Amos Immigration Journey Part 1

getting worse and worse. But we were able to connect with Amos, who is one of the migrants who has spent time in outdoor detention sadly and then in indoor detentions you'll hear, and I really wanted to sort of refocus this episode on sharing Amos's story because I think, as I've said countless times right that if we don't spend a migrants in our reporting about migration, then we're

doing it wrong. And so you will hear introductions from Dave, and you will hear introductions from Emmett, and you'll heard a little bit from them next episode about how we're building the yes but we'll bring you that episode another time because I wanted this episode to be mostly about Amos's migration journey. Hello everybody, it's me James. I am hosting It could Happen here today again, and I'm joined by my friends Amos and Emmett and potentially later our

friend David. We're going to talk today again about the situation in Hitecomba. Amos is one of the people who we've detained in the outdoor detention sites, and it's going to explain some of his experience. And then Emmittt is someone who has been working with a group of people, including myself, to build shelters for migrants, to build slightly more permanent, slightly more improved shelters. Unfortunately, Bottom Control has taken upon themselves to instruct migrants to destroy those shelters.

And so we're going to talk about how we built them, what we learn when we're building them, and unfortunately the fact that they have been destroyed. So I'm going to ask our three guests to introduce themselves. David is here now, so we'll start with you Amos, and then Emmett and then David. Just tell us who you are and anything you think is right limit about yourself.

and uh what you know? I mean, I would I would love nothing more but to add to this conversation. Thank you him. My name is Emmitt. I am a volunteer with Berlin's Release Collective.

think everyone will be interested in hearing Amos's story. So as far as you're comfortable sharing, Amos, and there's no need to share anything that you're not comfortable with or don't want to share, can you tell us about your journey from North Africa to the United States, and I think we've been particularly interested in how people are finding out about these obviously these big gaps in the wall that are in Cucumber, and how people are ending up there from all over the world.

months arguing with the embassy. Was not given any legal reasoning for wide my visa was denied. I've lived in the United States for the sixteen years. I've had a Clington record with one arrest and release and it was part of a protest that really that happened in Los Angeles and were released right away, and basically I left in twenty fifteen. I'd got to think the clean hands and no issues and then going back to Tunisia where I was with my new family anyhow. So basically I

was denied visa I really wanted to do. I've never done anything illegal in my life. I wanted to do the legal route, following what's been always told that, you know, follow their legal route, don't come illegally. So that was not even a question in my mind. You know, you know, the wife is American, the kids are American. I mean, I just it shouldn't be an issue. But I really was confronted with I mean, I can safely say bye

by now it's a bias. It's got to be some racism just by by by deduction really, because when you run out of reasoning, you have to really start making these sad and you know said conclusions. So yeah, so basically no again, that was that took me on a long and painful depression and anxiety and a cocktail of mental health issues that I'm still actually dealing with right now. And it took my kids, my two kids, my beautiful kids, through therapy and they're still going through therapy. My wife

is going through therapy. I'm going through therapy, and it took it blew apart in this family. We're still trying to figure out why so much you know nothing but to define it. But hey, really there is no other way of putting it. So and again I just the discussion was with my friends in America has been very difficult because they have no understanding or concept of what you know, the diplomat whore is doing and what is the these embassies are doing because there is no there

is no access to them by Americans. It's just usually foreigners who do and that really creates like this black hole of tax money going to these embassies. And then what they're doing is just just with a stroke of a pen, yes, yes or no, no explanation. You can't sue,

you can't appeal, you can't do. It's absolute power. And then you know, I'm I'm mentioning this that the embassy is because through my journey, through this long and painful journey, I've met time and time again other fellow immigrants who again tried to go through the LEAGUEA route were denied with no reason, with no like, no written reason, no

no valid reason. So again you know, this this discussion on on on and off again, and you know, among consitizens as to why people are showing up in the border, well, I mean, at least in part, what I see is no accountability whatsoever to the embassies. Like time and time again, you have these embassies denying people who are trying to do it the right way, trying to do it. They either have family or work or whatever, and they're denied

