“I am thinking of leaving the US”: the hopelessness of migrants who legally arrived in the country in the face of the restrictions now imposed by Trump

Although Sofia obtained the parole In May of last year, your travel permit is still waiting in Caracas to be issued by the United States authorities.

His son, on the other hand, made the request at the same time, received the travel authorization 3 days after having achieved the parole and emigrated in June.

“Honestly, I’m thinking of leaving the United States,” Mario said in a WhatsApp call in which Sofia also participated. “I’ve been waiting for my wife to come with him for more than 3 years parole And now they suspend it. I’m fed up. “

Migrants outside the United States could manage their procedures through CBP One, an application that the Biden government enabled in January 2023 to assign appointments with immigration authorities.

But the platform was deactivated after Trump’s investiture and the records of 940,000 people were eliminated.

“Our intention has always been emigrating in the right way, legally,” Sofia said from Caracas. “We follow the norms, we invest our heritage in this process and now we do not know what else we can do.”

The couple asked to preserve their true identity, with the hope that this testimony does not harm them if the Trump government enables other mechanisms to allow the entry of the beneficiaries of Parole and the CBP One appointments.

So far it is unknown if the decision of the Trump government annuls the cases in progress or if it will only prevent new applications.

Nor is it clear what will happen to people who, like Sofia, already had the approved procedure and expect a travel permit.

Biden used the parole Humanitarian as an answer to the immigration crisis that unleashed the Russian invasion in Ukraine.

In April 2022, he implemented this mechanism to offer Ukrainians the possibility of legally reaching the United States, and staying for 2 years with work permit, with the support of a sponsor registered with the Department of National Security.

Months later, in October 2022, the program extended to Venezuelans, which during the last decade added 7.8 million migrants and refugees, and became the greatest exodus in the history of the American continent.

In January 2023, the parole The citizens of Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua were extended.

However, one of Trump’s most important campaign promises was to stop irregular migration to the United States, which recorded historical indices during the Biden government.

As soon as he assumed the reins of the White House, Trump announced that his government will undertake the mass deportation of undocumented, a measure that could affect at least 11 million people living in the country without having a legal immigration status.

In addition, he declared “national emergency” on the border with Mexico and the deployment of military forces to guard it, and even repealed the law that prohibited security forces seeking undocumented migrants in churches, schools and hospitals, places that were previously considered ” sensitive “and that should be exempt from migratory raids.

Mario reviews the family story that led them to the decision to leave for the United States.

First, the death of his youngest daughter in Venezuela, due to heart failure that was complicated by the lack of medicines.

Then, the decision to emigrate to Colombia to cope with that loss with a new life project.

Then, the creation of a company that finally broke due to the confinement of the pandemic.

To recover from that failure, Mario decided to accept a job offer in the United States, while Sofia returned to Caracas to reorganize. They sold everything and allocated their savings to the procedures to settle in the United States.

“This whole process has cost us about US $ 30,000,” Mario said. “And now it turns out that I can’t see my wife? This is no longer an effort, it is a sacrifice.”

In August 2024, the process of Sofia and thousands of applicants was temporarily paralyzed due to a mass fraud investigation in the applications, which further took the couple’s reunion.

During these years, Mario and Sofia have built a shared daily life through the WhatsApp chat. And they communicate by video call every time Sofia manages to have a good Internet connection in Caracas.

“We have anger and frustration, it is no longer about wasting time but to lose our marriage,” Mario lamented. “I can’t take it anymore.”

The couple rules out in Venezuela, who remains submerged in a political crisis after President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in for a third term, despite the complaints of opposition fraud, which published the electoral records that show the triumph of the candidate Edmundo González.

However, Mario has European passport. If in the next six months they do not find an exit to settle together in the United States, they will leave to Italy, the land of their parents and grandparents, willing to start from scratch once again, with the big children and the grandchildren in full growth.

“Being separated from my wife has been harder than the death of our daughter,” he said. “In that circumstance we were able to make a closure, but this time we are trapped in a situation that we do not know when it will end.”

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