NEW YORK — The recent suicide of a Colombian migrant at a Queens homeless shelter touched a nerve for Maria — a migrant herself who struggled with emotional trauma. Maria had been in the U.S. for months, awaiting the results of her interview for political asylum status, when her thoughts turned dark.
Anxious thoughts — of what she left behind in Venezuela, of the prospect of being sent back home to languish in jail for her environmental activism — played through her head over and over again. Maria didn’t sleep for three days before landing in the emergency room.
“I had to leave my family, my business, my home, my stability, my life. I had to face the challenge of being an immigrant in a new country, with a new language, and without a job,” said Maria, 37, who spoke on the condition that only her first name be shared out of fear of punishment from the Venezuelan government.
