Latest / Heavyweight / Minneapolis

Transcript

Minneapolis · Heavyweight

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hello, Hi, my wife, Hi, my husband. How are you.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: I'm getting through?
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you wanted to talk I did.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: I feel like we haven't had much of a chance
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: to connect over the last couple of weeks because there's
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: been a lot going on here.
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: Here is Minneapolis, where I live, and the epicenter of
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: what the Trump administration is calling Operation Metro Surge. Since
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: it all began with the regular business of work, childcare
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: and running a household, Emily and I haven't really had
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: a chance to sit down and actually talk. I knew
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: she had a lot she wanted to tell me, so
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: I asked her to start at the beginning.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: On Wednesday, January seventh, I had dropped Aggie EF at school,
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: and I was driving down thirty six, which is a
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: one way.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: There were I don't know.
• 1:18
  Speaker 5: If it was six or eight vehicles.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: Coming directly toward me, going the wrong way down a
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: one way at full speed, and I really thought I
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: was going to have a head on collision. Then they
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: just suddenly stopped, and then a bunch of men started
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: running out of the cars and they were all masked
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: and all the vehicles were unmarked. My brain just wasn't
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: connecting what was happening? And then I saw two women
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: running toward this scene with whistles, and then somewhere in
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: my head it clicked like, oh, this is an ice raid.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: I didn't even know exactly what that meant, but I
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: just felt so clearly like something wrong is happening, and
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: so I parked and I jumped out. I ran up
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: to the building and they were all pulling away the
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: woman who had a really little, like five pound dog.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: One of the ice agents just swerved right at the dog,
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: and I was really emotional because I was still had
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: a lot of adrenaline. I was pending on the one
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: when they almost hit Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of the
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: women there hugged me and she just kept saying, no,
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: I know.
• 2:48
  Speaker 6: I said, who do they think they are?
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Who do they think they are?
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, it's just too much.
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: I mean that's when everything just like exploded.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: I got home, and you know, I.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: Had news on the background, and I saw that a
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: woman had been shot dead, and that turned out later
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: that this was Renee Good and she had just dropped
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: her kid off from school too. She was shot about
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: forty minutes after I had that encounter, about.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Four blocks away. I don't know.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: I went to the vigil that night. Okay, there were
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: a lot of people there. I think everybody there really
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: felt an obligation.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: To be there.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: While I was there, I got a text from Katie,
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: my sister, telling me that ice had showed up at
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: Theo's school. THEO is her fourteen year old nephew, and
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: that they had pepper sprayed a crowd of teachers and students.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: So she texted me that and then wrote, I have
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: no idea how to process this with my child?
• 4:17
  Speaker 6: Learn what ice was the thing?
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: When did you learn that ice was a thing?
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: I don't do you remember now?
• 4:23
  Speaker 7: Do you?
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: And Aggie?
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: You know, Aggie's nine, and so it's that's been one
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: of the really hard things here is to know what
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: do you tell your kid. I've been trying to talk
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: to him about it just as honestly as possible, with
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: trying to emphasize you know that he's safe. But even
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: if he is safe, there's a lot of kids right
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: now around this city his age who aren't. And that's
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: how do you explain that?
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: You know, you told Aggie about Renee Good?
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Yes, and what was that like?
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: I first told him that a woman had been shot
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: by ice. Then the next day, Julian came over and Eli,
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: Julian's dad said something to me about, oh, and you
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: encountered them that morning in front of Aggie.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: And so then Aggi was like, wait, what you're head
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: right now?
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm okay, Umber.
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: You wouldn't have stopped if I was in the garden.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: No, no, And we talked about it for a couple
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: of minutes and then he said, okay, I think I
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: think we need.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: To stop talking about this now. And so I respected
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: that and stopped talking about it.
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: So then the Thursday and Friday after Rene Good was killed,
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: schools were canceled across the city because it just wasn't safe.
