In episode five of "Line in the Land," a podcast from Texas Public Radio and the Houston Chronicle, Haitian refugees share stories about what happened when they reached the end of their perilous journey and made it to the U.S. border.
After displacement from Haiti, an exodus from South America and an epic journey through the Americas, what became of Haitians’ American dream? Today, in the final episode of the “Line in the Land” podcast produced by Texas Public Radio and the Houston Chronicle, we hear from Haitian migrants about where they ended up. Read the full transcript here.
Hosts: Joey Palacios of Texas Public Radio, and Elizabeth Trovall with the Houston Chronicle
More reading:
Listen to all “Line in the Land” episodes
The Times podcast: Our nation’s Haitian double standard
Haitians in L.A. Spread Out and Blend In
This podcast is made possible by the Catana Foundation, supporting the asylum seeker advocacy project, providing more than 100,000 asylum seekers in the U.S. with community and legal support. Learn more at asylum.news. For the Spanish version of this episode, listen here.
*This transcript was automatically transcribed. We apologize for the mistakes and imperfections.
GUSTAVO: Hey, what’s up. It’s Gustavo Arellano and you’re listening to The Times, essential news…from the LA Times.
Today… episode 5 of “A Line in the Land,” from our friends at Texas Public Radio and the Houston Chronicle. It’s a podcast that explores the human story behind the Haitian immigration journey to the U.S.
It’s Tuesday, August 30, 2022.
After displacement from Haiti, an exodus from South America and an epic journey through the Americas, what became of the American dream for these refugees?
In this final episode of Line in the Land, Haitians explain where they ended up.
By the way…If you haven’t listened to the first four episodes, you should go back and do that now. We’ve been airing episodes from “A Line in the Land” every Tuesday through August. Today’s episode is the last in the series. Hope you’ve enjoyed it.
Hey, there are episodes of line in the land in English and in Spanish. This is the English version.
The mood was pretty upbeat at the AYA migrant shelter on a sunny November morning, Domingue Paul and his wife SLE and fan were lining up to board a bus. Finally taking them away from this dilapidated building where they've been living in limbo after deciding not to cross into the us.
It's a good day. The couples stand with their luggage and two children. Yeah.
Paul and Fanfan are optimistic about staying in Mexico, getting a job, enrolling their kids in school so they can have a better life and education.
After we said goodbye. They traveled 400 miles south to make a home in the Mexican city of , where they had been promised, help getting jobs and housing. But after they got there, Everything changed. Ben FN tells me over WhatsApp messages. I, I mean,
a friend convinced them to go north and cross the border. They were detained by border officials, stripped of their personal belongings and put in a freezing cold cell.
She says her family spent nine days in detention. Then in the middle of the night, they were suddenly woken up. Their hands and feet were bound. They were flown back to Haiti. Ah, yeah, we are.
She remembers hearing the sobbing on the plane. She cried too. I can take the.
The just
some people even got on their knees begging not to be deported. She says,
since arriving in Haiti, they've been living at her mom's house. They don't have clean drinking water or electric. Her Chilean children are in a country, completely foreign to them.
Her family was among the more than 10,000 Haitian nationals and children at the border in Del Rio, who after a long journey from Brazil or Chile were sent on flights back to Haiti. That's about 40% of all Haitian nationals who were detained by customs and border protection in Del Rio from September, 2021 to the end of the year, thousands more were actually allowed into the us.
And there's also the Haitians that never even made it that far. Like the thousands still in Mexico, where asylum claims from Haitians have skyrocketed their Odyssey in pursuit of a better life continues, Texas public radio, and the Houston Chronicles spent months reporting on this story. We went to the forest of Columbia, Mexican migrant shelters.
We spoke with Haitians across the America. In person through WhatsApp and video calls with folks in Haiti and Mexico, the people who can best tell this story, who can help us understand why so many people took this perilous journey and how immigration policies in the Americas played such a pivotal. And in some cases, devastating role in their lives.
I'm joy Palacios with Texas public radio. And I'm Elizabeth Tral with the Houston Chronicle. This is episode five of line in the land.
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Okay. So before we continue with what happened with Paul and fan fan and the other Haitian families, we've been follow. We still haven't answered a couple of big questions. Like why did all of these migrants end up in the small border town of Del Rio, Texas of all places Del Rio has seen a huge uptick in border traffic since 2020 to be clear, even the experts.
Aren't sure why. But Jessica bolter with the migration policy Institute has some ideas. I think there has been this, this perception that it is, um, one of the safer places to cross the border in terms of, um, criminal organizations on the Mexican side. Boulder says word about that crossing point, spread like wildfire on social media and WhatsApp.
