Note: Translation for this story was done by Tone Translate in Utica, New York.
At 5 a.m., the girls tried to get to sleep on pebbled rocks under Mountain Mart’s awning.
It was in the low 40s and drizzling in Plattsburgh, a remote New York town a few miles from the Canadian border. They wore only pajamas and sandals with socks, huddling together under quilted blankets. A 9-month-old baby was tucked underneath.
Yermain Piñango, 37, stood at the curb looking at the country road. Hours earlier, he, his pregnant wife, their sister-in-law and a few others took an overnight bus from Manhattan, where they were staying in crowded hotels and shelters with thousands of other asylum seekers.