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: I stayed home with Aggi and some of his friends
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: came over, and you know, throughout the day we would
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: be player, the kids would be playing, and they would
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: just they'd be fine, and then they would say, it's
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: so sad, like this is so sad that I was
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: murdered somebody.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: This is what Aggie's friends are saying.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I actually have a really clear memory that
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: day we were working with the hot Glugu and Julian
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: somehow cut his hand, and the concern that they all
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: just sort of rallied around him and were so worried
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: about his hand.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Julian, Yeah, he's like the mister tough guy.
• 6:47
  Speaker 8: I know.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: And then there was this moment after I bandaged it
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: up that we all have never had a moment with
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: the boys like this where we all sort of like
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: hugged each other.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: The boys went for this, they allowed this.
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: Yeah, And I do think it was just like this.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: Moment of vulnerability that we were all feeling such a weight,
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: you know that it just a lot us to have
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: this moment of coming together.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: It was really beautiful.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: I mean everything is completely overwhelming, but you still have
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: to eat, you still have to walk the dog, and
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: you know, kids are still kids. That next morning, I
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: was laying in bed and Aggie came in wearing a
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: captain's hat and a suit jacket and started wrapping about yachts.
• 7:37
  Speaker 6: Yas I want for my birthday. Yah, I can get it.
• 7:42
  Speaker 6: Cookie Vaca yachts.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: You're really right, Yes, it was all about going on
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: yachts and having cookie vacs.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: I have a cookie vaca right now.
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: I wanted from my birthday.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: Yats.
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: You don't need to do back yachts Tuesday.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: This is Tuesday, the thirteenth, less than a week since
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: Renee Good had been killed once again. I had dropped
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: Aggie off at school and I was driving home and
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: suddenly all these vehicles start swarming around my car and
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: I'm a little bit boxed in, and then I started
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: hearing the whistles, and so I decide to get out.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: There's ice agents all over. They're going up to an
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: apartment building yelling you got to open up the door,
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: and you know, the crowd is slowly growing, but pretty quiet.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: And then they come out of the apartment building and
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: they have two guys who to me looked like children,
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: early twenties.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: At the oldest. But I'd be surprised if it was
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: even that.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: One of them is wearing a T shirt and shorts,
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: even though it's you know, it's very cold outside.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: I mean it's so cold.
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: It's the kind of cold that you know, you take
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: your gloves off for a few seconds and your fingers
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: just really hurt, Like it is hard to be outside
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: in this weather.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, And when we see the kids, we just
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: start screaming.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Shame on you.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: I'm a mom, you know, like, shame on you is
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: the words that come to mind, and we're yelling, you know,
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: their kids and sorry, this is gonna be the hardest
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: part for me. So everything else I should just say. First,
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: like everything escalated very quickly. It just becomes chaos where
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: ice agents are just pushing people, shoving people, kicking them,
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: you know, they have them down on the ground. I
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: can't even describe the feeling where like literally three feet
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: from me, I see a man, like just a Minneapolis
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: guy on the ground and an agent just pepper spring
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: him straight in the face from three inches away, And
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: I mean every part of you just wants to run
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: and just like tackle that guy, but you know you can't,
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: and so you just yell.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Because what else do you do.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: But just to stand there and see somebody brutalized like that.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: You just feel so powerless.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: So I'm standing on the corner and they're trying to
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: get this car to go. This woman in a car
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: and there's nowhere she can go. I mean, it was
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: just chaos, and they're screaming at her. There's like fifteen agents,
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: you know, just surrounding her car, screaming at her.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Window.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: The car then help them window. All of a sudden,
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: they break her passenger side window. Then they go around
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: to her side and forcibly pull her out of the car,
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: and she's screaming. And then they've just got her by
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: all fours and start carrying her away. And then I
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: see that they have a white haired man that they
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: are carrying by all fours, and they open the back
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: door of a black suv and literally like stuff him in.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: That's the only language I know how to use. Sorry,
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: So they stuff him into the vehicle. And then.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: And then the first I just hear.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: A bunch of like pa pa pa, pa, pa pa pa,
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: and I figure out that these are I guess what
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: are flash bangs, And smoke just starts to pour out,
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: and then it hits hits your throat first, and it
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: starts to burn and you're starting to cough and you're like, oh,
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: that's strong. And then it hits your face, the skin
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: on your face, and then your eyes eyes start to burn,
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: and for a second you're like, oh, this hurts, but
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: it's okay. And then each second that passes, you're just like, oh,
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: it's not okay.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: Oh it's really not okay. And then you're just like.
