C T Online Desk: Haitian asylum seekers Jocelyn and Berline Jean-Philippe breathed a sigh of relief as they entered the United States legally from Mexico — in time, they hoped, for their unborn child to become a US citizen.
It is a dream shared by other parents-to-be who make the often-dangerous journey fleeing poverty and violence in their countries in search of a better life for their children.
‘If my son’s born in the United States, it’s better for me and for him,’ Jocelyn Jean-Philippe said before crossing from Reynosa in northern Mexico to McAllen, Texas.
It was the culmination of a journey that began in 2015 when the couple left Haiti and included a stay in Chile where their first child was born.
‘He’s Chilean. He can live there without any problem. Not us. So if my son is born in the United States he won’t need any visa,’ Jocelyn Jean-Philippe said, his two-year-old asleep in his arms.
‘I want a stable life,’ said his wife Berline, 25, who is four months pregnant with her second child.
‘I want a better life for him. I suffered a lot,’ she said.
Under the US constitution, a child born in the United States is automatically entitled to citizenship.
But after so many ordeals, the Jean-Philippe family was not celebrating yet.
‘Only God knows’ if their son will be born a US citizen, the father-to-be said.
The couple, who hope to join relatives in the southeastern state of Georgia, are among hundreds of Haitian migrants who have arrived in the Mexican border city of Reynosa in recent weeks.
Every day, thousands of migrants cross Mexico in the hope of entering the United States.
Those traveling with young children tend to have a better chance of being accepted by US immigration authorities.
