By Ellen Wulfhorst
LAREDO, Texas, Feb 28 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Moises Rodriguez was grabbed by human traffickers as he tried to cross Mexico’s border into the United States and given an ultimatum: smuggle fellow immigrants by night or be killed.
He chose life.
It was just one of several crossings – some hazardous, few successful – that the soft-spoken chef and father of four has made since 2002, seeking his small bit of the American Dream.
Having survived the cross-border ordeal, risked death by frostbite in a desert escape and plunged into debt to pay a do-or-die ransom, Rodriguez fears the worst may yet be to come.
That’s all down to U.S. President Donald Trump, whose unprecedented rhetoric and crackdown on immigration might alter the fate of millions of migrants just like Rodriguez.
“I’m always optimistic,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “I say: ‘On this day, things will go well for me.'”
Now living free, Rodriguez was formerly one of the 40 million people estimated by the United Nations to be trapped in modern slavery, be it in forced labor or forced marriages.
Some survivors face a daily struggle to get by, others wage legal battles demanding more support from their governments.
