- Title: The migrant caravans: She misses home and prays not to be sent back
- Date: 10th October 2019
- Summary: PHOTOS OF COUSINS ON PHONE
- Embargoed: 24th October 2019 14:29
- Keywords: migrant migration Irma Jesus Honduran migrant Texas
- Location: FORT WORTH, TEXAS, UNITED STATES
- City: FORT WORTH, TEXAS, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA002B0IJSCN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: As grateful as she is to be in America, Irma Rivera is homesick.
She breaks into tears as she lists the relatives and close friends she misses, but she doesn't want to go back.
"I lived calmly. There was no need for me to come here. I had my home, my garden, my chickens, everything. I had 10 good years of tranquility. I didn't even have the dream, have the idea of coming here. I had everything there, and in 2016, my husband was killed," Rivera said.
"I sold my home. Everything was getting worse. I was all alone, and so I started over."
The 33-year-old Honduran mother and her children, Jesus, 5, and Suany, 8, walked thousands of miles north through Guatemala and Mexico, where in the spring they sought protection in a caravan. The three asked for U.S. asylum in May 2018 at the port of entry near San Diego, California. They spent three weeks in U.S. custody, then convinced an immigration official they had a "credible fear" of returning home.
They were released pending court hearings to decide their fate - a process that could take years.
Rivera and her sister, who arrived from Honduras a few months ago, rent a small apartment together. Rivera, Suany and Jesus share an inflatable mattress in a bedroom with Rivera's teenage niece.
According to an asylum officer's notes reviewed by Reuters, Rivera told the officer in May 2018 that her husband, a farmer, was murdered by field workers after he threatened to report them to authorities for stealing valuable palm fruit from the land he tilled. In the fertile Bajo Aguan region where the family lived, a violent conflict is raging over land rights. The area has been flagged by Human Rights Watch as an epicenter of murders "with impunity."
After the murder, Rivera told Reuters the same group that killed her husband - never apprehended by police - threatened the rest of the family.
"They called me and told me that if I report them, the same would happen to me that happened to my husband," she said.
Since then, she has heard, her village has only become more dangerous, and even more families are making their way north.
Rivera arrived in the United States with straightforward expectations, thinking her children would go to school and that she would find work. But she said it has been more difficult.
"Several times I was told, Mexican taqueria said no, because they needed Mexicans - knowing about Mexican food. Other times I was told no because I didn't have permission to work, and I was without work for two months," Rivera said.
Now she has a job at a bakery, but she is not yet able to work legally and has struggled to make rent and pay lawyers' fees. She relies in part on the generosity of family and friends.
Recently an American woman asked her a question in English, and she was embarrassed because she couldn't understand, let alone reply.
Her kids miss Honduras, too - the many children in their extended family, not to mention their dog, Rocky.
But they are adapting, faster than she is. Suany, who attends a bilingual school, speaks both English and Spanish with her new friends. Jesus has learned a few words and phrases, among them: "What is your name? What are you doing?" And: "Car!"
"Suany is in second grade. And the teacher called to tell me that she was doing well, that her English was doing well. That she learned English really quickly. And now they've given her awards, clapped for her a lot at school. And Jesus, they say he's ready for kindergarten. And he wants to go to kindergarten," Rivera said.
She prays she and the children will be able to stay here. Recently, Rivera said she heard of a woman denied asylum and given 30 days to leave the country, which she hopes won't happen to her.
(Production by: Mike Wood and Dan Fastenberg) - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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