As leaders in the Western Hemisphere debate how to handle the growing crisis in Venezuela, Haitians who had been living in the country are arriving in Tijuana with plans to ask for help in the U.S.

About 60 new arrivals are staying at Templo Embajadores de Jesús, an evangelical church in Tijuana’s Cañon del Alacran, according to pastor Gustavo Banda. Though the numbers are nowhere near as high as they where when Haitians were arriving en masse from Brazil in 2016, Banda said he expects more in the coming weeks.

Luc Charles, 30, has spent about two weeks there after fleeing Venezuela, the country he called home for about 10 years. He fled Haiti after his family was targeted for political reasons and his mother was killed, he said.

He started his own business in Venezuela, opening a shop that sold food and beverages. When his family was threatened because of the store and the desperation in Venezuela, he had to flee once more.


Not able to afford to bring his family with him, he headed north while his wife and two young daughters, ages 8 and 7, went to Colombia. He hopes that his family will be able to join him one day.

“I’m a professional. I want to work for my kids and to be well, to have a good life,” he said in Spanish. “If I go back to Venezuela, I will lose my life, and my family will too.”

With an economy in tatters and a regime determined to crush dissent, Venezuela has seen a mass exodus in recent years that some have said rivals that of Syrian and Rohingya refugees.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly condemned the situation in Venezuela and suggested the U.S. may take more direct action there. In a recent speech at the United Nations, he called the crisis an example of “a human tragedy” and called for “the restoration of democracy” in Venezuela.


The majority of those fleeing end up in neighboring South American countries like Colombia or Brazil though some choose to come to the U.S.

The San Ysidro Port of Entry has seen the number of Venezuelans asking to come in more than double in the last couple of years. In fiscal 2016, according to Customs and Border Protection, 68 people from Venezuela came to the port without documents for entry. They likely asked for asylum.

In fiscal 2018, through the end of August, 149 Venezuelans have come to the port. That’s still less than one percent of the all the people who have come to California ports of entry without travel documents, 32,150 so far this fiscal year.

For Haitians who had been living in Venezuela, choosing to leave that country as well is just another step on a longer migration journey.


Haitians have emigrated from their island nation, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere according to the World Bank, for years for a variety of reasons. Some fled economic hardship or the devastation of natural disasters like the 2010 earthquake and more recent hurricanes. Others fled political persecution.

Many moved to Brazil when it offered work permits to help with construction projects for the Olympics and World Cup that were held there in 2016. After the events, job opportunities disappeared, and many began a long journey to the U.S.

According to CBP data, more than 6,300 Haitians came to the California border in fiscal 2016, mostly through San Ysidro. Another 8,000 came in fiscal 2017. In fiscal 2018, through August, just over 260 have come.

When the Obama administration restarted deportations to Haiti — they had paused since the earthquake — many decided to stay in Tijuana instead of risk the possibility of going back to where they started.


Templo Embajadores de Jesús has supported both Haitians passing through the city on their way to the U.S. and those who chose to make their lives in Tijuana. A sign near the church proclaims the area as “Little Haiti.”

When Charles arrived in Tijuana looking for a place to stay, a Haitian man who had been in the city since 2016 spotted him and told him to ask the church for help.

“It was unbelievable,” Charles said of finding a fellow countryman so far from home. “That was the favor of God.”

Half of the recent newcomers at the church are children. Some were born in Venezuela to Haitian parents.


Others, like Christanly Pierre, a 12-year-old who came with his mother and 8-year-old sister a few weeks ago, have had nomadic childhoods as their families moved from country to country searching for stable lives.

Christanly recalled moving from Haiti to Venezuela and then to Brazil and back to Venezuela before coming to Tijuana. He has family members still in Haiti and others who have already moved to places like France, Canada and the U.S.

While his mother was the one in charge of where they went and why, he said he remembered not having enough to eat in each place they went.

“Where I was, there wasn’t food. There wasn’t anything,” Christanly said in Spanish. “I want to grow up in a better life. I want to study and help my family.”


When asked about the journey between Venezuela and the U.S.-Mexico border, known for its perilous rivers and jungles, what he remembered most was exhaustion from walking for days. The trip took about three months, he said, and parents had to carry the younger children because they weren’t strong enough to walk that far on their own.

He hopes to study chemistry in the U.S. because he thinks working in that field would help him support his loved ones. More than anything, he said, he hopes his family can all be together one day.

Because there is still a backlog at the San Ysidro Port of Entry for those wishing to make asylum claims, families like Christanly’s will wait weeks before their turns to cross into the U.S. and ask for help.


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kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on Twitter