time and time again. And then you have, you know, in the hundreds of thousands going through that process, and of course they try, they try, and then eventually they have no choice. So I'm not saying this is the only explanation, but it's a big part of it. I've spoken for people who are crossing and who are on the way from anywhere from Brazil to Colombia to Ecuador, to Panama, to Nicaragua, to Guatemala, to Belize, in Mexico

all across. I've come across so many people and they, you know, at least I mean, my little humble mass I would say fifty to sixty percent have tried to embassies, but unfortunately, you know that, you know that they just turned down. So, uh, this is an issue that is not talked about. This is an issue they really get away with. Scott Free, I mean, they really don't. There's

zero cond of I mean there are gods. I mean, the ambassador have zero accountability now, I mean he he is absolutely he has all the power and no cannability. I mean, rarely you see ambassador being recalled by Congress. Rarely you see an ambassador being questioned, Hey, why are these these are demands being the the client, why what are you doing about it? All that stuff? And you know, so, so this is this is some of the stuff I want to add to the conversation because nobody has ever

mentioned this. Nobody talks about this.

I don't expect others to understand it, but we we feel it. And this is a discussion I've had in detention with a lot of the fellow detainees. There is that sense, there's a sense that, you know, we're being looked down at, not on our merits, but on you know, a little bit of you know, assumptions because of where you're from. Assumptions like you go in and it's already baked. It's already baked. It's already And this is me. I've had a visa from the US for sixteen years. I mean,

it should be a slam dunk, you know. So my two kids are American, my wife, my wife is American. We are and til today are so confused as to why the denials happened. I mean, I've called Congress members that David was with me today when I was at the Congress Membership Shift Adam Shift in Bourbon, California, and we you know, even they don't have an answer as to why the denial happened. And you know, I mean

to close my personal issue, James. It's interesting because I was told that perhaps you were illegally in the United States between twenty thirteen twenty fifteen and then, but they can't say for sure that was the reason. But in detention when they when they did all the research on me, none of that existed, none of that, There is none of that. They released me because they have nothing against me. Nothing.

And this is and this is the USCIES. This is the Immigration Service, not the embassy coming up with some of these you know, bogus ideas. You know, so again it's a mess, and I feel like, you know this, this these embassies need to be looking into more because the border patrol ends up feeling the blunt of all this. But where does it start? Where is the source? It's always the question of where is the source. Where the source is, Yes, there's economic issues, there is there is

there is physical abuse. There's all kinds of stuff. But then also there's tax dollars being spent in the billions and the billions and hundreds of billions of these diplomatic course. I mean to be fair, my journey was not was not as difficult as many many, many, many many stories that I've heard heart women, I mean really heartbreaking stories.

My journey really, you know, I'm I'm somewhat to have a somewhat of a sophisticated life in the sense that you know, I spent a lot of time again, we wasted. Most of the time that we wasted was waiting on the embassy because they kept on dragon and dragging their feet, six seven months waiting while my kids are crying on the phone, and you know, we don't have the income to to be to able to have them come back

to to to Tunisia where I was. So anyhow, so yeah, I started by researching, researching, reading a lot of articles, researching as far as North Africa. The route that is being used right now by mostly by a lot of Mauritanians and West Africans. It goes through Turkey, uh and

then from Turkey they're going to Nicaragua because Nicaragua. Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, they have allowed for visa and arrival, and then from and then from Managua there is literally almost like travel companies doing packaging packages for upwards to six seven thousand dollars from there to and then six

seven thousand dollars from Nicarago. But before Nicaragua there's at least three four thousand dollars, so I'm told by I think, yeah, the four Mauritanians that were detained, I'm told about ten thousand dollars, which comes down to their local currency, about forty five thousand of their local currency, which is a lot, I mean a lot. So they so, like I said,

so they managed to get the flights to Nicaragua. Managua has vis on an arrival for thirty days for North Africans, and then from there you've got literally their journey through I don't know, coyotes whatever you want to call them, facilitators whatever, well established with buses through El Salvador, through what Honduras, Honduras and Salvador, Guatemala, and then through Mexico.

