A Venezuelan family receives instructions from a border patrol officer near the Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras International Bridge shortly after crossing the Rio Grande on August 12. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) Comment on this story Comment DEL RIO, Texas — They had been traveling in caravans for weeks, passing dead bodies while avoiding kidnappers and thieves — and now, some of the migrants crowded into a tiny stucco building just past the Rio Grande were staring at a star written on an envelope carrying the their claims for asylum in the US. Courtesy of the state of Texas, that meant they qualified for a free bus ride to a place that was largely unprepared to receive them: Washington, DC “They’re going to give you food,” said a Spanish-speaking volunteer at the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition’s temporary “rest center” for state-chartered buses, speaking to migrants who earlier in the week had surrendered at the border with U.S. immigration officials. “It has WiFi so you can connect with your families.” So far, more than 230 buses carrying nearly 9,400 immigrants, including families with young children, have arrived in D.C. since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) began offering free transit to the nation’s capital in April, with Gov. of Arizona Doug Ducey (R ) following suit in May. Last month, buses from Texas started running in New York and Chicago, very. Abbott and Ducey, along with many other Republicans, are focusing attention on the record number of border crossings by large groups arriving from South and Central America, as far as Senegal. Both governors are using the busloads of immigrants as a political statement about what they call the Biden administration’s lax border policies. But for many of those who have accepted the rides, any political skill was irrelevant. Buses have become a welcome conduit since many already had plans to head east, either to live in the DC area or somewhere else a bus ride away. Along the way, their arrival has turned D.C. into an “unofficial border town,” said Tatiana Laborde, CEO of SAMU First Response, one of the agencies helping the immigrants. With buses dropping off more immigrants near Union Station several times a week and D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and the Biden administration at odds over who should do more to help them, the existing support mechanism is in triage mode, Laborde said. . “It was intense,” she said, in between caring for newly arrived immigrants staying inside a temporary shelter run by her organization in Maryland that houses 50 people at a time. “It’s something we’re not used to.”
The “Norteño Express” An empty D.C.-bound bus waited outside downtown Val Verde, its “Norteño Express” sign facing the shuttered businesses and run-down houses leading to a popular Rio Grande border crossing. Tiffany Barrow, director of operations for the faith center, was inside, hastily arranging case files — each one representing someone who had just arrived from a nearby federal processing center. More men, women and children were already inside a small storage area, preparing to board the bus, which held about 52 people. When the Val Verde center opened in 2019, Burrow and her two volunteer staff members helped about 25 migrants a week, offering sandwiches, water and a few hours of rest while helping them figure out how to get where they needed to go. Now, they can see so much 1,000 or more a week, Burrow said. Her remote town of about 38,000 residents — about 150 miles west of San Antonio — saw 16,000 newly arrived Haitians camp under the International Bridge last fall because they could not afford the transportation from Del Rio. And there is no infrastructure to keep them in place. “You all have to understand that there is no overnight shelter here, there is no funding and there is no waiting for people here,” Barrow told a group through a Spanish translator. He stood in front of a large wall map of the United States, showing destinations to the immigrants, who were lined up according to where they had earlier told federal immigration authorities they intended to go. “This is California,” Barrow said, pointing to the state. “Florida? Here.” He was initially wary of the politics associated with Abbott’s Barrow bus scheme now sees free routes as a practical way to get as many migrants as possible to their destinations — an expense her company can’t afford to cover with about $200,000 in donations each year that mostly pay for food, clothing and medicine. The state-chartered buses offer immigrants a way to get closer to their final destinations — or, at least, out of Texas, where border communities have been overwhelmed, the governor said. So far, the Abbott administration has spent more than $12 million on the bus trips, with the governor raising about $303,000 in private donations to help cover the cost. As soon as it had enough passengers, the DC bus would leave the center for an hour by car Eagle Pass, another border town near which about 530 people at a time have turned themselves in to immigration officials. There, another NGO was also helping with travel arrangements and, with the bus waiting outside, mentioned the option of a free ride east to anyone who might need it. Many arrive in Texas with plans to meet up with family or friends in various parts of the United States, including the DC area. Others have no connections in the country, little, if any, cash and little idea where they will settle pending asylum courts scheduled in the parts of the country where they say they will live. But those who board the buses appear to do so willingly, with no sign that anyone in downtown Val Verde was coerced or tricked into going to D.C. or New York — despite claims by Bowser and New York Mayor Eric Adams (D). who have each accused Abbott of using immigrants as political pawns. But there is confusion. For example, each bus stops for fuel or to change drivers about six times before reaching D.C. Initially, immigrants were told they could get off at stops if they intended to settle in states along the route, such as Tennessee and North Carolina. or, even states further out of the way like Florida and Illinois. But routes are no longer predictable because of bad weather, so figuring out where to get off is a guessing game, Burrow said, adding that most who take the bus now are bound for D.C. or New York. That includes Joán Rojas, 29, and Angel Zárraga, 25, who arrived in Texas in mid-August with plans to settle in the DC area. The two Venezuelans said they heard about the free DC bus from friends, who had traveled before them and reported back that it went well. But they didn’t know where these friends lived or if they could offer any help. “If he’s found some stability, he might help, just to give me something to fight for,” Rojas, an aspiring psychologist who hopes to earn money to support a wife and other family members in Venezuela, said of his contact. . “We will see what will happen”. Rojas, Zárraga and a third Venezuelan national sat inside a storefront church in the District’s Park View neighborhood, without a place to sleep that night. Their bus had arrived in the nation’s capital around midnight four days earlier, after a monotonous 32-hour journey through the southern US countryside. After staying at the SAMU rest center for three nights — the maximum allowed — the men were now alone. The pastor of the church – part of a secondary aid network in the area – had rescued them, agreeing to give the men an air-conditioned place in the summer heat to figure out their next move. “Actually, I was planning to go to Florida or New York,” Zaraga said, in Spanish, as Rojas sat in another room trying to reach his friend on a smartphone that still had service from Mexico. “But I heard [from that friend] that, in Washington, they care a little more about immigrants and that they would help.” Like many Venezuelan arrivals, Zárraga began his journey north from Colombia, where in 2019 he had initially fled the violence sanctioned by the government occupying his country – which particularly targeted young men like him during mass protests with aimed at ousting President Nicolas Maduro from power. His group passed corpses in the jungle and nearly drowned in an unexpectedly strong Rio Grande current while crossing with three other men near Eagle Pass. In Mexico, Zárraga he said, an immigration official slapped him and then smiled after the diminutive Venezuelan endured the abuse without words. “I couldn’t say anything because they could make something up and deport me,” he said. The pastor – who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for the safety of the migrants and his colleagues – eventually took the three men in for the night after it became clear they had no other viable options. Their plight reflects what immigrant advocates say is a growing problem with long-term housing and other services as the number of buses increases. Although many immigrants have moved on since landing in D.C., a growing number — approaching 15 percent — are choosing to stay, advocates say. Alejandra Pinto and her family are among the thousands of Central American immigrants who arrived in DC via buses from Texas and Arizona over the summer. (Video: Hope Davison/The Washington Post) Clusters of migrants with nowhere else to sleep after receiving initial support slept under a pavilion outside Union Station until aid teams could connect them with other accommodation. Others have…
