May 31, 2023 • 53 mins
James returns with part 2 of his series on title 42, in this episode we hear from asylum seekers in San Ysidro and learn about the human impact of CBP’s inhumane detention practices.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Going on, yelling and gen length by Molly.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's going off, going lengthy and elms see im for
the sky not me. I'm pre Mama says some push
free and for them say might smile them. No, no, i'
must do be Gannata canna watch me hey man, grateful man, grateful.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I went not in on Manna smile. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Once there is a live God, I'll want give me
everything for some five Yeah, love sack fries, pick up
to joy car. I got to eat and come back.
I'm see yeah man, that's it one love Oh.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
On the eleventh of May this year, title forty two
finally ended. I actually began to write this episode the
day before on the tenth of May, but it was
that day the DHS announced that Title forty two would
be enforced until eight fifty nine pm Pacific or midnight Eastern.
They kept Title forty two in place for every single
minute they could, and that's same day. Five hundred active
(01:01):
duty troops arrived in El Paso and one thousand more
set off for the border towns to join the two thousand,
five hundred troops already deployed to the border. According to
opress rates from an Apartment of Homeland Security.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
CBP, and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement are further expanding
detention capacity, ramping up removal flights, and shifting agents and
officers to high priority regions along the southwest border. This week,
CBP opened two new holding facilities, and the Department of
Health and Human Services is increasing its bed capacity to
prepare for a potential increase in unaccompanied children. DHS also
(01:36):
launched targeted enforcement operations and high priority regions along the border,
including El Paso, to quickly process migrants and place them
in removal proceedings. DHS last week also announced over two
hundred and fifty million dollars in additional assistance for communities
receiving migrants.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
On the ground. This assistant and planning didn't exactly meet
the task at hand, albeit the specific call out of
El pasa so does suggest that they saw their task.
It's not looking bad in the right wing media hits
some audio recorded after a couple of hours walking around
talking to people at Sanisedro, where Customs and Border Protection
had detained around five hundred people in between the two
thirty foot fences that make up the border between Salisedro
(02:16):
and Tijuana. I'm just for people familiar with San Diego
in the Tijuana River Valley park by International Hill, where
border patrol are holding people in between the two border fences.
For those who thought we didn't have a border wall
or weren't having a border wall, we have at least two,
(02:37):
sometimes three, but right here we have two. People are
being put in between these fences by border patrol. So
I just spoke to some young Colombian women who had
crossed about fifteen miles east of here and then been
relocated here and there in between these border walls. They
don't have running water. What food and water they have
(02:58):
appear to be in supplied by volunteers on the nor
inside they've just been given space blankets, but a lot
of people are literally sleeping under bin bags right now, blankets.
It's pretty breek. There's one portal toilet sort of thing
that we can see about five hundred people, so I
can give you an idea of the conditions. Obviously those
don't live up to the detention conditions that border patrol
(03:18):
are supposed to up a hole people under, but here
we are, I guess Border patrol have just said that
they're calling an ambulance. There have been a number of
medical emergencies that nearly always are in these situations because
you're holding people. They're you know, old people, young people,
sick people, and they're in the sun all day, they're
in the cold all night. If it rains, they get wet.
(03:39):
If it's hot, they get hot. If it's cold, they
get cold. Their little children were just asking me for
a blanket a minute ago, which is always a pretty
bleak thing. If you've not been here, you'd be forgiven
for not knowing that. We have a double layer of
wall separating us from our neighbors in Tijuana, both sections
and now the Trump period design. But we're standing in
(03:59):
a we're not so very long ago. Nancy Reagan stood
and said she hoped that there wouldn't be a fence
here for very long. Now there are two towering walls,
and their little children stuck sleeping in the dust between them.
Or the aid to these people had to go through
the wall, too, and that meant no hot meals. Because
the gaps are smaller than a plate. Someone tried to
bring tents, but they wouldn't fit. Everything from food to
(04:23):
clothes to medical supplies had to go through the gaps.
