Married couple Niurka Meléndez and Héctor Arguinzones co-founded the non-profit Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid (VIA) to help those seeking asylum, a process they’ve personally been navigating for more than seven years. Hear more of their story on #Nightline, streaming on
Hulu. Watch interview here.
VIA was founded in 2016 by Niurka Meléndez and her husband Héctor Arguinzones. Venezuelan asylum seekers themselves, the two started the organization after experiencing the hardships firsthand. The two applied for asylum in the U.S. in 2016 and have been waiting ever since.
Other asylum seekers in their community could use help navigating that long and complicated process, they realized. “No one had to tell me about the process, I lived it,” said Meléndez in Spanish. Read more here.
About four thousand migrants arrive each week to New York City, according to Mayor Adams. The majority of these asylum seekers are from Venezuela. Nikura Meléendez, co-founder and co-director of Venezuela and Immigrants Aid, talks to Joe about the volunteer-based organization that helps Venezuelan migrants who fled their home country to come to NYC. Read more here.
“The reality is, for instance, how complex and bureaucratic the asylum system is,” said Niurka Melendez, a Venezuelan asylum seeker who arrived in New York in 2015. With her husband, Melendez created the Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid organization.
With her years of experience helping hundreds of Venezuelan migrants, Melendez has realized that one of the most serious mistakes migrants make when arriving in the United States is not attending their appointments with immigration authorities. Read more here.
“A lot of them are innocent in the sense that they are unaware of the long battle of seeking asylum that lies ahead of them,” said Niurka Melendez.
She said a lot of migrants from Venezuela pay guides to bring them into the U.S., but most of these “guides” are traffickers. They deceive these migrants into thinking that they would be granted asylum the moment they enter the US border.
These new migrants are still digesting the fact that they are here and alive,” Melendez said. “And then to realize all the things they still have to go through are frustrating for them.” Read more here.
“Migrants have individual stories about why they came. The common theme: a better life for their families. But achieving that is not guaranteed. “They still need to start a process and it is a hard process,” said Victoria Gamez, an immigration lawyer who advises recent migrants on their legal cases — for free at Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid, VIA, twice a month. Read more here.
“Through the orientation Venezuelan and Immigrants Aids seeks to facilitate the process of adaptation and empowerment of Venezuelans in the northeast of the United States, so that their migratory transition occurs safely… Read more here.
“Adding to the calamity of having fled a humanitarian crisis back home, the growing community of Venezuelans in New York is experiencing a new dramatic obstacle due to the closing of their country’s consulate in Manhattan… Read more here.
Telemundo 47’s report to the founders of VIA, Niurka Meléndez and Héctor Arguinzones. See more here.
