Three-year-old José was having trouble breathing as he writhed on the cold, wet mattress inside his family’s tent near the River North police station. It had snowed off and on all day, and ice coated the blue tarp that hung over tents lining North Larrabee Street. The moisture seeped up through the inflatable mattress. “Duele, Duele.
He was a marine mechanic in their home city of Punto Fijo, in the northern Falcón state of Venezuela, until the program closed as a result of the country’s failing economy. The family of four, which includes their daughter, Luiscarlis, 8, left their country July 16. “La pobreza en las calles se ve en Venezuela. Las personas que han trabajado toda la vida. You can see the poverty in the streets in Venezuela. People who have worked all their lives,” he said. “Vinimos para trabajar.