A wave of new Venezuelan immigrants have turned to food delivery on mopeds as a way to make a living in the D.C. region.
It’s 4 p.m., and the corner of 14th and Irving streets NW in D.C. brims with activity. Vendors fervently tout their offerings — “mango, mango, mango fresco” and “tenemos tacos” — against a din of hip-hop, the occasional siren and a preacher’s voice booming through a loudspeaker.
Yonatan Colmenarez, a 31-year-old Venezuelan immigrant, has made a living as a moped delivery driver since February. Today, he’s been up since sunrise, but the day has been slow. Around 4:10 p.m., he gets a notification from his Uber Eats account. By May 1, Colmenarez had crossed — mostly by foot — through Panama, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, where he turned himself in to U.S. officials in Ciudad Juárez. After he was processed and released on parole some 13 days later, a friend helped him pay for a flight to D.C. He spent his first night on the street, perched on a park bench and shivering from the cold.Yonatan Colmenarez, a 31-year-old Venezuelan immigrant, makes a food delivery in Washington, D.C.
an Uber Eats account and set up a schedule: delivering from 7 a.m. to about 3 p.m., resting at 4 p.m., a slow period the drivers call “la hora muerta,” and heading back out from 5 p.m. to midnight, six days a week. Many migrants without work permits “rent” Uber Eats or DoorDash accounts from relatives or friends, often for a weekly fee of $100 to $150. Spokespeople for Uber and DoorDash said they have safeguards in place to try to ensure that everyone using their platforms is who they say they are. Both said anyone using an account fraudulently will be removed from the app.Several drivers said D.C.
Nadaeu said she supports clarifying the registration rules and educating recent immigrants about the requirements. She added that she arranged for a traffic-control officer at 14th and Irving streets NW to designate an area where the mopeds can park without blocking traffic.
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