That's how many of the migrants I spoke with knew to cross there. It's also quite possible that there, there were some, some smuggling networks that had chosen that area and were. Directing people there. And there's the other burning question. Why did some Haitians get expelled while others were led into the us?
So that is extremely murky. Boulder says she thinks some were led in for humanitarian reasons, but also there are also limits on detention. City that made it more likely for migrants who couldn't be sent back to Mexico to be released into the us. These life altering decisions may have been made because of simple logistics,
John. So, oh, gene was in Del Rio under that international bridge with his pregnant wife. They waited three days in triple digit temperatures with limited access to food and water. I caught up with him in Northwest Houston. He was living in a spacious, two story brick home of a local volunteer. He said, well, under that bridge, he knew he was going to get in.
You use,
he was right by sheer luck. His family was among the thousands of Haitians who did gain entry to the us. Exactly how remains unclear. But we do know he and his family were quickly released and took a bus to Houston where they've decided to stay for now. In the living room nearby his wife, Naomi say Moroni held their crying infant daughter who was born soon after they arrived in the us.
He said he just wants a place where they can feel safe, where they can work and achieve their goals. He thinks in the us, they can do that. Still. His journey is far from over his newborn is a us citizen, but O Gene's options to stay in the country legally are far and // few between. After learning Spanish and building a life in Chile, he's starting over again,
but he says they've arrived at the best place to have a better life.
And live in peace.
And then there's migrants like John, John Baptiste. Remember the cheery Haitian guy coming from Brazil, who I met traveling through the Columbian forest. We last saw each other last year on that rugged hike. When his trip through the daddy end gap had just begun.
We caught up on a WhatsApp video call in April. He wears a green soccer Jersey from Brazil and is grinning Howard. I miss . He's been afraid of crossing to the us for fear. He could get sent back to Haiti. So he's been living in an apartment in Monte, Mexico with his wife and son who was enrolled in public school there and is working on a Spanish.
Jean Baptiste says people, there are pretty nice. They ask him tons of questions about who he is and where he is from.
He's been working the night shift at a home Depot nearby shelving merchandise. Jean Baptiste has been there a few months. And even though he doesn't have any major complaints about life in Mexico. He admits the us where he has lots of extended family is still where he wants to end up
here, Mexico. Isn't the destination. He says, it's the backup plan. More when we come back.
MUX FADE OUT
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We're. When I spoke with John John Baptiste in April, he told me he was waiting for title 42 to be dropped. Then he might try to go to the us. Title 42 wasn't ended. And yet just a few weeks later, I got a WhatsApp message.
Jean Baptist is in a Mexican border city next to McAllen, which is at the Southern tip of Texas.
He says, there's a ton of people there.
Haitians Guatemalans Hondurans. He's been at a church shelter there waiting around in pretty tough conditions, looking for a lawyer to help him get to the us. We stay in touch weeks later, he's
among the tens of thousands of Haitians, OSA, and other parts of Mexico. In 2021, Mexico saw a nearly 800% increase in Haitians seeking asylum there close to 52,000 people along with nearly 10,000 children of Haitians. Land or Brazilian citizens. That's according to the country's refugee agency goad, and it's likely that many of those tens of thousands still consider the us to be their final destination.
Wages are much better in the us. There's a labor shortage. It's safer, more diverse. There's another factor to consider too in Spanish, it's called Dego, which basically means uprooted. This, there are words in Haitian Creole, which mean the same thing.
Edson Lior is a researcher in BTA. He says Haitian immigrants to Latin America deal with alienation that goes beyond simply a language or cultural barrier.
Our souls are injured from being uprooted. He says, because we're not indigenous to the Americas. We're from Africa. He himself is a Haitian immigrant in Columbia. BOR says the us offers something different for black migrants.
He says, even though Haitians will have to deal with things like racism in the United States,
the us has Haitian and other Caribbean communities. So Haitians are more likely to feel like they belong.
We first caught up with dash in February dash was the young woman with the radiant smile. Stephanie talked to in AYA who was so optimistic about what life could be like in Mexico, like Dominga Paul and Kesly fan fan. She lived in Mexico for almost. Months with her son and partner through WhatsApp messages.
She shared with Stephanie, how things were going.
Okay.
Was struggling. She wanted to be somewhere where there was more of a Haitian community somewhere where they feel more of the hair and beauty products that made her feel at home.
