SAN DIEGO — Just on the other side of the border wall in San Ysidro on Wednesday, May 3, a group of 17 people from Colombia sat in a dirt lot.
They came from different parts of the country, but they tell pretty much the same story. Life at home has become too dangerous. Twenty-one-year-old Harvey DeJada says the day he left to come here, one of his best friends was murdered.
Harvey says there was never a moment at home where he felt safe. “The people wake up dead every day,” he said through bars in the fence. “It's really dangerous. Extortions. Corruption.”
The murder rate in Colombia is nine times higher than here in the United States.
It's so dangerous, the U.S. State Department is currently urging Americans to reconsider travel there, posting on their website, “Violent crime, such as homicide, assault, and armed robbery, is widespread. Organized criminal activities, such as extortion, robbery, and kidnapping, are common in some areas."
Harvey says he’s constantly living in fear. “Colombia is good for tourists, but not for Colombians,” he said. “For Colombians, Colombia is a nightmare. It's so bad. The illegal armies are taking out all of the country.”
Harvey came to the U.S./Mexico border on his own, leaving his family behind with the hope that he'll earn enough money to one day bring them too. “My sisters are scared. My mom is scared. my father is scared. My grandma is scared.”
He’s now been sitting on the Mexico side of the border for days and still doesn't know if - or when - he'll be allowed to cross the border.
The waiting is taking its toll. “We stay here five days, six nights in the sun,” he said wearing a plastic trash bag around his clothes because rain is in the forecast.
“Freeze at night. We don't have money. We don't have food. We don't have water. It's a nightmare in this place.”
“But is it still better than Colombia?” I asked.
"Yes,” he said. “That's better than Colombia.”
He says he and the other Colombians he’s met while waiting at the border just want to live the American dream: Get a job and wake up every day without fearing for their safety.
As he put it, live an honest life.
“We are good person,” he said.
“Nice guys?,” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said with a big smile. “We are nice guys.