• 12:47
  Speaker 8: Fucked.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: And then I just can't really move I'm doubled over
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: and I grabbed a fist full of snow to put
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: on my eyes, and I can't see in anyway. And
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: then I just feel like a hand reach out for
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: me and grabs my hand and they start to just
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: guide me way out of the gas. And then there's
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: a guy there wearing a bandanna and he says, this
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: is my house. This is my house. It's the most
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: Minnesotan thing of all time. We walk in the house.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: None of us can even see really, and he says, I'm.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: Sorry it's so messy, and.
• 13:32
  Speaker 6: Thank you.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: That's much better.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: I had a bottle of water and we're pouring it
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: over my eyes.
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: You very much.
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: Or the hospitality.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: You know, there's that famous mister Rogers saying that when
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: trouble strikes, look for the helpers. And that's what I've
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: always used with ho you look for the helpers. But
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: you know Renee Good was a helper and Alex Preddie
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: was a helper.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Like they're murdering the.
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: Helpers coming up. After being shot in the leg by
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: an ice agent, Julio Cesar Sosa Salis became national news.
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: Since then, his family has been forced into hiding after the.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Break, I pay them a visit.
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: One week after Renee Good and a week and three
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: days before Ali x Preddi, another person in Minneapolis was
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: shot by ICE agents. He was at his home when
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: it happened. He was shot in the leg, It wasn't fatal,
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: and the incident didn't get as much media attention. The
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: man's name was Julio Cesar Sosa Celis. He was Venezuelan,
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: and he had no criminal record. There are different accounts
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: of what happened that night, but in a nutshell, the
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: federal government claims Julio had been targeted for arrest, that
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: he fled during a car chase, and that when he
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: was caught, he was shot by an ICE agent in
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: self defense. The FBI says otherwise. Their investigation determined that
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: Ice wasn't looking for Julio at all and that he
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: was not a part of any chase. Julio's roommate was
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: mistaken for someone else while driving, and he got into
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: a car chase with Ice. The roommate led the agents
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: back to the house he and Julio shared with their
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: partners and their babies. Eye witnesses say the shooting wasn't
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: self defense, that the men were fleeing into the house
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: when shots were fired. At the end of the night,
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: Julio and his partner Indriani were arrested. But the story
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: I want to tell isn't about the shooting itself. I
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: want to tell the story of the family Julio and
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: Indiani left behind, what their life was like before that night,
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: and what it's been like ever since. So far, Julio
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: and Indriani's family in Minnesota haven't spoken with any journalists.
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: But it turns out I have a connection to Indiani's mom, Ejumilis.
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: It was a very tenuous connection through friends of friends,
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: but it was enough for me to be trusted, and
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: so one cold night, a week after the shooting, I
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: text Jamilis my photo so she could identify me through
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: the front doors small window, and I go over to
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: talk Hi.
• 16:55
  Speaker 7: Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello.
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: Since Julio and Indiani have been incarcerated, Eumilis has been
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: taking care of their three year old son. Her grandson,
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: Emilis has been in the US since twenty twenty three.
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: With the shooting, she fears that she and her family
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: have become targets, even more so targets of ice, so
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: she doesn't leave the house, not the grocery shop, not
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: to go to work. She keeps the blinds drawn, the
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: lights outside off. She says, she prays that God will
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: just make her house invisible.
• 17:30
  Speaker 8: Yes, Jamila's.
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: Yes, Yes, I'm with my interpreter, Eric, who's not really
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: an interpreter but my former officemate who works as an
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: immigration lawyer. The house is full of life, four kids
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: of her own, ages nine through fourteen, and her three
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: year old grandson, Julio, and Indriani's son. Once inside, one
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: of the kids locks the door behind us. Since the shooting,
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: even though her children have opened asylum cases and social
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: security numbers, Emilis has kept them all home from school.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: Her fourteen year old Alejandra attends class over video. I
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: ask her for teachers know why she hasn't been in class.
