The border returns to its harsh reality after Biden's brief visit

Migrants sleep on the sidewalk this Monday morning in El Paso, a day after Biden's visit. JOHN MOORE (Getty Images via AFP)

The Christian pastor Luis Ávila can barely hide his disappointed face behind the mask.

He learns from the reporter that Joe Biden has already left El Paso, on what was a four-hour visit to the border.

Ávila, who was wearing a suit on Sunday afternoon, and other faithful of the Living Word Ministry, had chosen his best garments.

They wanted to be prepared for the improbable, that one of the most powerful men in the world would take a walk around the intersection of the streets of Oregon and Father Rahm to see up close the epicenter of the humanitarian emergency that the city is experiencing, which receives daily hundreds of immigrants.

This did not happen.

Biden limited himself to meeting with members of the border patrol and visiting a people processing center.

“They were hopeful.

They thought the president was going to tell them something,” Avila said.

"He's gone?

Here she should have been.

His knees would have buckled.

Here was the only good thing,” said Bertha Nerváez, a member of the Christian congregation.

The temple to which it belongs is present in El Paso and on the other side of the border, in Ciudad Juárez.

Since mid-December they come to the aid of those who arrive.

They are posted outside the Sacred Heart Church, which runs a crowded shelter that provides a roof for the hundreds of immigrants crossing from Mexico.

Most are Venezuelans.

Given the saturation of the shelter, the daily limbo of these people takes place on the street.

Sleiter Alexander, 20, originally from Carabobo, Venezuela, explained on Sunday that they risk being arrested by the El Paso police if they stray two blocks from the church.

"If we go further, they catch us and send us back to Mexico," he says.

Pastor Ávila also said that some Venezuelans have been stopped by the police for crossing the street in the center of the block, which in the US constitutes a minor offense known as

(an unwise crossing).

“It seems like an exaggeration to me, they should just admonish them because they don't know that.

It's not their culture,” he stated.

The area, in the center of the city, has become a kind of ghetto guarded by patrols, which maintain the containment of the group with their presence.

Alexander made the trip with his wife, who is expecting the young couple's first child at the age of 23.

This morning she is lying in an alleyway adjacent to the shelter, on a makeshift bundle of donated clothing, Red Cross blankets and large black plastic bags.

Around her are children playing soccer, men coming and going within that suffocating perimeter.

Sleiter, who decided to leave Colombia for the United States, has been there for seven days and does not know when he will be able to continue on his way.

He assures that an aunt of his is waiting for him in Miami.

“This is a chain.

Friends tell me if it is possible to pass or not and where, ”he says with a smile and an inflatable pillow in the shape of a horseshoe around his neck.

President Joe Biden speaks with Border Patrol agents during his visit to El Paso. Andrew Harnik (AP)

Nerváez, from the Christian congregation, explains that these immigrants do not need food.

Since mid-December, she and other members of the church have settled in the area with a table, where they offer coffee and water.

That was the peak of the crisis.

About 2,000 people were crossing through El Paso in what was believed to be the last hours of Title 42, a regulation whose future was in the hands of the Judiciary.

The Supreme Court gave a blow to the Biden government, which had requested the end of the measure, and ordered the Executive to maintain it for longer.

Now between 600 and 700 people cross into this city every day, according to immigration authorities.

These days, from eight in the morning to eight at night, there are tables that offer burritos and arepas.

The food is provided by local restaurants that have responded in spades to the border emergency, labeled a “crisis” by the right-wing media.

The shops in the area carry vegetables, fruits and leftovers of the day.

The local government has left two buses of the metropolitan transport service in place that are on all day.

They are full of immigrants who are not going anywhere.

They sit indoors throughout the day to access Wi-Fi and heating.

Citizens have also brought clothing so that immigrants can better face the cold winter in Texas.

This Monday some people were taking cough syrup and medicines due to the multiplication of colds and respiratory diseases.

Those who are there do not want charity.

They are only looking for one thing.

"An opportunity to fulfill our dreams," sums up Jhon Carrasquero, 31, originally from Maracaibo.

These were the words that the young man had rehearsed to say in English in case any member of the president's entourage visited the shelter.

But the time has not come for Jhon, who carries his three university degrees rolled up in the back pocket of his pants.

In Venezuela, he was a human resources manager, a position for which he earned less than $100 a month and which evaporated in the economic crisis.

He preferred to face the risks of crossing nine countries rather than continue living in that reality.

Tonight he will sleep under a bush outside the Sacred Heart Church, waiting to find out if the US Government will give him the opportunity he asks for.

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