Venezuelan man preparing to say goodbye to pet squirrel after reaching US border to claim asylum

A 23-year-old Venezuelan man is preparing to say goodbye to a pet squirrel he says he brought from his home country on a journey to Mexico.

Yeison is among the millions of Venezuelans in recent years who have fled because of political and economic upheaval, and has spent months in Mexico waiting to make an asylum case in the US.

He is now scheduled to get that chance but will probably have to leave behind his pet squirrel, Niko.

The pair are an unusual but blunt reflection of the emotional choices migrants make over what to take – and what to leave behind – as they embark on the dangerous trip north.

Yeison, who declined to give his last name because he fears for his family’s safety in Venezuela, said going without Niko was out of the question.

But Mexico is where they might be forced to part ways.

In this image taken from video, Niko, a pet squirrel, and his owner, Yeison, in their tent at a migrant camp, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023 in Matamoros, Mexico. Yeison, who declined to give his last name because he fears for his family’s safety in Venezuela, traveled with Niko thousands of miles to the border with the United States. But Yeison and Niko may be separated if he is granted entrance to the U.S. (AP Photo/Valerie Gonzalez) PA Media

Yeison has secured an appointment to present himself at the border to seek entry to the US and request asylum.

Animals are generally not allowed to cross the border.

“It would practically be like starting with nothing, without Niko,” Yeison said.

Many who set off on the roughly 3,000-mile journey to the US do so with only what they can carry and their loved ones.

For Yeison, that was a squirrel with a black stripe and flecks of white hair, who made the long trip nesting in a red knit cap stuffed inside a backpack.

For six months, Yeison and Niko lived in a tent at an encampment with hundreds of other migrants in Matamoros.

The site is across from the Texas border city of Brownsville, which is hundreds of miles east of Eagle Pass and not experiencing the same dramatic increase in migrants that prompted the mayor to issue an emergency declaration this past week.

On a recent day, Niko crawled over Yeison’s shoulders and stayed close while darting around the tent.

The chances are slim that Yeison can take Niko across the border, but volunteers at the encampment are not giving up.

Gladys Canas, the director of non-governmental organisation Ayudandoles A Triunfar, said she has encountered other migrants who wanted to cross with their pets – cats, dogs and even a rabbit once.

But until now, never a squirrel.

In this image taken from video, Niko, a pet squirrel, is fed by his owner, Yeison, in their tent at a migrant camp, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023 in Matamoros, Mexico. Yeison, who declined to give his last name because he fears for his family’s safety in Venezuela, traveled with Niko thousands of miles to the border with the United States. But Yeison and Niko may be separated if he is granted entrance to the U.S. (AP Photo/Valerie Gonzalez) PA Media

Ms Canas helped connect Yeison with a veterinarian to document Niko’s vaccinations to provide to border agents.

She is hopeful they will allow the squirrel to cross, whether with Yeison or with a volunteer.

“There’s a connection between him and the squirrel, so much that he preferred to bring it with him than leave the squirrel behind with family in Venezuela and face the dangers that come with the migrant journey. They gave each other courage,” she said.

Yeison said he found the squirrel after nearly stepping on him one day in Venezuela.

The squirrel appeared to be newly born and Yeison took him home, where he named him Niko and family members fed him yoghurt.

The picky squirrel, Yeison said, prefers nibbling on pine trees and is fed tomatoes and mangoes, even in times when food is hard to come by.

At first, Yeison said he sought work in Colombia.

He returned to find a loose pine splinter lodged in Niko’s eye and resolved after that to take the squirrel with him on the next journey to the US.

Like thousands of migrants, Yeison made the trip through the perilous jungle known as the Darien Gap, where he said he found the body of a man under some blankets.

He said he concealed Niko in a backpack when they boarded buses and crossed through checkpoint inspections in Mexico.