Indigenous diaspora: Reaching the border, untracked in the U.S. immigration system
Puente News Collaborative May 11, 2021
By Veronica Martinez/La Verdad and Maria Ramos Pacheco and René Kladzyk/El Paso Matters
When Melinda and her family reached the border between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso in late October 2020, a storm menaced late into the night and the ground was covered with snow.
The Guatemalan family had journeyed nearly 2,000 miles from the municipality of Joyabaj, and at the time, they only knew how to speak the Indigenous language K’iche’.
Upon reaching the international port of entry, 26-year-old Melinda never spoke directly with a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer. She did not reach the top of the bridge where two CBP officers guarded the international boundary, nor did she try to surrender herself and her family to Border Patrol at the levee of the Rio Grande.
https://elpasomatters.org/2021/05/11/indigenous-diaspora-reaching-the-border-untracked-in-the-u-s-immigration-system/
