By Karen Gleason
Dozens of immigrants from Haiti and Venezuela gathered inside and outside a local convenience store Tuesday, waiting to board a bus for San Antonio.
Inside the Stripes convenience store, 1602 Veterans Blvd., mothers carried fussy toddlers, while fathers stood in lines waiting to pay for bus tickets or armfuls of chips, candy bars, sandwiches, sodas and juice for the hours-long ride.
Others sat at tables inside the convenience store, finishing a hasty breakfast, while others waited outside, congregating in small groups as they waited for the announcement the bus would begin boarding.
The immigrants were among a large group released in Del Rio Sunday.
Most of the immigrants don’t speak English, but one, Jieunel Cadenord, a refugee from the troubled Caribbean island of Haiti, talked to the 830 Times about coming to the United States.
“The United States is my dream. When I go to school, I put in my head to come here to follow life. My dream is concrete now,” Cadenord said, a wide smile on his face.
“I want to live here to have the possibility to change my life, to change the life of my family,” he added, gesturing to his wife and teenage son, who sat on a bench at a small table outside the store.
Cadenord said he studied electronics in Haiti and brought his documents along.
He said his first priority when he arrives at his destination in Florida is to enroll in a school “to master about English.”
“I want to improve my English,” he added.
When this reporter noted he spoke better English than she spoke Spanish, French or Creole, he laughed and said he still wanted to speak the language more fluently.
His next priority when arriving at his destination, he said, is finding a good job.
Asked why he decided to come to the United States, Cadenord said, “The government of Haiti, I can say, is a bad government. It is a bad government. When you stand as the president of the country, you are supposed to work, you are supposed to put the people first. You are supposed to give them work, give them food, but he doesn’t do that.”
Cadenord would have spoken longer, but his wife tugged at his sleeve, indicating the bus was beginning to board.
