Nothing and no one will stop Genso Perez from achieving his dream of reaching New York and opening an import and export business.
Not Donald Trump’s border wall, not the Mexican police who threw him off a train, and certainly not Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, who is just up the road in central Mexico urging migrants not to come to his crowded city .
“I don’t care if the place is crowded,” the laughing Venezuelan said at a shelter about an hour’s drive from where Adams received an honorary doctorate.
“I want to be part of the crowd. I want to be one of many.’
This is what Adams has to expect during his four-day trip to Central and South America.
He came with the message that his city is overcrowded and cannot handle any more arrivals in search of a better life.
Genso Perez, 32, spent 33 days traveling from Venezuela to central Mexico. He’s passionate about starting a business in New York and says Mayor Eric Adams won’t stop him
Tucked away behind a church basilica, the Apizaco migrant shelter provides basic amenities for thousands of migrants heading to the U.S. border
Shelters are overcrowded after nearly 120,000 migrants arrived in New York last year and his top adviser even demanded that the Biden administration close the border.
At the end of his first full day in Mexico, Adams told reporters that his message was clear: The streets of New York are not paved with gold.
“We tell these migrants and asylum seekers,” he said, “that if you come to New York, contrary to what you were told, you will get a job that you will get automatically.” Get a job that you will get automatically in one Hotel, that there’s this endless flow of resources from New York City… We’re saying that’s not true.”
Around the same time Adams landed in Mexico City on Wednesday evening, Perez, 32, got off La Bestia — the freight train known for transporting hundreds of thousands of migrants north.
He landed next to the tracks in Apizaco, a town a few hours east of the capital, the final stop on his 33-day journey from Venezuela.
“I’m a salesman type,” he said, describing how anyone who wanted to sell a car, a bag of clothes or a load of oil in his hometown came to him.
“New York is an active city day and night. This means I would have more opportunities to grow my business.”
He told his story at the Shelter of the Sacred Family, which has about 120 beds and is a stone’s throw from the railway line, making it a popular rest stop for people heading to Mexico City and beyond.
Beside him, Neri Orsorto, 28, from Honduras nodded.
He has an uncle in New York who promised to help him build a new life after one of the country’s notorious maras, or gangs, forced him to sell drugs for them.
Neri Orsorto, 28, from Honduras, is also aiming for New York, where he has an uncle
About 5,000 people pass through the Holy Family Refuge in Apizaco each year. Animal shelters across Mexico say they are full or overwhelmed
There are only basic washing facilities at the property, which can accommodate 120 people at a time
Mayor Eric Adams was in Mexico City on Thursday morning when he met Sister Magda, the founder of women’s and children’s shelters and head of a network of migrant services. Adams is on a four-day trip intended to deter migrants from traveling to New York
“I don’t want my daughters to be killed in front of me,” he said, describing one of the gang’s many threats.
For some, nothing stops them from traveling to the “city that never sleeps” because their money and reputation are too tempting.
But not everyone is so fixated on the place.
Stories of overcrowding and violent anti-immigrant protests are circulating among those connected on WhatsApp networks.
“It’s beautiful,” said Jose Daniel, 25, at the Our Lady of the Forsaken Parish migrant shelter near the bus station in the city of Puebla. “But all migrants go to New York.”
He described how he received news of migrants queuing in the streets and other negative headlines.
But Jose Daniel from Venezuela has already decided that New York is not for him. From his WhatsApp group, he heard stories about limited housing and anti-immigrant demonstrations
Daniel spoke to at the Our Lady of the Forsaken Parish Migrant House near the bus station in the city of Puebla, about two hours from Mexico City
The animal shelter is located in Puebla. Adams visited Puebla on Thursday but did not encounter any migrants there
The shelter relies on donations but is struggling to make ends meet
“I have family in New York, but they told me to go to California,” he said, describing how he had heard that democratic states were friendlier and that he wanted to get to Stanford, a place he heard about that it is relatively free of migrants.
That will be music to Adams’ ears. He was in Puebla on Thursday, where he met community and political leaders.
He gave a speech at the state convention in which he discussed the ties that bind Americans and Mexicans, people from Puebla and New York.
Afterwards, he made no claim to balance the attractiveness of a city that attracts people from all over the world with the problems it faced from the influx of migrants.
“There is no more room in New York.” “Our hearts are endless, but our resources are not,” he told reporters.
“We don’t want to put people in shared accommodation.” “We don’t want people to think they’ll find a job.”
Adams delivers a speech after receiving an honorary doctorate at the Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla (BUAP) in Puebla, Mexico. He spreads the message that his city is full
Adams and Puebla Gov. Sergio Salomon Cespedes posed for a photo with the baseball teams’ jerseys. Adams was criticized in New York for taking a vacation
His visit came at a time of intense focus on the border.
On Wednesday evening, it emerged that the Biden administration was reversing its policy and waiving a number of regulations to build additional barriers and roads in a Texas border area that is a hotspot for border crossings.
And Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other senior officials visited Mexico for discussions on the fentanyl trade as well as increasing migration and gun smuggling.
Adams landed in Mexico City on Wednesday evening to announce that New York City would not be open to arrivals.
“We want to give an honest assessment of what we are experiencing here in this city,” he told reporters before his departure. “We are at capacity.”
With space running out in New York City, landmarks like the Roosevelt Hotel were converted into emergency shelters. It can be seen here in July
Hundreds of migrants sleep in line for accommodation at the Roosevelt Hotel reception center
Hundreds of migrants still arrive in New York every day looking for work and a place to stay.
Adams has already tightened rules to limit adults’ stays in city shelters to 30 days due to overcrowding.
And he advocated for changes to federal immigration policy and additional funding to address the crisis.
He said it could cost the city $12 billion in hotel rooms and additional housing and services for migrants.
Long lines of migrants are often seen in front of famous New York landmarks such as the Roosevelt Hotel and the Paramount Hotel, which are designated to house migrants in Manhattan.
It’s all a stark contrast to a year ago, when Adams greeted migrants arriving on buses from Texas. He said the Big Apple was “proud to be a protective state.”
His message now is simply: Don’t come expecting a hotel bed.