• 18:16
  Speaker 6: Yeah, but I like, I didn't tell Oh my teachers,
• 18:20
  Speaker 6: so my greats are going down. Oh so I'm scared
• 18:24
  Speaker 6: about that too.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
• 18:28
  Speaker 6: I really want to go to school again, but my
• 18:31
  Speaker 6: mom's like, you need to stay here cause though Ice
• 18:35
  Speaker 6: can't take you and things like that, you know, But
• 18:39
  Speaker 6: I really when I go to school.
• 18:40
  Speaker 8: Again, yea MEI.
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: Lisa's ten year old son Javier, walks over.
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: I don't ask a question.
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: He has a question he wants to ask me.
• 18:49
  Speaker 6: Yes, did you know when the ice thing's gonna don't?
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, I wish I knew.
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: I'm so sorry. As her partner Danielle makes himself dinner
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: and the kids come and go from the living room.
• 19:03
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: Elise tells me about her life before all of this,
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: why she left Venezuela for the United States.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: In the first.
• 19:09
  Speaker 7: Places, we were living hidden mineot.
• 19:18
  Speaker 8: My fear of returning is really strong.
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: When I ask why that is, Jamlis just says political
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: persecution and leaves it at that. Her daughter Indriani had
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: already migrated to the US and made a home for
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: herself and her son in Minnesota. Jemilie really missed them.
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: To see them again, she and her family embarked on
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: a difficult journey, mostly done on foot. She and her
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: partner Danielle told four little kids across South and Central
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: America and through Mexico.
• 19:50
  Speaker 9: We didn't have phone, we didn't have money, Monea, I
• 19:57
  Speaker 9: had some coins kaminamo for domess.
• 20:02
  Speaker 8: We walked for two months la cage, sleeping in the.
• 20:07
  Speaker 7: Street, comiendo, eating what people would give us Kaminamomucho walked
• 20:16
  Speaker 7: a lotes.
• 20:19
  Speaker 9: But always happy with a lot of faith in in being.
• 20:27
  Speaker 8: Able to once again see my daughter and my grandson.
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: On the way from Colombia to Panama, they passed through
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: the incredibly dangerous rainforest known as the Darian.
• 20:37
  Speaker 8: Gap, where a lot of people have died.
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: The Darien Gap is a roughly sixty mile stretch of rainforest.
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: It's the only gap in the Pan American Highway. No road,
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: not even a dirt trail. The area is filled with
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: strong rivers, flash floods, and wild animals. There is no police.
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: Many migrants are murdered and raped during passage. But of
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: all the places they traveled through, Yemalis says, the parts
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: of Mexico controlled by the carte Owls were the scariest.
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: She describes how, while trying to avoid the immigration authorities,
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: her family escaped into the forest.
• 21:17
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I rang trappers on Mar Salon del Monte.
• 21:21
  Speaker 8: The three armed men came kind of out of the trees.
• 21:24
  Speaker 7: And ede is a momento.
• 21:28
  Speaker 8: They said, nothing's gonna happen. Give us your money, lefono,
• 21:33
  Speaker 8: give us your phones.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: The left for nothing.
• 21:37
  Speaker 8: I said, I don't have money. Or phone.
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: Emily's gestures towards her twelve year old daughter, who's sitting
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: on the couch Joros.
• 21:48
  Speaker 8: She cried because she saw the guns, maybe hero, and
• 21:53
  Speaker 8: they said she better be quiet or will kill her.
• 21:58
  Speaker 8: Me An my son he was curious about the guns,
• 22:06
  Speaker 8: and they said, if he looks at me again, I'm
• 22:07
  Speaker 8: gonna kill him.
• 22:09
  Speaker 7: No, the noo.
• 22:10
  Speaker 8: They took all our clothes off, looking forward to see
• 22:16
  Speaker 8: if we had hidden money.
