>> We leave it there.

Sarah Kopplin thanks very much.

Thank you.

Turning to the southern border, a temporary solution to deter a surge of illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border may become more permanent as Republicans have made immigration a central issue in the presidential election.

Political pressure has mounted for Democrats to address the issue.

An executive order issued in June from President Joe Biden severely limited the number of people who can seek asylum at the border.

Immigration advocates fear the policy deters people with legitimate asylum cases who are fleeing their home country for fear of persecution.

“Here& Now” student, journalist Jane McCauley, follows the journey of one such man who risked it all.

>> At this point, I was thinking, maybe I make a wrong decision of coming here.

>> Kaul Augustine had two choices he could either face arrest, seeking asylum at the U.S. Southern border, or face political violence in his home country of Cameroon.

>> They look at us like second class citizens in your own countries.

Simply because of what?

Because you can't speak French whatsoever.

of a violent civil war known as the Anglophone Crisis.

Thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

>> I said, look, we cannot be in our own country and be treated as second class citizens.

They go down the street, they start protesting.

You know, we want our rights to be restored.

>> The country's internal conflict is a remnant of French and British colonization.

It's been decades of discriminatory policies from the French speaking government against the country's English speaking regions.

More and more people like Goure have stood up against the government, risking arrest and torture.

Gutierrez wife and daughter assumed he had died in detention.

What they didn't know is that he escaped from Nigeria and fled to South America, starting in Ecuador and traveling north through the Darien Gap, one of the most dangerous places in the world.

Over thousands of miles and through eight countries, he reached Mexico.

>> I look like I'm a kind of different human being that come from separate, different world.

You know, I was and there was a lot of police discrimination.

I said, oh, this is not simply what I'm running away from.

>> Walz journey was harrowing, taking a toll both physically and emotionally.

>> I have not talked to my family for all the time I was traveling at that time.

And, you know, the stress and the emotion was going on.

>> Finally, he arrived at the U.S. Mexico border.

I've been through to get to cross this very border is it was really.

When I think of what I've been through to get to this point, it was I can't even I can't even find the right word to describe it.

When I got into the US immigration, I thought, I am safe.

I felt relieved.

>> That relief, however, turned to regret as he questioned if leaving for the U.S. was the right decision.

>> When they took me to the to the detention, I said I didn't commit any crime.

Why are they, like, taking me to this place?

>> He thought seeking asylum meant being protected in the custody of the United States.

Instead, he was arrested like a criminal.

I've never committed any crime in my life.

Apart from being apart from being protected in my home country.

>> And they told him nothing.

>> I thought I was still in Chicago because I didn't even know where I was.

>> It was weeks later he found out he was in a federal detention facility in Dodge County, Wisconsin.

This is a humanitarian issue.

Erin Barbato is director of the UW Law School Immigrant Justice Clinic.

Ngwa says everything changed when he met her.

because they have no other choice.

We have laws that allow people to seek protection here when they will be persecuted or have been persecuted in their home country.

>> Seeking asylum is one issue, but proving your case is another.

His witness accounts attest to the chaos in his country.

>> He also wears scars on his body that we were able to, demonstrate were linked to the persecution that he suffered from the government.

>> Obviously, our backgrounds are really different.

>> Wittke Toni and Mark Swanby met Ngwa through Barbato, but we had so much in common, like values and belief systems and all that.

Guo went to live with them after leaving Dodge County Jail on parole.

They became his American parents, giving him a place to call home.

>> Having Gua in our life now has been a real blessing to us.

You know, we've inherited another family, if you will, or found more family.

I'd like to.

>> I know you love to listen to stories.

>> After four long years, Gu's wife Stella, and then five year old daughter, Ann received their documents to come to the U.S. >> I was just like, is this for real?

Am I here?

I was in shock when I saw him.

I was so happy to make a life here in the U.S. and what what they've been through and what they're going through is just a hard thing.

>> In June, Gua graduated from UW lacrosse with a masters in Health care Administration.

After years of hardship, Gua received his asylum in 2021.

Now he's applying for U.S. citizenship.

Stella and Ann await their green cards.

In the meantime, it means everything to Gua to start a new life in Wisconsin.

your family to be united.

I think we're really happy.

And I am looking forward to more amazing things for "Here& Now".

amazing things for "Here& Now".