything โ€“ education, health, lifestyle โ€“ย everything is differentโ€ฆIt's like we're practically going to erase the whole slate and we're going to introduce a new one, to be better people.

โ€œThat is what I think of the United States,โ€ she told me.

Kerlis and Xavier expected America to welcome them with open arms.ย 

Would it?ย 

This is part one of a four-part series. Weโ€™ll send new installments each Sunday. The rest of this series is only available to paid subscribers. Subscribe to support our mission and get full access.

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