It was clear from her messages that Dasha was not happy. I lost track of her for a couple of weeks. When suddenly in early may out of the blue, my phone rang,
I made ITCA told me I'm with my family. Now she was leaving with family in Ohio. After spending three days in RESA, she was able to legally enter the us on a tourist visa. Booked her, her son and her partner playing tickets from Texas to Ohio in early June. I made my own way to Ohio to see her and asked her about arriving in the us.
I be on, he.
the airport she explained was a scary experience. Not only did she physically get lost, but she got lost in translation, too. Everything was in English, which she doesn't speak, but luckily DAKA heard a woman speaking Spanish. Who helped her find her way. Now, as we walk to the neighborhood store, she tells me how much she loves being surrounded by her family and how surprised she's at just how many Haitian products are sold in the us.
I, of course I could.
She says she's been coming across a lot of familiar foods, fruits and vegetables that she hasn't even. Let alone taste it for almost six years. It's been a month since she arrived in the us and she really is trying to adapt,
but the truth is she's really stressed out. She now feels the us for everybody and remembers that her cousin who had lived in the us for a year had warn her just how harsh American life is
in the, she has to see it to believe. And now that she understands how hard it is going to be for her to settle into the country. She's losing sleep
American dream. It's not really the American dream. She says, see.
As for fan fan and Paul, the couple that was expelled back to Haiti after crossing in November, they had tried to get official paperwork in Chile, but were rejected there and then rejected again by the us. After months in Haiti, they finally got plane tickets to return to Chile trying once again with their Chile and children in tow to make a home.
Their, their journey continues. The stories we've told over the past five episodes while they speak to the unique 10,000 mile journey of many Haitians, they also tell a story about the human impact of us policies around the world and at the border. One of those policies is title 42, the pandemic policy that has nearly shut off access to asylum at the border.
It's been used by both the Trump and Biden administrations to quickly turn away. Not just Haitians, but many nationalities or send them to their home countries, allegedly to control the spread of COVID 19. Whenever that policy is lifted, some claim, it will be a return to open borders. Well, they're not doing much.
And I think it's important when we talk about the border. We're talking about those that are coming in and they're gonna make a run on our border. When title 42 expires like we've made others say lifting title 42 means asylum is back. That means families coming across a border with young children. It means even single adults can cross a Southern border and claim asylum.
It means a return to the status quo of our asylum system that existed pre COVID. But even the status quo is still a broken asylum system. One with a backlog of nearly 2 million cases. So people with and without valid asylum claims, wait for years for their day in. In some courts like those in Texas, it can be next to impossible to win a case, especially for Haitians and central Americans, which is important context because this summer is likely to break new records.
When it comes to people arriving at the us border. As people flee conditions in their own countries that have only deteriorated in recent years, like Venezuela, a global pandemic threatening, an already dire situation for Ukraine. Russia's troops. Now occupy the theater that was bombed as hundreds, sheltered, or Haiti, the sound of gunshots on the streets of Hades capital porta.
At least 20 people have been killed over the past week alone. Many of them, the people leaving the crude realities of poverty, violence, war, corruption, starvation, they'll be at our doorstep looking to cross the line in the land and they'll be there regardless of whether or not they get a warm welcome.
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GUSTAVO: And that’s it for this episode of THE TIMES, essential news from the LA Times.
LINE IN THE LAND is reported and produced by Elizabeth Trovall (TRO-vall), Sofia Sanchez, Stephania Corpi (CORE-pee)… And Joey Palacios. Their editor is Alisa (Uh-LEE-suh) Barba (BARB-uh).
Cultural competency assessment by Myriam Chancy (Meer-ee-am Chaw-see). Sound design and music by Jacob Rosati.
Audio mixing by Bennett Smith. And special thanks to Dan Katz, Lily Thomas and Maria Reeve.
LINE IN THE LAND is a production of Texas Public Radio in collaboration with the Houston Chronicle.
You can find and follow the show and binge all the episodes in season 1 on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
The Times is produced by Shannon Lin, Denise Guerra, Kasia Brousalian, David Toledo and Ashlea Brown. Our editorial assistants are Madalyn Amato and Carlos De Loera. Our intern is Surya Hendry. Our engineers are Mario Diaz, Mark Nieto and Mike Heflin. Our editor is Kinsee Morlan. Our executive producers are Jazmin Aguilera, Shani Hilton and Heba Elorbany. And our theme music is by Andrew Eapen.
I'm Gustavo Arellano. We'll be back tomorrow with all the news and desmadre. Gracias.