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One man’s journey to the border

A man from Colombia makes his trek to America - 13 On Your Side's Arlette Yousif reports

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA/KECY) - With the fate of Title 42 in limbo, illegal crossings continue along the southern border.

A Colombian man says although his country is beautiful he left it behind out of fear for his life.

Dilan Prieto says the government in his country is killing his people and trying to silence them. So, he did what he thought was best… leave.

“It’s true what they say. They ask for money they take money from us. I came on a bus from Chihuahua, it was a 20-hour trip. It was hard. I was hungry and thirsty. It’s not easy. It’s nothing easy to get here to the border,” says Colombian migrant Dilan Prieto.

While he says it was expensive to get to America, he said he couldn’t say how much he paid for his long journey.

“They’ve killed a lot of people. It’s very very hard and I’m without words,” explains Prieto with tears in his eyes.

Sadly, this story is all too common, and the Yuma Sector sees an average of 1,000 undocumented immigrants crossing into our country daily.

Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines says it’s a waiting game at this point and the number of undocumented immigrants crossing through the Yuma border is holding steady.

“On the other side of the border, we’ve had reports of up to five to 6,000 in some of the smaller communities, Mexicali, San Luis, waiting in some type of a shelter for Title 42 to go away so that they can just come across,” says Yuma County Board of Supervisors Member Jonathan Lines.

Meanwhile, Lines says resources are limited…

“We are strained overall as far as our resources are concerned. Putting in a request for baby formula to take care of people through the food bank, of which I am the Chairman, and being told that maybe within three to six months is a possibility. If not, realistically, we were looking at six to nine months,” explains Lines.

Lines says the high number of undocumented immigrants at the border impacts medical staff and hospital resources.

Patients who are not from the United States must also be accompanied by Border Patrol Agents.

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Arlette Yousif

Arlette Yousif joined KYMA in November 2020 as a Multi Media Journalist. She holds a BA in Journalism with a minor in Film.

You can reach out to Arlette for at arlette.yousif@kecytv.com.

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