In the War Hamara Usephi, a volunteer from the Partnership
for the Advancement of New Americans, described to me what
she saw that night.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
I see about five hundred beautiful, smiling faces of people
who are desperately trying to get to safety, and they're confused.
They don't know what's going on. They don't know how
long it will take them. You know, they many of
them are aware that something is happening today. Many of
(04:57):
them are asking does this mean that I'll be turned back?
What is going on? I see, you know, people who
don't even have many kids, don't have shoes, they don't
have I talked to individuals who lost everything on them.
They don't have jackets. They're trying to cover themselves with
(05:18):
any kind of covering that they have, some of them
using trash bags, others using scarves and other types of
things to cover themselves from the sun. We are in
San Diego, so it's quite sunny here.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
The first thing I noticed on arrival was dozens of
hands sticking through the wall holding phones and charges. That's
because people need to use the CBP one app to
interact with border enforcement, but they've been detained by the
same border enforcement in between two walls in an open
field where there obviously isn't any electricity. They also need
their phones to stay in touch with their families, to
(05:53):
let them know they survived a difficult and dangerous journey
and that they're now technically inside the USA. Is the
advet a CBP broadcast in Spanish to encourage asylum seekers
to download the app before they put them in a
place they couldn't charge their phones.
Speaker 6 (06:07):
Attencion migrante.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Attention migrants in Mexico City or further north in the country.
Why do you need to download CBP one. It's a
free and legal way to get an appointment guaranteed at
a port of entry. It's a clear way to solicit asylum,
and you have the possibility to work while your case
is being processed. If you present without an appointment, you
can be prohibited from entering the US for five years.
(06:32):
You will be subject to expedite a deportation unless you
comply with the strict requirements of the asylum process. In
the majority of cases, it is assumed that migrants do
not comply with the requirements for asylum, and you won't
have the right to work unless you comply with the
strict requirements. Again, if you are now in Mexico City
or further north, download CBP one.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
As we heard yesterday, CBP one has been an a
mitigated disaster. I'd shown a very clear bias towards certain
types of wealthy and white asylum seekers, despite that it
seemed to have been the only plan in place the
end of Title forty two. The hundreds of people detained
in between defenses wheably didn't have appointments, and with no
way to charge their phones, they couldn't make them. It's
(07:17):
not clear of making them would have helped, as it
seems that they were already being detained, and thus they
would have to file defensive asylum claims, effectively stopping the
repatriation process by claiming that they couldn't safely be sent
back to their country of origin. This is opposed to
making an affirmative asylum claim that people should have been
able to make at the border. With a CBP one appointment,
these would not have to be argued with the threat
(07:39):
of repatriation hanging over the person making the claim. Volunteers,
local people, a mosque group, and a church group all
showed up soon after CBP began dumping more people in
between the fences. An hour after my own arrival, I'd
given away all the charge cables that I had in
my truck, which is a lot more charge cables than
I thought I had in my truck, and all my
(07:59):
charge bricks accrude over six years of getting free shed
at the consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas later, I
came back with a massive solar generator that I'd like
to use when I'm living off grid. But I still
need to write stuff. Even all my home electronics ephemera
and the combined efforts of nonprofits, religious and mutual aid
groups couldn't really make much difference to the five hundred
people from around the world, mostly families with children being
(08:22):
held between the two fences. When it got hot, they
got hot. When it got cold, they got cold. When
the wind blew, they got dust in their eyes, and
everything was constantly dirty. The only hot food volunteers could
get to them was pizza. Some of the detained people
have cash, and they were able to order door dash
on the Tijuana side, but again the meals had to
(08:43):
fit through a hole barely wider than my arm. The
only way to get clean was with wet wipes. And
there was only one bathroom. There was no shade or
shelter either, and the only way people could construct shelters
were through tying tops to the border wall itself. I
like Kaba, one of the volunteers who came to help,
describe what they saw when participating in Mutilated a couple
(09:04):
of days after, but.