So that's the route that's been you know, upwards of six seven thousand more Tennians and West Africans as far as the last articles that I've read have taken that route, so I looked into it. I couldn't afford it, to be honest with you, this is just you know, I was sending money to my kids and wife because she had to be on welfare. She just arrived there and she had to kill the kids at school and there's a lot of struggle, so I had to kind of

try to help with that. On the same time, I was waiting on the embassy and we you know, and the wife was calling them to see if how can we expedite, can we do this, can we do this? But they were literally rude and you know, treated her like a second class citizen. I don't know why. We still can't figure that out.

So a lot of Africans can go to Brazil and from Brazil take the route all the way. So David mentioned the Amazon Strait where they crossed the jungle from Colombia to Panama and so on and so forth. That is I mean, I'm yes, the Darian the famous Darian Act. That is to me personal. Man, it gives me chills because the two or three guys that one of them did it on his own with Google Maps. Man, I don't know how the hell he did it. I have no clue how he did it. I am. I was

listening and trying to understand them. Oh it was just heart heartbreaking, you know, the suffering. So but yeah, I through Brazil and then Colombia and then and keep on going that way. That's another route for me. Uh. Again, I booked flights. Uh, I didn't go through that trouble to be fair, but I've had some issues with vy is because North Africas don't get a lot of visa access around the Latin America. We don't have a lot of embassies there we don't have a lot of trade.

We don't have a lot of commerce between our countries, so it's kind of an unknown UH an unknown commodity in the sense that you know everything is is, you know is new UH. For me, I was able to get a visa to Colombia, and I'm very grateful to choose Colombia because it's a it's affordable. It's been a good experience for myself to get out of UH, me get closer and on the same time figure out the lay of the land and understand where I'm going. So

those I'm grateful for that. And from there, my goal was to get a visa to Mexico and a lot of and most of my American friends are still confused. That's why I would need a Mexican visa. That's a whole other discussion. And then the Mexican visa has become extremely difficult, almost as difficult as the American visa because of pressure from the United States to stop the flow. So again we end up making it very difficult for

people who want to legitimately do this. So finding an appointment for a Mexican embassy, then you find out which embassy of Mexico has appointments available. Some of them don't have ever, some of them have them two years from now. Some of them have them, you know, for a particular visa,

but not the other. And you know, so for me, it was Colombia, and then I found an appointment in for Mexican visa and Belize, but unfortunately I ended up in you know, going from Colombia to Panama to Nicaragua to Guatemala and then Belieze because Belize has not a

lot of flights from Latin America. And then when I got to Guatemala, all the previous countries allowed me to transit without a problem, but Guatemala decided to put me in a detention for almost forty hours and then wanted to return me back to to original country because they yeah, so I'm like, I'm, I'm I'm My plane departs a few hours of going to Belize. Why are you doing this? Please? I'm not only the visit so to Guatemala. I'm not

going to Guatemala, nothing, no discussion. They threw me in there, cockroaches, you name it. The whole Enchilada. I mean, no food, no water, no nothing. I mean, you know, it's just sad, very sad, very sad, very sad. That was a really verd And then so I was sent back to Panama, then from Panama to Colombia, and then Colombia that was going to send me back to North Africa. So it

was going to be a really mess. So I had to use some of my customer service skills that have run through the years to wiggle myself where I last minute was able to help some friends buy a ticket to like you know, in the midnight hour. Really they were going to send me. So I bought a ticket to Ecuador, where I had a visa for ninety days. So I was able to get out of that mess, stay in Couador for a couple of weeks and then

try to get to Belize again. And the next time I was successful in going to Belize through Panama and then uh Nicaraguo, then straight to Belieze, avoiding Guatemala and then Believe. I was there for a couple of weeks, and then I was able to get a visa to Mexico, thank God. And uh, there was a lot of Russians, there was a lot of Turks, There was a lot of no no, no Turks, Russians and a lot of East Europeans trying to get a visa there too for

Mexico and basically yea. From there, it was the journey of taking a bus from Belize to Cancun, can Coun to Monterey, Monterrey to Cabo. I found a job, a volunteering job in Porto es Condido. I'm a yoga practitioner, and I found a yoga retreat there to try to help me with my mental health and all that stuff. So, uh yeah, So they're doing a great job. It's in the middle of the wilderness. They're really present, you know, working on natural preservation and in beautiful job they're doing there.

