Nusly the Migrant part 2
Nusly the Migrant part 2
88 hours in a Greyhound bus
Nusly and Jefferson have to submit a photo to immigration every Wednesday from the cell phone given to asylum seekers. The purpose of the photograph is to prove that they are where they have said they are. There is an app on the phone that allows them to change their address and offer an explanation for the change. This Wednesday Nusly will submit her photo and shortly afterwards the two will walk away from where they are presently sleeping on the floor and accruing debt for useless false papers and “room” and board despite the fact that Nusly has been doing all the cooking and cleaning for a number of people. On New Years’ Eve she cooked chicken pepian, the national dish of Guatemala for two hundred people. The day before she had her first paid job since arriving in the United States. She was paid $100 for cleaning a house but was required to donate half of that to the electricity bill where the two are staying. Another $5 went for medicine when she was sick and had a fever leaving them with $45.
On the advice of a friend in New Mexico who is, along with myself, trying to help the two they are now taking walks every day with their backpacks and water bottles as, they will say if asked, part of a fitness program. This coming Wednesday they will simply not return as they will walk to the local transit point and catch a bus to Dover, Delaware leaving them with about $40. In Dover they will spend the evening in the 7/11 that is the Greyhound stop and start their eighty-eight hour journey to Reno, Nevada where Nusly has a niece. The niece arrived in the US only a few months before Nusly and her success in getting into the country was, no doubt, an impetus for Nusly. If all goes as planned the two should arrive at the Sparks, Nevada transit facility in about a week’s time. At this writing there is no solution for their arrival beyond finding a homeless shelter. The niece, her husband and three-year old cannot accommodate them where they are staying though they are looking for alternate housing for the two groups. Nusly and Jefferson will arrive hungry, tired, dirty and with no money and no plan and it will be the dead of winter in Reno.
Will they actually be able to escape where they are being held hostage? Will they make it onto the bus in Dover, Delaware? Will they succeed in making the five changes of buses in Richmond, VA, Nashville, TN, Dallas, TX, Los Angeles and Sacramento? Will they be able to get enough to eat with their $40? Will we find a place for them to go and sleep in a real bed, have a hot shower and a decent meal after their eighty-eight hours on the bus? Will it be possible to get Jefferson registered in the public school system before he turns eighteen in February and is no longer eligible? He is a good student and desperately wants to continue his education. Will Nusly quickly find the work that has eluded her for almost three months?
And what about the $20,000 coyote payment that was borrowed from a Guatemalan bank using property owned by Nusly’s parents as collateral? For all practical purposes that property is gone as she has missed the first three loan payments for not being able to find the work that was promised in Delaware. Interestingly, the bank valued the property at double the value of the loan so the banks too are complicit in this whole immigration mess. They will, no doubt, foreclose on the property and double their investment. Gladly, Nusly’s father will likely not know about this as he is on his death bed with advanced prostate cancer. Her mother and Nusly’s disabled son will likely have to move in with other family members.
And a week from Wednesday Nusly will need to use the app to submit a new, yet unknown, address to immigration and a photograph to confirm that she is really at that address.
Watch this space.