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Sebastian Hidalgo for NBC News
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On the week of her due date, Elibexis Alvarez, a Venezuelan migrant, was preparing to give birth to her first child far away from her parents and the home country she never thought she’d leave.
She and her husband, Johan Jose Medina, have spent the last four months living in temporary shelters in Chicago after fleeing escalating violence in Venezuela. They are part of the tens of thousands of migrants and asylum-seekers who have been bused north after being processed at the southern border over the last two years.
“I never dreamed of being here,” Alvarez, 28, said as she sat in a Chicago church earlier this year, her hands resting gently on her stomach. “But I feel that my son will be safe here.”
Making Chicago home has not been easy, as they’ve struggled to find work and permanent housing.