Speaker 7 (09:05):
It was.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
Definitely was. I don't think it really struck me until, you.
Speaker 7 (09:11):
Know, after, after everything, and you know, after I left
several hours later. But the kind of I mean, I
am right about the situation at the border, but the
kind of a matter of fatness of there's just several
hundred people, including children.
Speaker 6 (09:27):
Just kind of between this fence and they're just stuck.
Speaker 7 (09:32):
There with nothing, and the sort of a matter of fatness.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
Of the all was I think, I think the part
that struck me the most. And it's been a much
challenging the process.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
In the days before the end of Title forty two,
confusion had rained at the border. A lot of people
I talked to you mentioned that they thought they had
to cross before the end of Title forty two or
they would be ejected and not able to apply for
five years at the title eight. This misunderstanding might in
part be due to some of the misleading rhetoric put
out by Majorcas and others, which focused on the harsh
(10:07):
penalties for crossing between ports of entry and an attempt
to appear strong on the border. To their colleagues in DC.
They didn't place as much emphasis on the right to
present and claim asylum at a port of entry. But
as we saw yesterday, it's virtually impossible to actually do that,
and Tijuando is already full of thousands of people trying
to do that exact thing. Given a set of circumstances,
(10:29):
it makes sense that many people took the days before
the end of Title forty two. At the final chance
to cross before Title forty two ended, I spoke to
Diana Rodriguez from Colombia about her understanding of what was
going to happen.
Speaker 8 (10:42):
Later that night, Diana Rodriguez the Columbia.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Diana was with two friends, all of them wearing little
daisies in their hair and sharing a tarp shelter they'd
made by tying a blue tarp against the wall so
they could get some shade and privacy. I asked her
where the flowers had come from. You hear the rec
into your voice by Scherine.
Speaker 9 (11:03):
Oh the flowers, the flowers. H Well, there are these
little flowers, flowers that are growing here like in a garden.
So when we went and took a walk over there
and we found them, we put them on and they're pretty.
We call these the little yellow flowers of hope, and
they match the color of our bracelets. We picked them
on the day we arrived, and we knew that we
(11:24):
needed a little bit of encouragement. We got the yellow bracelets.
Because we arrived on Tuesday, everyone got the same bracelet.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I asked, Diana, which you'd heard about Title forty two,
which is ending a few hours after we talked.
Speaker 9 (11:38):
Yes, it's the end of Title forty two. Title forty
two is the one that endorses mass deportations. Yes, and well,
it's a question of you not just getting deported, but
being repatriated. In other words, after this they do a
full repatriation. But right now you are not registered in
(11:59):
the system. But what they do is that they only
return you. They don't register you. But let's say, on
the basis of Article eight, is that a few at
least we are invading American territory, then we are in
effect breaking a law, and what Article eight does is
that they deport you and they put you in the
(12:19):
registered database saying that you broke the law, and they
punish you for five years and you lose the right
to request your asylum through legal channels.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
People at another camp in u Cumba heard the same
thing from Colombians, and it seems like there are even
news pieces run on domestic television explaining that US plan
to return many Colombians in the coming months, and this
might be the last best chance to cross the border
without permanent consequences. You got caught in a Cumba. Volunteers
estimated that two thirds of the people corraled and the
(12:50):
deadert son from Colombia. Of course, in recent years there
has been instability and violence there, which also drives migration.
One of my sources also mentioned a lot of Lumbian
people had seen misleading information about immigration law on TikTok.
Two days had passed since Janna arrived. She came with
one of the girls she was now sharing a top with.
I met another when they were all dumped in the
(13:12):
camp together. In the days before they were detained here.
They crossed three countries on their way to what they
hope was a better life for young women like them.
I asked them to describe that journey for me.