And then from there Goble's Lucas Lucas. I volunteered at a hotel to kind of be able to eat and sleep, and then from there Tijuana and Tijuana. I met someone earlier in can Con, a Colombian who was all the time I was in Mexico, I was trying to do the app, the c if you we want app.

randomly selects people. So but again, you know, out of a close to one hundred people in my detention cell, you know room, everybody's saying we all tried, and none of them, you know, got an appointment. I mean everybody wants an appointment. I mean, who's in the rights, who's in the right in his right mind would choose to forego an appointment and go do throughout that trouble. So,

and if we could do a little bit of a math. Eventually, at some point I spoke to the supervisor of the Border Patrol detention center and he told me there eighteen

hundred people at any given point in that place. So out of eighteen hundred people, and if my cell there was about six cells or something or more than that much more, much more the six cells and then four blocks, I think, sonyah, So uh yeah, I mean if about out of one hundred, then you have nobody was able to use the app then what's what's what's the tell? Tell out of the eighteen hundred, maybe nine percent, I

mean all of them really, because if they did have appointment. Yeah, if they had appointments, there would have been not in there, right, I mean that's the key.

the wall, and I'm like, what's going on? Where is the border patrol? Where is the port of entry? Where is this? I'm not confused.

have been committed. And it is of course legal to cross the border and present yourself asylum immediately upon doing so, even to cross between ports of entry. It's the discretion of the administration or the prosecutors to charge for that crossing. But that is a legal means to claim asylum. And so we'll let it must pick up again here as he takes his first step into United States.

to be sort of neutral or anything. They were just you know, anyhow. So I'm looking for a border patrol. I'm trying to say, hey, I'm finding for asylum. Where are you? What's going on? Nothing, there's nobody. So I'm just walking around with the with the around the world. I called my wife, I called some friends. Thank god it's to that signal. And then uh, yeah, I mean, you know, the first border patrolman that I saw, he was pissed off. He said, a few, a few, a

few this, uh, move out of my way. Fine cool. Uh. I told them whatever I said. If I didn't like, I said, I'm sorry. And then I moved on and nobody's interested in even to talk. So and then I moved closer, closer to the crowd, and uh, I don't know if that's when I saw David, but it was almost almost almost yeah, And even when I saw David initially, but then I kept going to do to have an idea of the whole camp camp and the whole like

understand what the dynamics. I saw some National guardsmen, I saw some DHS police, and I saw some Border patrolmen. It's like a whole mix of people. And I think I think there was UH Park Rangers. If I'm not, I'm not a second yeah yeah so being LAMB rangers. Yeah. So so it's a lot of huge mix of people. And right away my my survivor instincts kind of you know, I I saw David and I saw tools, and my eyes opened up because you know, I I built my farm from scratch in North Africa and I have my

tools are everything to me. So anyhow, so I'm glad I did see that that that familiar site and I appreciate that. But you, but you, David and Caesar, you guys were terrific. And yeah, I mean nobody spoke English. Nobody spoke English, nobody and everybody's being treated like I mean, I told one Border performent, I have house, I have sheep. I treat them better the way you treat these guys. I really do, I truly do and they were didn't

like that kind of talk. But anyhow, so yeah, I mean it got really cold, I mean fairy quickly and right away David and Caissar, thank god, had had some tools and we started, you know, working on getting some tents up and running, and I mean they did most of the work really. I I was just there helping. So uh and it was it was, it was, dude. My heart was really pain giving me a lot of pain because in my mind I had my boy and my girl on my mind and I'm just trying to

get to them. But I've seen these kids. Man. That was that was horrific.

And then I got up and I kept walking around. Some people had a lot of woods, some people didn't have enough wood, so and some people didn't want me to take some of their wood. I had to go pick up some wood and try to look, you know, make sure everybody's fire is up and running. And and then you know, when everybody had the fire and everybody kind of somewhat settled in, I figured, hey, let me talk if I'm up, let me talk to the Border patrol.

