But their relative calm as of late disguises an agonizing journey that began in Lima, Peru, after financial fortune dried up and the household grew to become targets of xenophobic rants.
“The economy began to go down in Peru,” Crisman Urbaez advised CNN. “We couldn’t afford much food. There’s also a lot of xenophobia against Venezuelans in Latin America. Sometimes people insulted us, and I didn’t want that for my children.”
Using automobiles for transportation, the household crossed elements of Ecuador and Colombia in late April. Then a four-day stroll by the jungles of northern Colombia landed them in Panama.
Sebastian Urbaez, the couple’s son, advised CNN there have been occasions when he was exhausted. In these moments, he stated, Max would lie on him and lick his cheek to cheer him up.
“He was so tough. He just kept walking with us. He’s not just a dog. He’s like our brother now,” Sebastian, 9, stated.
Determined to get Max into the United States, the household stated they bought him on a number of buses by wrapping him in a blanket and passing him off as a baby.
“Costa Rica was hard to get through. Once they realized Max was a dog, they asked us to get off the bus,” Crisman stated. “But we kept trying.”
After weeks of sleeping on cardboard and safely navigating their manner by Mexico, the household crossed the Rio Grande and turned themselves in to immigration authorities in Eagle Pass, Texas, on June 19.
Asking for asylum and trying to find Max
The Urbaez household requested for asylum upon crossing the border.
But immigration officers didn’t need to settle for Max into the nation. They advised Anabel to consider her kids and go away the canine behind.
“But I just couldn’t,” Anabel stated. “Not after everything he’s gone through with our family.”
Sebastian and his 6-year-old sister, Criszanyelis, started to cry because the household begged immigration officers to permit them to take Max with them, to no avail.
“There was one officer, who I believe God put in our path,” Anabel advised CNN. “I’m so thankful for him. He also cried a bit. He then told me he took Max to a shelter and gave me the address for the shelter so I could go look for him once we were released.”
The immigration officer, in accordance to Anabel, acknowledged Max from articles that have been printed by Latin American news shops, which had coated the family’s uncommon journey. The Mexican news outlet Posta nicknamed the canine “Max, the migrant dog.”
After launch, the household trekked to the canine shelter to retrieve Max. But the shelter advised them that they had launched Max to a person who claimed he was associated to the household. The Urbaez household was in a position to find the person — a fellow migrant who had traveled with the household, in accordance to Anabel. He agreed to return Max in the event that they picked him up in Uvalde, Texas.
With the assistance of a stranger who provided to give the household a experience, the Urbaezes have been reunited with Max the following day.
They then discovered themselves in Uvalde Memorial Park, the place Criszanyelis left a toy on the memorial arrange for the 21 victims of the Robb Elementary School capturing, Anabel stated.
The city jungle
After launch from US custody, immigration officers in Texas had directed the Urbaez household to a shelter in New York City and scheduled a gathering with immigration courtroom.
The household, with Max safely in its custody, was now decided to attain New York and seem earlier than a decide.
With the assistance of a stranger, who got here throughout the Urbaezes stranded at a fuel station, the household caught a experience to San Antonio, the place they hoped to discover extra assist.
In San Antonio, they approached a corporation that gives help to immigrants (Anabel doesn’t recall the group’s title however stated all staff wore blue jackets).
“They helped us out and got us plane tickets to New York City but when they realized we had a dog, they canceled our tickets.” Crisman stated.
The household advised CNN they begged the group for assist, they usually lastly agreed to get the household bus tickets to New York City. The Urbaezes spent three days on the highway, the couple stated, earlier than arriving in New York simply earlier than midnight on June 27.
The household arrived at Port Authority and commenced trying to find the shelter immigration officers in Texas had identified. After asking for instructions a number of occasions, they discovered the shelter however have been refused entry as a result of the group solely assists home violence survivors, not total households, in accordance to Anabel.
It seemed just like the household would spend the night time on the streets, till they struck up dialog with the proprietor of a bodega on ninth Avenue and thirty ninth Street, in accordance to the couple.
When the proprietor heard the family’s story, he provided to allow them to sleep in his truck for the night time.
“He told me he didn’t want anything from me. That he would let me sleep in his car for the night and would help me find a place to go the next day,” Crisman stated.
The subsequent day the proprietor fed the household and allow them to hang around in his grocery retailer.
When Robert Gonzalez, a neighborhood resident and activist who frequents the shop stopped by, the bodega proprietor requested Gonzalez to assist the household, Gonzalez advised CNN.
Gonzalez, who has been serving to migrant Venezuelan households for the final two years, requested the bodega proprietor to take the household to Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing Office in the Bronx. But the household was once more rejected. The shelter doesn’t permit canines.
Gonzalez then reached out to a psychotherapist pal who helped the household begin the method to register Max as a service canine, so it may be part of the household at shelters. In the meantime, a volunteer took Max, and the household spent the following two days ready for the town’s homeless consumption heart to course of their paperwork.
The household now lives in a shelter in Bushwick, Brooklyn. And despite the fact that they lastly have a heat mattress to sleep in, they nonetheless really feel like they’re in limbo, they stated, despite the fact that they’re grateful to have made it to the United States.
“The father can’t work,” Gonzalez stated. “Until their next court date, they don’t have permission to work so they must rely on people like me who are willing to help. It’s worse for Venezuelan migrants because they’re orphans in a sense. There’s no Venezuelan embassy or consulates in the United States they can run to if they need help or a copy of a document from back home.”
This fall, Sebastian and Criszanyelis Urbaez might be part of the roughly 1,000 kids of asylum seekers whom the Department of Social Services expects to enroll in New York City public faculty, as a part of Project Open Arms, a metropolis initiative to assist asylum-seeking households with educational and language-based wants.
The family’s subsequent courtroom date is in October 2023, when they’ll discover out if they have been given permission to work legally.
In an interview with CNN, Manuel Castro, New York City’s commissioner of Immigrant Affairs, stated the town is asking the federal authorities to step in and supply further assist to the town and expedite work permits for asylum seekers.
“Most of the families I’ve spoken to, they want to get to work, they don’t want to stay in shelters. They just want to contribute to society, they just want to be at peace,” Castro stated.
Meanwhile, Max has develop into a licensed service canine.
“We don’t think of him as just a dog. We see him as part of the family.” Anabel stated. “The children wouldn’t have forgiven us if we left him behind.”