'We don’t come here because we want to, but because of the situation in our countries—sometimes it’s violence, sometimes it’s poverty.'
The microwave beeps as Flor Marquez finishes heating up dinner. She’s just finished another shift at a nearby Burger King in Houston, Texas and is looking forward to sitting down to eat with her young son, Adrian.As gang violence escalated in her former neighborhood, Marquez and her husband knew that fleeing the country was a matter of life or death for their son.
"Overnight, we had to take off because [the gangs] started to threaten us and demand money," Marquez told ABC News."If we didn’t pay them, we had to pay with our lives." Unfortunately, the family only had enough money for one parent to make the journey north with Adrian. Marquez ultimately accompanied him. Her husband died three years later. She never saw him again.
She said the trek up north was challenging, but once they got to the U.S. and announced themselves as asylum-seekers, she said they were treated well.On May 10, 2018, they were granted asylum. When asked what she wanted Americans to know about asylum-seekers like her, she said:"We don’t come here because we want to, but because of the situation in our countries- sometimes it’s violence, sometimes it’s poverty."Watch the video above to learn more about Flor Marquez’s story as part of “The Briefing Room”’s special coverage of the Democratic debates in Houston.
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