"This was not the Christmas that Mariela Gomez would have imagined a year ago. Or the one that thousands of other Venezuelan immigrants in the United States would have thought. But Donald Trump returned to the White House in January and quickly ended their US dream. Gomez found herself spending the holiday in northern Venezuela for the first time in eight years. She dressed up, cooked, got her son a scooter and smiled for her in-laws."
"Hard as she tried, though, she could not ignore the main challenges facing returning migrants: unemployment and poverty. We had a modest dinner, not quite what we'd hoped for, but at least we had food on the table, Gomez said of the lasagne-like dish she shared with her partner and in-laws instead of the traditional Christmas dish of stuffed corn dough hallacas. Making hallacas here is a bit expensive, and since we're unemployed, we couldn't afford to make them."
"Gomez, her two sons and her partner returned to the city of Maracay on October 27 after crossing the US-Mexico border to Texas, where they were quickly swept up by US Border Patrol amid the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration. They were deported to Mexico, from where they began the dangerous journey back to Venezuela. They crossed Central America by bus, but once in Panama, the family could not afford to continue to Colombia via boat in the Caribbean."
Mariela Gomez and her family returned to Maracay, Venezuela, after being intercepted by US Border Patrol in Texas and deported to Mexico, then traveling back through Central America. The family endured dangerous sea passages and jungle travel, relying on wired money to reach the Venezuelan border. The return followed years abroad in Colombia and Peru and a US migration attempt that ended after the Trump administration tightened immigration enforcement. High unemployment and poverty greeted the family on return, forcing them to replace traditional holiday hallacas with a modest lasagne-like dinner. More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have emigrated over the last decade amid economic collapse caused by falling oil prices, corruption and mismanagement.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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