María had traveled over 2,800 miles from Venezuela to reach the United States in
early May. Once crossing the border, however, she’d only made it four blocks, to a
shelter at Sacred Heart Church, in downtown El Paso.
Like many asylum seekers released on parole by Customs and Border Protection,
she had no money to pay for a plane or bus ticket, she said. She slept in the
church shelter, and then in the alley outside, for three weeks, until a woman
approached and said she would fly María on a private jet to California.