I spoke to the first one. He was kind of, you know, didn't want to talk, but still said a few things. But then another one originally from San Diego. Cool guy, really cool guy. He gave me the picture. I mean, look, listen, I mean, you know, we're here to work and it's stressful. It's a lot. We're trying to do the best we can. It's not our fort and it's not you know what I mean, you know, you know, And he told me, listen, you can go back to Tijuana, or you can go in the United

States or do whatever you want. But if I pick you up outside of this area, you go straight to the portation. That's the bottom line. But if you stay here, you get to be picked up and processed and you'll have a chance to fight for your asylum. So again, excellent information, with the exception of even they don't know the process, because you don't get to fight for asylum in detention. In detention, they release you on your recongnissance and then later on you fight for asylum.

We started talking about hunting, We started talking about you know, fishing and stuff like that, and they were you know what do you expect you know, they're doing their job and their human beings doing what humans beings do. So, I mean, I can absolutely sympathize and understand, you know, these guys' jobs. My only beef is that do you have to be the I mean, yes, you're pissed. Yes, it's a lot of work. Yes, it's frustrating. Yes it

feels like your country is invaded. Blah blah blah. We get all that, But is you being mean, rude or downright evil? Is that going to change anything? It's not. These guys went through flicking the Amazon. I mean, at some point I swum with a crocodile. I didn't even know the crocodiles around. I'm just saying, it's so weird that they're educated and they're informed, yet they still have that attitude. It's just like you know what I mean, it doesn't it doesn't.

the position they're put in. Okay, I absolutely sympathize. You cannot go wrong with that. I mean, I mean, it's you have every right to to to to to be that way. Again, my beef is, why do you like good morning? A few good afternoon, a few good night, a few like like what? It becomes so sad. It's just like, you know, loses it's importance. Even the F word is no longer important, you know what I mean. So yeah, it's just too much, so much.

and Caesar really understand how important what they're doing. It's extremely important, it's very valuable. So to me personally, it's just the shark and all the initial shock, it just went away really quickly because I saw tools that I saw David, and I knew what's going on because I volunteered in shelters in LA in Los Angeles, I volunteered at the mission down at UH, you know, downtown l A. You know on schedule if you hear of skid Row, I've volunteered there. And I mean, i know very well

what homelessness looks like. So I've done Christmas service, I've done food food service. Automatically, when I saw David, I just completely kicked in and I it was a natural thing for me to jump aboard and help UH. And then again I couldn't sleep early in the morning, like four or five, I started seeing some border patrolment coming in, and right away the huffing and puffin starts. You know

what I mean, the traveling and all the business. Okay, and uh initially I mean I again, I hate to use the word I, but I helped organize the crowd a little bit because they were fighting because they were the PP was BP was picking up, uh, people that have been there that they're just arrived, they're leaving the people that were there longer, you know, for the the ones that were that I stayed with, were there for

four days. They didn't get picked up, and so that a logistical issue and people were just not being organized. So we did the line demarcation line. Those who were here for three days, they need to be here two days. One day. We did that, and then the first border patrolment that showed up on a g sorry yelling at me, you're doing our job. Okay, sorry, sorry, sorry. I backed up. I backed up. I minded my business. And then another border patrolment tells me, hey, listen, listen, listen, I needed

to do forty seven on the side. Futty seven on the side. I need you. Yeah, I'm like, what's going on here? Okay? I mean again, I dropped my ego. I don't care as long as these guys get a chance to get through, because there was a lot of frustration where they're picking up people random and they're picking up leaving people that are being there for a long time.

You had families that did not want to be separated, you had families that have been there longer, and you had you know, so it's just a huge miss missmash of situations and you know so, uh yeah, I mean, eventually, on on on on the next day, early in the morning, we did some organizing and it seemed to me that we were much more fluid and and and the border patrolman filled up the bus and it happened to be one of them, one of the people that were picked up. Yeah, anyhow so.