“I didn’t travel alone. I did it all with my partner. It cost about 30 million pesos for the two of us. Some people picked us up at the Tijuana airport and took us to a motel, where we spent one night and the other day, very early in the morning, they came in some trucks and we headed to the border. Well treated, I must say.”
I was not scared at that moment. All very correct. When they picked us up, we saw the other people with whom we were going to go to the United States. They told us: “We’re just going to stop in that part, if you need water, food or if you want to go to the bathroom, after that we won’t stop again.” At no point were we mistreated or stolen from us, nothing was taken from us at all.
When we stopped, there was a wall at the end. It was a tour of about two hours. One thinks that it is very difficult there, but no, one passes through the wall as if nothing had happened. Once you have it, you are already in US territory. The guide says to one: “Now, yes or yes, immigration from the United States is going to catch you, so keep walking until they catch you.” And we did all that.
It was like that, we took an open road, we followed it, until one moment passed to the next. They were waiting. I remember it was very cold, but very cold. It was the middle of winter and it would be 6 in the morning.
When immigration catches you, they put you in a dungeon, which looks like a prison. They told us: “Make a line, remove earrings, belts, laces, jackets, all accessories”. The behavior was like that of any prisoner.
There is a nurse at the place who examines you, she sees if you have any skin disease or if someone bites you, if you are suffering, they ask you if you are suffering from any disease and from there He took all the information from us. , they asked us for our passports and they separated the women from the men.
I stayed in that cell for three days. Only three meals are available in a day. We slept on the floor, like on mats, they only gave us water and we were pure women with our children. No one knows what is going to happen, one feels great anxiety, one feels as if in God’s hand, without knowing about the family, we had no communication. I’m just telling him that I didn’t even know my partner was in the men’s room.
I thought a lot about my family, I thought they were giving me up for dead. It was very difficult because when you are a woman you need your personal things. Besides, he didn’t care. Once I had severe headache and I asked him for medicine and his reply was, “I am not a doctor, why have you come, wait, there is no water.” It was a strong deal whether a woman or a child. And the bathroom was in the same closet, so everything had to be done there.
We left three days later and I crossed the entire United States to get to New York. They released us on Tuesday and on Wednesday we traveled to Orlando. One very important thing I was going to forget is that when you are released by immigration, some of the Catholic churches that help migrants look for you sheltered us that first night; They also give you food, toiletries, clothes, and help you buy tickets to get to the city you need to visit.
