Pablo Silva at the parking garage where he states he slept on his first night in Sacramento, after arriving via a chartered flight from San Antonio, Texas, with a group of fellow migrants. Sept. 9, 2023. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMattersPablo Silva, a Venezuelan asylum-seeker, was among the first migrants flown from Texas to Sacramento last September. His struggles foreshadow what other migrants may face as they’re also shipped to California with little or no preparation.
But a security guard there stopped him and the other men before they could knock and said, with the help of Google Translate, that there was no shelter in the Forum Building, a 10-story edifice that houses offices for lobbyists, two blocks from the Capitol. “When I arrived here I had nothing,” Silva said, while standing across from the Forum Building on a recent afternoon. “Now I have a work permit, but I haven’t had much luck finding a job. I don’t want to take anybody’s job; I just want an opportunity.”
First he traveled by bus and boat until he reached the mountains of the infamous Darién Gap, a once-impenetrable rainforest connecting Panama with South America. It has become a major crossing point for U.S.-bound migrants.“I saw dead women, men and children laying on the ground,” he said. “I went four days without eating, and drinking water from the river.”
Silva and a group of other migrants hitchhiked about 550 miles to the Migrant Resource Center in San Antonio, where he was told to board a flight to California. Become a CalMatters member today to stay informed, bolster our nonpartisan news and expand knowledge across California.The Sacramento Police Department didn’t respond to requests for comment about that encounter.
Around the corner from the Capitol, the five men succumbed to fatigue. They entered a parking garage and laid down near a wall, using nearby barricades as blankets. Silva said he didn’t get any sleep, wondering how and why he had ended up on the streets. “We make that agreement kind of knowing that we will probably have to provide assistance for a longer period because it takes a long time to get financially stable,” said Autumn Gonzalez, a volunteer attorney at NorCal Resist. “But these guys have been amazing. They went out hustling to find work immediately.”
“I will never forget this American woman who didn’t speak Spanish but wanted people to help her move,” Silva said. In the following months, Silva took daily jobs in construction and gardening, sometimes traveling to Modesto, Stockton and as far as Reno, Nevada. Some nights Silva skipped dinner to save every dollar he could for his daughter in Venezuela.
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