Speaker 9 (13:23):
Yes, eight days, eight days more or less walking from
Colombia from El Salvador to Guatemala, the New Mexico. To
hear all that time walking and taking the bus. There's
a part fifteen or twenty minutes from here where the
wall ends, and we crossed there there was a Mexican
patrol and when they changed shifts, we ran and here
(13:44):
we are on American soil. We arrived on foot and
the police brought us here. They opened the gate and
dropped us.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Here along the way. She said, they've run into a
lot of people, and my good journey north is such
a common trick that people living along the way have
found a way to make a buck, but also a
way to make a difference. It's not uncommon for migrant
to be extorted, robbed, or threatened. It's also not uncommon
for them to be fed by strangers, perhaps handing off
bags with food in them to passing trains or buses,
(14:13):
or perhaps given a place to sleep for the night
by someone they might never see again.
Speaker 9 (14:18):
There were parts where we were extorted. They took all
the money we brought. They robbed us, they stole our passports,
they still our documents. So it's always quite dangerous. Let's
say that it's dangerous to take this journey. Yes, just
as we have met some bad people along the way,
we have also met some very good people, people who
have given us a hand, people who have helped us,
(14:39):
people who have collaborated with us in ways you least expect.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
I asked Diana what she hoped for now she was
technically inside the USA.
Speaker 9 (14:48):
Yes, let's say the hope is that they will listen
to our case, listen to our case, and let us
fight the case inside. Yes, because we want to be
able to explain the conditions we are in and the
reasons that those of us who are here came here,
things like extortion, kidnapping, and because our lives are in
danger in Colombia. So we wish that they at least
(15:09):
listen to our case and let us plead our cause.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Before we started recording, Deanna asked what network I was with.
I thought that was an astute question. Networks like Fox
show up at the WAD, although I didn't see any
Fox National reporters on my trip. Certainly local news channel
k us I was there, but they're reporting on the
ground differed from their xenophobic and outright incorrect online coverage.
I asked Diana, what you'd want to say to folks
(15:33):
who might have had their perspective influence by the constant
demonization of migrants by right wing media.
Speaker 9 (15:39):
If there are many people who, let's say, are in
a mindset of not wanting migrants and they view them
with contempt, because where xenophobia exists, it's hard for us
because we suffer along the way. We would like you
to change your way of seeing things and your way
of thinking so that you don't look at us with contempt.
(15:59):
We have a saying in Columbia that says that he
who was born in a golden cradle never suffers or
never sees what he does not know. So it's hard
when you're born in a golden cradle and you don't
see beyond what you have. So there are people that
in our case, in my case, I lived a very
hard life where you see the war between armed groups.
(16:22):
They exist outside the law and they can control an area,
and you see the kidnapping, you see the rape of girls,
recruitment extortion, death. Yes, so it's hard when we experience
that and people say things like these migrants are coming
to invade our country, we also ask them to treat
us as people, because if we are here, it is
(16:44):
not because we want to invade a territory. It is
because we want to come to fight for a better
future for our children without stepping on anyone. Nobody wants this.
But where we come from, we receive travelers with open arms.
And it's hard when one is a migrant, when one
lives the experience of being a migrant, it is a
(17:07):
very hard thing to be a migrant, having to endure cold, hunger, rain, sun,
that is, all these things, and then arriving here and
seeing faces of contempt. It's hard. It is very hard.
So yes, the important thing is that people must know
(17:27):
that being an immigrant is not easy. Being an immigrant
is not easy.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
One of her friends who she was sharing a top with,
leaned over to give an example.
Speaker 9 (17:38):
Everyone despairs because everyone wants to leave, so everyone sees
each other as enemies. So let's say, for example, right now,
when they are sending cars to collect people to process,
so everyone there thinks, I hope they take me. Then
when they don't. It gets to a point where, yes,
(18:00):
were you despair? I mean it's desperate, but well everyone,
everyone is in the fight together, all in the fight.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
I have to get another dusting down from a CBP
agent who really liked to rise his squad bike passing
utulaid tables. Spake to a man from Angola. I'll leave
his name out, as he preferred for me not to
share it. He'd beat into Juana for three days, he said.
