These immigrants fled violence, now harsh reality calls

IDAHO 'The systemic delays and anti-immigration policies have left my family in chaos — struggling to navigate complex legal processes while facing employment barriers and emotional distress,' Hamdard said

- Carolyn Komatsoulis, Kevin Fixler, Tribune News Service

Gregory Bastos remembers being kidnapped along with a friend and beaten by Venezuelan forces for his political activism, not knowing whether he would die.

The experience was traumatising, he said, sitting at a cafe in downtown Boise with his wife, Oriana Bastos. The Venezuelan-born couple, both 27, didn’t wait long before they crossed the border to Colombia, took a bus to the capital, Bogotá, and flew to Mexico. The two turned themselves in at the US border to request asylum and were detained briefly. Since then, they've been waiting four years for an asylum court date. When a hearing was set for April 10, the two Idaho residents felt like there was an end in sight, finally. But their slot was cancelled a week beforehand because of a judge reassignment, they said, plunging them back into uncertainty.

It's been a long road, starting from nothing. Away in the US, Oriana missed the death of her grandmother back home, she said, choking up. Oriana and her husband were both attorneys in South America, but have worked in restaurants and at a hospital locally. She said they've struggled in a different culture, with a different language and with people who aren't always welcoming.

And since President Donald Trump retook office, the couple has been dealing with his rhetoric and the ever-changing news cycle. “He doesn't have any idea what it means to be an immigrant,” Oriana said, in Spanish. “It’s life or death.” Asylum is an internationally recognised protection for people who face persecution in their home countries. The process has long been time consuming. But with the Trump administration’s hardening attitude toward immigrants, local lawyers said asylum-seekers are struggling with a more hostile bureaucracy and a chaotic environment.