FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Four-year-old Stefano Villasana was playing on the sidewalk. He was near a bus bench, under the shadow of a shiny building, that has been home to his family in Fort Lauderdale.
Stefano and his mother, Mercedes Vilela, are from Ecuador. Her foot had to be amputated in Costa Rica. She was injured while hiking the treacherous Darién Gap.
“It was very tough,” Vilela, 33, said.
The family survived the journey from Colombia to Panama, but Vilela’s injured foot got infected. Despite the amputation, they continued the journey to the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It took us four months,” Vilela said.
Stefano’s father, Edison Villasana, who was born in Venezuela, already knew what it was like to have to move to find a better life somewhere else.
“A friend was going to welcome us,” Villasana said, adding that his friend did not come through after U.S. immigration authorities processed them, and they had nowhere to go.
The bus bench is also near the Broward Partnership’s homeless shelter. Vilela and Villasana said they were grateful for people like Angela Hill, who lives nearby.
Hill has been donating food and clothing to make sure they stay warm at night and Stefano isn’t hungry.
“That could be my grandson. That’s why I care,” Hill said through tears. “Somebody has to care; this is not fair.”
Ron Book, the chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, said he cares.
“Look at that innocent child,” Book said adding that the federal government needs to step up to the plate and help local agencies to deal with the crisis.
“If the federal government isn’t going to solve the border problem, they have got an obligation to send us an armored car full of money, so that we can solve it ourselves,” Book said.