I was waiting his chant to plead his case for asylum.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
No, it's just me and my sister. We suffered a lot.
There were bandits. We came here to be safe. It's
no way to live. People broke into our house to
violate women, to look for people, and I was injured.
Then yeah, why did I leave to come here? Over there,
they're not they're not the means to live.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
We didn't get it ants to talk for long, and
some of the recording I got wasn't very good. He
was waiting in line for food and to be quite honest,
I don't like prodding people to share their trauma, but
with so many journalists crowding the border asking them to
do just that, it tends to be what people offer.
Lots of African migrants can be quite cautious of the
media because talking to the media at home could get
them in trouble. I spoke to a friend of mine
(19:21):
himself a migrant from Africa. He said that if migrants
don't speak English or Spanish, it can be very hard
for them to get information, and there aren't as many
nonprofits set up to serve them as there are for
Spanish speaking people, for example. They can often end up
isolated and alone. I did get a better chance to
talk to a Jamaican man called Joseph. It's his singing
you've heard at the start of this episode. Mostly we
(19:43):
talked about things in America, about how he lost his
phone on his journey, we got him another one at Walmart,
and about things like football and music. I didn't record
all of that because sometimes it's nice to just talk
to people. Hopefully it makes their dair a bit brighter
and gives them some information. Maybe they could help let
me record a bit of an interview and some of
him singing. He was pretty guarded on the recording, but
(20:05):
as you can hear in this clip, we had a
good time when we weren't recording.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
I am the best one.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, every gather it's got a timber raps up.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
He's gotta get up there. We go and get my
man's up. Hey, you know it's leg jennally is.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
He went on yelling gen but Molly, it's going off,
not going likely and lem see ian for the sky
hunted me. I'm pre and Mama said something push free
and glow and red for them, say might smile them. No, no,
I'm just doing red, beIN gonna talk. Canna watch me
hey man, grateful man, grateful, I went not and on
(20:48):
manna smile. Yeah, once there is life. God all want
give me everything for some fune. Yeah, love suck, great fries,
big up to job, I got to eat come back.
So yeah, man, that's it one. Look Oh that beautiful. Yeah,
I'm I'm I'm Joseph.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
I asked him about some of the stuff we spoke
about before, but he didn't want to share it.
Speaker 7 (21:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
That's the whole testimony to me and you and God
have to go into church for that.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
But I'm gonna give you that the next time.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Okay, Buddy just experienced a lot of personal harm from
conflict back home in Jamaica. I had a difficult journey
here with his five year old son.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Yeah, it's rough. It's rough out there, man, you know
it's rough.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
How did you come like you come? I asked him
how his young son a dealt with the journey. It's
not a safe or easy one for an adult, let
alone for a little child.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
It's like he's just kind of scary one. He pulled you. Yeah,
that's good. You have my energy inside. That's good. Yeah?
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Are you How is he finding it here in the camp?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Oh? Yeah, that camp. I don't know why. That guy
is just like me. We just don't make anything better us.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah, what it's working here because you guys give it
a strength and supported in us.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
You know, Joseph wanted me to know that he wasn't
giving up his home. He loves Jamaica, but he also
wants a better life for his son.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Is that it's not that?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Isn't that like I'm giving away my home? My home
is a good place. Yeah, yeah, it's a good island,
nice place to be.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Of course, his perspective is very common and it's one
that often gets left out of reporting. Coming to the
USA is a very hopeful act. It's not abandoning your
family or your home. It's trying to make their lives
better in your life, livapoo. Joseph was quite guided with
his story, and that's fine. It's his to share as
much as little as he wants. I came to the
USA without having to get persecuted or hurt, and people
(22:42):
who don't look like me should have that same right
as well. Sadly, coming to the USA is also scary
and confusing, even for me with three university degrees and
all the intersectional privilege I have and fifteen years living here,
and I've recently minted US passport. Now, I worried for
years that maybe I'd made a mistake on a form
or missed some kind of deadline. Speaking of deadlines, what
(23:06):
none of the migrants could tell us, what they all
wanted to ask about was exactly what was happening to
them as Title forty two expired. A Congolese lady asked
me if her passport would be confiscated. A lady from
Senegal asked if she needed to pay a bribe like
the one she'd paid in Mexico. It wasn't really clear
at first if these people were being detained and under
what process they were being received. Would they be sent
(23:27):
back to Mexico and a Title forty two, repatriated under
Biden's interpretation of Title eight, or given the right to
plead their case as international and US law suggests should
be able to. CBP made people sit in lines all
day with no indication of when they would be taken
to the porta Entry for processing. Sometimes I heard people
saying if everyone didn't sit down, there'll be nobody processed
(23:50):
that day. But the only food, water, and medical attention
available to the migrants with ZAK which could be passed
through the wall, and they had to get out of
their lines to receive this aye. I'll let Kaber describe
what this looked like.