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: When they didn't find anything, they let them go. Emilis
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: and Danielle had heard about a train that carried migrants
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: from Mexico City to the American border. The train was
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: referred to as le Bestia the Beast. It's also been
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: called the Train of Death. Passengers ride on top of
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: freight cars. Loss of limbs, maimings, even death occur as
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: people try to board the moving train. The family was
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: told by other migrant travelers where to wait for the train.
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: They waited and waited.
• 22:50
  Speaker 7: Bienel train grandisio.
• 22:52
  Speaker 8: Then comes this big train. It everyone starts cheering the
• 22:58
  Speaker 8: train in the.
• 22:58
  Speaker 7: Train correria correria, corre pers solas and I saw a.
• 23:05
  Speaker 8: Lot of people start running and running and running, and Perro.
• 23:08
  Speaker 7: Josi momento the tar.
• 23:15
  Speaker 8: And I said to God that in that moment, God,
• 23:17
  Speaker 8: if it's your will for us to get on this train,
• 23:20
  Speaker 8: let it stop.
• 23:20
  Speaker 7: Okay, and train the train moving.
• 23:27
  Speaker 8: I could get on, and my husband could get on,
• 23:30
  Speaker 8: but the kids no have to jump on clearly, and
• 23:36
  Speaker 8: I couldn't jump and grab onto the train with holding
• 23:38
  Speaker 8: two of my children and him holding.
• 23:39
  Speaker 7: The other to.
• 23:42
  Speaker 8: And if I felt that the train could kill me.
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: When the train came to a full stop, yamils took
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: it as.
• 23:49
  Speaker 7: A sign there was a ladder, so we won't.
• 23:55
  Speaker 8: We climbed up very quick and we passed five days
• 24:03
  Speaker 8: on the train on top of the train like that.
• 24:14
  Speaker 8: When we went through towns or villages, people would throw
• 24:16
  Speaker 8: us food.
• 24:17
  Speaker 7: Or cookies or ok for a moment.
• 24:24
  Speaker 8: Because we couldn't get down, because if we got down,
• 24:25
  Speaker 8: the train could leave and we'd be stuck.
• 24:28
  Speaker 7: Is a train no mole Maxico.
• 24:34
  Speaker 8: That train moved us through half of Mexico.
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: And the kids, how were they?
• 24:42
  Speaker 8: Yeah, we we tied them on. We tied the children down.
• 24:48
  Speaker 8: One just has to say I'm going and I'm moving.
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: Forward through the cold at night and the heat during
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: the day. Emilies and her partners stayed awake holding on
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: to the children. Falling asleep meant running the risk of
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: being shoved from the train or simply falling, which could
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: mean instant death. So for five days she hung on
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: no bad room, just a pot, no proper food, just
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: what they could catch, and no sleep. In this way
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: Jamilies spent her birthday, she was turning thirty four years old.
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: The train finally stopped in Juarez.
• 25:24
  Speaker 8: People had been killed, children had been taken, people had
• 25:30
  Speaker 8: had their stuff stolen. See this, and I thank God
• 25:36
  Speaker 8: that we were people that were very blessed.
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: A man who saw the family get off the train
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: offered to buy them food. Other people gave them drinks.
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: Another man even gave them money. They all ate and finally,
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: walking distance from the US border, they slept. In the morning,
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: US Immigration admitted Yamilies and the children into the US.
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: They spent the night in a border patrol tent and
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: were given paperwork to start the asylum process. Eventually, they
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: were placed on a bus to Chicago. Emilis's daughter Into
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: then came to greet her. It was Eamilis's first time
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: seeing her daughter in a year and a half. Ran
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: to each other and hugged and I grabbed my grandson. Together,
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: they traveled back to Indiani's new home in Minnesota, where
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: the kids enrolled in school, and eventually Eumilis found work
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: cleaning houses and offices. Over the years, they settled in
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: and made a life for themselves. After the break, Eumilis
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: tells me about her second separation from her daughter and grandson.
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: The night of julio shooting, Jamilis was at work when
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: she got her daughter's frantic video call. Inddiani was telling
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: her that Ice was at the.
• 26:57
  Speaker 7: Door, Condida gonsus jorando.
