SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
It is time for you to leave the United States. That's from an email sent by the Department of Homeland Security on Monday to migrants in the U.S. who hope to get asylum. When Yasmelin Velazquez saw this email, she panicked. NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán has been following her story for 10 months because it is a window into what asylum-seekers have been dealing with over the last year.
SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN, BYLINE: Like many Venezuelans, 36-year-old Yasmelin Velazquez fled her country looking for a better life.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
YASMELIN VELAZQUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: That's Velazquez in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, when I met her last summer. She told me that she was looking for a way out of Venezuela's socioeconomic problems and dictatorship. And that meant waiting for her immigration appointment, booked through the CBP One app, a legal pathway, and at that time, the only way to get an appointment.
VELAZQUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: She waited seven months in Mexico before becoming one of 900,000 people who used the app to schedule an immigration hearing in the U.S., and that effort was finally going to pay off this week. Velazquez was scheduled to have her first immigration court hearing. But then that email from DHS told people to self-deport or else, and that's confusing.
VELAZQUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: She told me she was nervous. Migrants have been picked up by immigration authorities at court lately, and that could happen to her. As I board my flight to meet her in California, I receive a text message from her. She's in the hospital. She got some bad test results, and her doctor has said she might need to stay in the emergency room for a couple days. It's bad timing. Missing her court hearing would almost guarantee a deportation order.
(SOUNDBITE OF HOSPITAL MONITOR BEEPING)
VELAZQUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: "I have court tomorrow. I can't stay," she tells the doctor. She convinces them to clear her. She will make it to court tomorrow, but the doctor warns her condition could worsen.
AUTOMATED VOICE: (Speaking Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #1: (Speaking Spanish).
(SOUNDBITE OF CAR DOOR CLOSING)
AUTOMATED VOICE: (Speaking Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #2: (Speaking Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: The sun has not risen when Velazquez and her two little boys, ages 2 and 4, leave their home in Indio, California the next day.
VELAZQUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: They start the long car ride with a prayer.
VELAZQUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: "Father God, please be our lawyer. Please be our judge."
VELAZQUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: "God, touch the heart of Judge Simmons."
VELAZQUEZ: (Speaking Spanish). Amen.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #1: Amen.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: They are anxious, so they sing while they drive their used black SUV down the highway.
YASMELIN VELAZQUEZ, UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #1 AND UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #2: (Singing in Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: They pull up at the immigration court in an industrial park in a southern California suburb. A dozen or so other families make their way into the courtroom. Usually, this first hearing is pretty low stakes. A judge validates their identity. The migrant says whether they will file for a relief, like asylum, and a second hearing is scheduled. But under Trump, anything can happen. There's no recording allowed inside. Velazquez sits in the first row of wooden benches. Her 2-year-old pees his pants. After an hour, the judge turns to them and asks, do you understand that the government believes you don't have a legal right to be in the U.S.? She says yes, but she adds she's planning to claim asylum. The judge says come back in August - this time with an attorney. The whole interaction only takes a few minutes. For now, she's free to go.
VELAZQUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: "I feel victorious," she says. But the day is not over.
VELAZQUEZ: (Speaking Spanish, laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF CAR STARTING)
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Next, another hourlong drive for her regular check-in with ICE. Lately, it's become scarier. There have been reports of migrants being picked up by agents as they go into the ICE office. She goes into the office. She comes out eight minutes later, beaming.
VELAZQUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: "Today, my future looks marvelous," she says. She was not detained.
VELAZQUEZ: (Speaking Spanish, laughter).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: "I feel I will be able to become a resident. And who knows, maybe a citizen," she says. Her optimism might be premature. She has a long way to go, and the Trump administration is unpredictable and willing to push legal limits to fulfill its goal of deporting millions of people. But when you're living day-to-day in the U.S., you take a win when you can.
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, NPR News, San Bernardino, California. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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