Speaker 7 (24:02):
They had people waiting in lines the whole like you're
to sit in a line in a specific assigned spot.
But it wasn't always clear if those how those lines
actually worked.
Speaker 6 (24:13):
Because they would kind of take people from lots of places.
I think they might have been prioritizing.
Speaker 7 (24:19):
Family for children, or people with some kind of medical
needs or something like that, but you would never know
when they were going to come, and we didn't seem
to know also who they were going to choose to take.
We assume we didn't know exactly where we were taking them,
but we assume they were taking the Port of Venture
in sanna Ce Tour, which is about a mile away.
And so what would always happen when they come and
(24:39):
get a group is like three or four people from
that group would sprint over to the world because we
still had their phones and cdpeople wasn't going to wait
for us to get the phones.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
One thing a lot of people we talked to shared
was that there was another camp, which we later found
how is as many as eight hundred single men. It's
fairly usual to keep single men apart from family, but
keeping them in an inaccessible place without adequate food or
water is not usual. The camp was further west, and
despite repeated requests from myself and others, including those delivering aid,
(25:11):
we were not allowed to access it. One pair of
Jamaican twins, both young men, told me they had walked
up there and that things were very bad. People were
only given one small water bottom the granola bar every day,
they said. One person told me they'd heard people eating grass.
I asked CBP's press office for information on this, but
they didn't respond. Here's one clip of a man trying
(25:34):
to explain how bad things were there. It's hard to
communicate across language barriers, and with a war between you
is even harder. But I could tell he was very
concerned for the folks that we couldn't get to, despite
myself and others trying and me addressing this issue directly
and emails to CBP, and never got any response on
why people were not allowed to help the single men
in the other camp.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Just not helping. What little water?
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Nothing else, no food, no water, blankets, blows nothing.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
I'll go try and go up there.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Even with these camps being pretty desperate places, folks look
after one another. We spoke a lot with one lady
who spoke English. She was there with her own family,
but she was also looking after two Tagi children who'd
come alone. Their mother spoke a little English, so she
relayed news to the children by calling their mother and
having her translated for her children. Other folks took it
(26:40):
upon themselves to try and walk to the camp for
single men with water, and people constantly helped us find
the owners of phone Boy, Wandering through the rows of
people sheltering under taps and space blankets to look for
people who had left us their devices to charge. In Nukumber,
a town an hour or so east of San die,
things were worse. Cumber's home to a cute hotel, a
(27:04):
lovely lake, a hot spring, and an awful lot of
big rugs. When the border war was being built in
Earnest before the twenty twenty election, they skipped some of
the harder areas. Perhaps they figured it would be too
hard to cross there, it's not Perhaps they wanted to
maximize the mileage before election day. Well it didn't help much,
but either way, for some reason, the wall just takes
(27:24):
a little break in Hucumber, and this makes crossing marginally
easier there. However, the boulder fields, scorching hot days and
cold nights make it anything but easy. On Thursday night,
the eleventh of May, locals in a Cumber became aware
that CBP were holding people on a dirt road in
the open desert, just a few miles east of town
and a few hundred feet from the wall. The people
(27:46):
held they didn't have access to toilets, running water, or shelter.
