ATLANTA — Klinsman Torres says his journey to Atlanta resembled a “horror movie.”
The Venezuelan migrant set off for the U.S. in mid-July. His trek through South and Central America included a four-day slog across the Darien Gap, a dense, lawless jungle near the Colombia-Panama border where hundreds of migrants are believed to have lost their lives to dangerous conditions and armed violence.
“It takes a huge toll on you to be exposed to so much danger,” Torres said. The 31-year-old made his way to Atlanta via the southern border late last month. His arrival is part of an influx of migrants seeking asylum that is overwhelming local assistance agencies — and a sign that an unprecedented level of unauthorized migration to the U.S. is making itself felt in communities far from the border.
