Sebastian Urbaez, the couple’s son, advised CNN there have been occasions when he was exhausted. In these moments, he stated, Max would lie on him and lick his cheek to cheer him up.

“He was so robust. He simply stored strolling with us. He is not only a canine. He is like our brother now,” Sebastian, 9, stated.

Decided to get Max into the USA, the household stated they received him on a number of buses by wrapping him in a blanket and passing him off as a baby.

“Costa Rica was exhausting to get via. As soon as they realized Max was a canine, they requested us to get off the bus,” Crisman stated. “However we stored making an attempt.”

After weeks of sleeping on cardboard and safely navigating their means via Mexico, the household crossed the Rio Grande and turned themselves in to immigration authorities in Eagle Move, Texas, on June 19.

Asking for asylum and looking for Max

The Urbaez household requested for asylum upon crossing the border.

However immigration officers didn’t need to settle for Max into the nation. They advised Anabel to consider her youngsters and go away the canine behind.

“However I simply could not,” Anabel stated. “Not after the whole lot he is gone via with our household.”

Sebastian and his 6-year-old sister, Criszanyelis, started to cry because the household begged immigration officers to permit them to take Max with them, to no avail.

“There was one officer, who I consider God put in our path,” Anabel advised CNN. “I am so grateful for him. He additionally cried a bit. He then advised me he took Max to a shelter and gave me the tackle for the shelter so I might go search for him as soon as we have been launched.”

The immigration officer, in keeping with Anabel, acknowledged Max from articles that have been printed by Latin American information retailers, which had lined the household’s uncommon journey. The Mexican information outlet Posta nicknamed the canine “Max, the migrant canine.”

After launch, the household trekked to the canine shelter to retrieve Max. However the shelter advised them that they had launched Max to a person who claimed he was associated to the household. The Urbaez household was in a position to find the person — a fellow migrant who had traveled with the household, in keeping with Anabel. He agreed to return Max in the event that they picked him up in Uvalde, Texas.

With the assistance of a stranger who provided to provide the household a trip, the Urbaezes have been reunited with Max the following day.

They then discovered themselves in Uvalde Memorial Park, the place Criszanyelis left a toy on the memorial arrange for the 21 victims of the Robb Elementary College capturing, Anabel stated.

The city jungle

After launch from US custody, immigration officers in Texas had directed the Urbaez household to a shelter in New York Metropolis and scheduled a gathering with immigration court docket.

The household, with Max safely in its custody, was now decided to succeed in New York and seem earlier than a choose.

With the assistance of a stranger, who got here throughout the Urbaezes stranded at a fuel station, the household caught a trip to San Antonio, the place they hoped to search out extra assist.

In San Antonio, they approached a corporation that gives help to immigrants (Anabel doesn’t recall the group’s identify however stated all employees wore blue jackets).

“They helped us out and received us aircraft tickets to New York Metropolis however once they realized we had a canine, they canceled our tickets.” Crisman stated.

The household advised CNN they begged the group for assist, they usually lastly agreed to get the household bus tickets to New York Metropolis. The Urbaezes spent three days on the highway, the couple stated, earlier than arriving in New York simply earlier than midnight on June 27.

The household arrived at Port Authority and started looking for the shelter immigration officers in Texas had identified. After asking for instructions a number of occasions, they discovered the shelter however have been refused entry as a result of the group solely assists home violence survivors, not complete households, in keeping with Anabel.

It regarded just like the household would spend the evening on the streets, till they struck up dialog with the proprietor of a bodega on ninth Avenue and 39th Road, in keeping with the couple.

When the proprietor heard the household’s story, he provided to allow them to sleep in his truck for the evening.

“He advised me he did not need something from me. That he would let me sleep in his automobile for the evening and would assist me discover a place to go the following day,” Crisman stated.

The subsequent day the proprietor fed the household and allow them to hand around in his grocery retailer.

When Robert Gonzalez, an area resident and activist who frequents the shop stopped by, the bodega proprietor requested Gonzalez to assist the household, Gonzalez advised CNN.

Gonzalez, who has been serving to migrant Venezuelan households for the final two years, requested the bodega proprietor to take the household to Prevention Help and Short-term Housing Workplace within the Bronx. However the household was once more rejected. The shelter doesn’t enable canine.

Gonzalez then reached out to a psychotherapist good friend who helped the household begin the method to register Max as a service canine, so it might be a part of the household at shelters. Within the meantime, a volunteer took Max, and the household spent the following two days ready for the town’s homeless consumption middle to course of their paperwork.

The household now lives in a shelter in Bushwick, Brooklyn. And despite the fact that they lastly have a heat mattress to sleep in, they nonetheless really feel like they’re in limbo, they stated, despite the fact that they’re grateful to have made it to the USA.

“The daddy cannot work,” Gonzalez stated. “Till their subsequent court docket date, they do not have permission to work so they need to depend on individuals like me who’re prepared to assist. It is worse for Venezuelan migrants as a result of they’re orphans in a way. There is no Venezuelan embassy or consulates in the USA they will run to in the event that they need assistance or a replica of a doc from again dwelling.”

This fall, Sebastian and Criszanyelis Urbaez might be part of the roughly 1,000 youngsters of asylum seekers whom the Division of Social Providers expects to enroll in New York Metropolis public faculty, as a part of Venture Open Arms, a metropolis initiative to assist asylum-seeking households with tutorial and language-based wants.

The household’s subsequent court docket date is in October 2023, when they may discover out if they have been given permission to work legally.

In an interview with CNN, Manuel Castro, New York Metropolis’s commissioner of Immigrant Affairs, stated the town is asking the federal authorities to step in and supply further assist to the town and expedite work permits for asylum seekers.

“A lot of the households I’ve spoken to, they need to get to work, they do not need to keep in shelters. They simply need to contribute to society, they simply need to be at peace,” Castro stated.

In the meantime, Max has turn into an authorized service canine.

“We do not consider him as only a canine. We see him as a part of the household.” Anabel stated. “The youngsters would not have forgiven us if we left him behind.”