Thousands of Cubans arriving in El Paso

than 3- thousand cubans will be arriving in el paso in the next few weeks. that’s because panama closed its borders to u-s bound cuban refugees and flew them to juarez. abc-7’s maria garcia is live to show us the el pasoans helping the migrants. we’ve seen el paso shelters step up before when honduran migrants showed up at the border. and now again with cuban families. the migrants i spoke to told me they’ve dreamed of coming to the u-s since they were children. 00:06 porque queremos encontrar un sueno american que siempre lo hemos querido herenia gonzalez says she’s always wanted the american dream. 00:21 estudiar, trabajar she wants to study and work, she says. 07:04 we’re trying to sleep two hours each. we have volunteers cooking the houchen community center’s executive director veronica roman is working hard trying to help the migrants – at least 50 of them – who she says have not eaten for two days. 02:11 water. they’ve been surviving on water 00:56 so we’re offering them just a place to sleep just a space to take a shower and then to eat. and roman says they’re expecting pregnant women and women with children. she’s concerned because she says she’s seen people approach the migrants – offering them rides to other cities for hundreds of dollars. 05:00 i want to make sure and i’m hoping that they make their destination safe. we ran into city rep peter svarzbein donating his father’s shoes. an immigrant from argentina turned doctor who died two weeks ago. 13:32 weather it was my father coming from argentina in the 70s or someone coming in 2016 seekign political assylum, the immigrant story is the story of america providing a place of hope and betterment for future generations 00:14 y ser libre herenia says she wants to be free. 01:36 el gobierno principalmente. her husband says they’re fleeing a repressive government that forbids freedom of speech and other basic liberties. y que no tenemos libertad de expresion no tenemos libertad de ningun tipo. customs and border protection first processes the migrants at the ports. checking for immigration or criminal history and asking if they’re part of the castro regime. then cbp paroles the migrants – which means they can enter the country and wait for their immigration hearing. many of them like the couple we met are on their way to miami to meet family. it’s shaping up to be a great evening to go outside. a look at the city from