As record numbers of South Americans attempt to cross the U.S. southern border seeking better economic opportunities, many are landing in communities that are unprepared for them—and sometimes outright hostile.
East Colfax Avenue was the best place to find a job. That’s what everyone told Sofia Roca.
Never mind the open drug use, the sex workers or the groups of other migrant women marching the sidewalks soliciting work at the very same Mexican restaurants and bakeries.
On East Colfax in Aurora, Colorado, bosses and customers would speak Spanish and might be willing to hire someone like Roca—a 49-year-old immigrant from Colombia—without legal authorization to work. That was the rationale for going back to Colfax each morning, fruitless as it was.
“Do you know how to cook Mexican food?” asked one woman, looking up from the limes she was quartering, when Roca inquired about a kitchen position advertised on the door. Roca’s accent was a giveaway: not Mexican.
“I can learn,” Roca replied in Spanish.
Responded the woman: “We’re not hiring.”
As record numbers of South Americans attempt to cross the U.S. southern border seeking better economic opportunities, many are landing in communities that are unprepared for them—and sometimes outright hostile.
And many migrants have also been unprepared for the realities of their new home.