• 27:02
  Speaker 8: She was hidden with her baby in her arms, crying,
• 27:07
  Speaker 8: my momo wangam and she was saying to me, mamma,
• 27:12
  Speaker 8: if they come in, they're going to kill us.
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: Teargas had been thrown through the window and so Yamilis's
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: daughter and grandson got on the ground. They were phoning
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: from under the bed.
• 27:24
  Speaker 8: I can show you the video. You can hear everything.
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: Jamils pulls out her phone. She had recorded the call,
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: and she shows me the video.
• 27:40
  Speaker 8: You're going to kill us.
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: I asked where Julio and his roommate were while she
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: was on the phone with her daughter. Turns out they
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: were also on the phone.
• 27:57
  Speaker 8: They were there, and they were talking to their mothers
• 28:00
  Speaker 8: and because in that moment they thought that they were
• 28:06
  Speaker 8: going to kill them mouth and they wanted to say
• 28:11
  Speaker 8: goodbye to each of their mother's.
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: Emily says that her daughter rightfully didn't open the door,
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: but I broke the door down. While she's telling this story,
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: the toddler runs in. He's bright eyed and wearing a
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: little football jersey.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Is this your grandson?
• 28:30
  Speaker 7: Hi?
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: Hello?
• 28:36
  Speaker 8: Police took his mind looking, but I don't. He's talking
• 28:44
  Speaker 8: about how the bomb came through the window and they
• 28:47
  Speaker 8: shut his dad, Julio.
• 28:51
  Speaker 7: Candles.
• 28:52
  Speaker 8: Grand's talking about the smell. It's smelled ugly smell. Did
• 29:04
  Speaker 8: it hurt your eyes?
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: I did, like the bustle, he.
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: Merely says. Her grandson keeps talking about that night. He
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: still has nightmares.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: He sleeps with.
• 29:29
  Speaker 8: Me, and I hear when he wakes up at night.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Mom, he's smaller.
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: To flee political persecution from one country, the family underwent
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: a death defying journey to another country, only to be
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: persecuted by that new country's government. Could you ever have
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: imagined that it would get this bad, that it would
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: get like this?
• 29:56
  Speaker 9: No, it's.
• 30:03
  Speaker 8: A beautiful country, and it's four seasons. Hello cold, the heat,
• 30:13
  Speaker 8: I like the heat bar.
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: That first winter, Emilius wore gloves and hats indoors. Wherever
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: she went. She carried around a space heater that had
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: been gifted to her. But seeing how much the kids
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: enjoyed the snow the winter has grown on her.
• 30:26
  Speaker 8: You may I feel good here. We came to work.
• 30:39
  Speaker 8: We came for the good of our children, truly, you guys,
• 30:46
  Speaker 8: And next summer are invited to eat at my house.
• 30:49
  Speaker 8: If I'm here, We're gonna eat really well.
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: On Tuesday, Julio appeared in court to counter the federal
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: government's narrative. Lawyers presented photographs showing a bullet hole through
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: the front door of Julio's house and a bullet hole
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: in one of the bedrooms between a mattress and a crib.
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: The judge ordered Julio's release who When Julio left the courthouse,
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: ice agents were waiting for him outside. He's now back
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: in attention. Indviani was released last week. On the morning
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: she returned, her son was still sleeping when.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: She woke him.
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: He didn't recognize her at first, but then he hugged
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: her now he doesn't want to leave her side. He's
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: afraid Ice will take her again. Jamilis still hasn't left
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: the house and her kids have yet to return to school.
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: This episode was produced by Emily Condon and me Jonathan Goldstein,
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: as well as supervising producer Stevie Lane and Senior producer
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: Khalila Holt. Fact checking by Andrea Lopez Cruzado. My interpreter
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: at Yeami Lyssa's House was Eric Day. Editorial help from
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: Nadia Raymond. Special thanks to Melissa Redfield, Ben Nattaphaffrey, and
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: Daphne Chen. Sarah Bruguer mixed the episode with music by
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: Emma Monger. Will be back in your feed in a
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: few weeks.