A man who spent more than three months trying to get into the United States to seek asylum is now trying to return to his home country.
Konstantin Viaznievich is one of many asylum seekers who don’t know where to go once they’re released from detention.
“I come in here just asking for help,” Viaznievich said.
Viaznievich is from St. Petersburg, Russia.
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He waited 102 days for his CBP One application and arrived in the U.S. last October for his CBP One appointment hoping to get treatment for a medical condition.
His journey to America began in Cuba, continued to Mexico and he eventually found himself at the Tijuana border.
“They catch me. They put me on the border. They say you are illegal. You are criminal now. I say why? It’s a legal application and I’m not crossing the border by myself. You say to me come here. You are inviting me,” Viaznievich said.
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Viaznievich describes the last month and a half as difficult. He said for two weeks he had no access to a phone to call his sick mother in Russia.
On Saturday, Viaznievich was released from detention. He spent three nights at the airport because the sponsor he had in Denver could no longer sponsor him.
The system is supposed to work like this. Asylum-seeking migrants who have been processed get released into the streets of San Diego. Many travel through San Diego International Airport to connect with their sponsors, but those without a sponsor often have no place to go.
“Who am I here? What is my status? I’m a refugee, or maybe I’m a hostage because my mother and my father haven’t been happen with me all these 15 days,” Viaznievich said.
He said a volunteer with the Immigrant Defenders Law Center gave him a backpack with warm clothes and money to get through the next few days. They also helped him book a hotel for two nights in Point Loma.
Viaznievich said he was told he would be flown to Washington D.C., where he hopes to reach out to the Russian Embassy and find his way back to his loved ones.
“I want to just hug my mother and say I’m home,” he said.
According to Margaret Cargioli, Directing Attorney of Policy and Advocacy with Immigrant Defenders Law Center, since mid-September, about 60,000 people seeking asylum have been released into the streets of San Diego.
While the vast majority have been connecting with their sponsors, many of them have no sponsor to receive them.
Cargioli said people who do not have a sponsor can get short-term shelter here in San Diego through advocacy groups and churches that provide immediate resources.
