Cameroonian refugee family finds new start after reuniting in Wisconsin

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• William Brangham:

  Now a story about how one man is starting a new life in Wisconsin after a desperate journey from war torn Cameroon. Jane McCauley of PBS Wisconsin has this report.

  Ngwa Augustine, Refugee from Cameroon: I was thinking maybe I make a wrong decision of coming here.

• Jane McCauley:

  Ngwa Augustine had two choices. He could either face arrest, seeking asylum at the U.S. Ssouthern border or face political violence in his home country of Cameroon.

• Ngwa Augustine:

  We cannot be in our own country and be treated as a second class citizens. They go down to the streets to start protesting. You know, we want our right to be restored.

• Jane McCauley:

  Since 2017, a civil war in Cameroon has torn the Central African nation apart. Thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. 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 Ngwa have stood up against the government, risking arrest and torture. Ngwa's 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.

• Ngwa Augustine:

  I look like I'm a kind of different human being. I come from a different world, you know? I was and there was a lot of police discrimination. I said oh this was simply what I'm running away from.

• Jane McCauley:

  Ngwa's journey was harrowing, taking a toll both physically and emotionally.

• Ngwa Augustine:

  And I've not talked to my family for all the time I was traveling at that time and you know, the stress and emotion was going on.

• Jane McCauley:

  Finally he arrived at the U. S.-Mexico border.

• Ngwa Augustine:

  When I think of what I've been through to get to this point, it was — I can't even find the right word to describe it. When I got into U.S. immigration, I thought I am safe. I felt relieved.

• Jane McCauley:

  That relief, however, turned to regret.

• Ngwa Augustine:

  When they took me to the detention, I said I didn't commit any crime. Why are they taking me to this place?

• Jane McCauley:

  He thought seeking asylum meant being protected in the custody of the United States. Instead, he was arrested.

• Ngwa Augustine:

  I have never been to prison. I have never committed any crime in my life. Apart from being protested in my home country.

• Jane McCauley:

  Authorities told him nothing. Weeks later he found out he was in a federal detention facility in Dodge County, Wisconsin.

  Erin Barbato, Immigrant Justice Clinic, University of Wisconsin Law School: This is a humanitarian issue.

• Jane McCauley:

  Erin Barbato is director of the University of Wisconsin Law School Immigrant Justice Clinic. Ngwa says everything changed when he met her.

• Erin Barbato:

  They're risking their lives 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.

• Jane McCauley:

  Seeking asylum is one issue, but proving your case is another. His witness accounts attest to the chaos in his country.

• Erin Barbato:

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

• Toni Swandby:

  Obviously our backgrounds were really different.

• Jane McCauley:

  Tony and Mark Swandby met Ngwa through Barbato.

• Toni Swandby:

  But we had so much in common, like values and belief systems and all that.

• Jane McCauley:

  Ngwa went to live with them after leaving Dodge County Jail on parole. It became his American parents giving him a place to call home.

• Mark Swandby:

  Having Ngwa 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.

• Jane McCauley:

  After four long years, Ngwa's wife Stella and then five-year-old daughter Anne received their documents to come to the US.

• Stell Augustine:

  I was just like, is this for real? Am I dead? I was in shock when I saw him. I was so happy.

• Mark Swandby:

  To make a life here in the U.S. and what they've been through and what they're going through is just a hard thing.

• Jane McCauley:

  After years of hardship, Ngwa 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 Ngwa to start a new life in Wisconsin.

• Ngwa Augustine:

  It's a beautiful thing for your family to be united. Things will really happen and I'm looking forward to more amazing things.

• Jane McCauley:

  For PBS News Weekend, I'm Jane McCauley in Madison.