With every hour that went past, the number of people grew.
The biggest camp soon held over a thousand people. Desperately
trying to scratch out a little shade in the desert.
All accounts popped up, one was apparently in someone's yard,
and the people of this tiny desert town so about
helping as best they could. Soon they were joined by
(28:09):
volunteers from all over the county. Katie was one of
those volunteers. She doesn't live in a Cumber, but her
friends do and her family sometimes spends time there. Once
she heard about what was happening, she knew she had
to help. I let her describe her feelings after she
saw the post online, and then drove out to Cumber
to see what she could do to help.
Speaker 8 (28:28):
At first, I was just super touched by the activation
and the carrying, and my son was asleep, comfortable in
his car seat, you know, in our Mercedes van. And
my husband is still trying to get citizenship after being
(28:53):
here since he was two years old. So and we're
married and he pays taxes. And when I saw our
friends activating, I just told him tomorrow's Mother's Day and
I need to come back here, and it's not safe
(29:14):
for you here. So when I first arrived, I thought
it was kind of odd that everything was organized around
a random road that has a gate, and there were
five only five border patrol at the time, and about
(29:42):
that was a larger camp, so I want to say
at least eight hundred people, maybe a thousand. I didn't
see them all because many of them would received their
donations and the assistance and went back to their shelters.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
A few days after the migrants arrived, I camped out
in Hucumber. I was cold in my sleeping bag at
night and dizzy in the sun in the day. It's
not a place where you'd want to be stuck outside
the long but it's a place where fifteen hundred or
so people were held for days, little more than the
shelters they built out of creosota and mesquite to protect
their families from the elements. They slept on the dirt
(30:22):
or in cardboard boxes left over from the food volunteers
fed them and under whatever folks and tiny desert count
could find to give them. By the time I arrived,
the migrants were gone and volunteers were cleaning up. The
landscape was dotted with impressively constructed brush shelters. Volunteers from
her Cumber set up tables to distribute food, blankets, water,
(30:43):
and clothing. Other volunteers stayed away from the camp itself
and spent time packing things into individual sizes, perhaps combining
hats and socks and maybe a toy for a child
in one bag, or breaking down costco packages of snacks
into individual portions. It's not necessarily the most rewarding task,
but it's an important one. I asked Marissa, another volunteer
(31:04):
who had previously worked in San Diego for the Forest Service,
what she felt when we were cleaning out some of
those shelters together a couple of days later.
Speaker 10 (31:11):
I don't know the best way to say this, but
what hit me deeper was when this might seem strange,
but when I saw women's sanitary napkins or the diapers
or the babies, like it was kind of like a
fabric padded crib basinet type thing that suddenly hit me
(31:36):
on a deeper level. It would make me emotional because
it's like then you start to realize, like, wow, what
if that was me and my child? Or I'm not
a mother, but I can only imagine what that must
be like for them to be going through these things
as a as a woman, being on your period and
(31:59):
being out and not having anything, you know, going to
the bathroom out there, what do you use when you
don't have those supplies?
Speaker 3 (32:09):
So yeah, it just.
Speaker 10 (32:14):
That was when it hit me deeper, and I knew
I was doing the right thing by being out there
and helping in whatever way I could, because I don't
I don't when it comes to the politics side of it,
when it comes to like legality and just different aspects
of it. In that way, I don't have necessarily an
(32:39):
opinion one way or another. I'm not educated enough to
feel like I can I can argue one way or another,
or defend one position or another. I went out there
purely for my love of humanity, and I think being
able to support in whatever way I can that was
the way that I felt like I could serve and
(33:00):
bo support.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Katie hadn't expected to meet migrants at the camp when
she first showed up. She knew it was important not
to flog the camp with volunteers, and their help was
needed packaging and preparing aid drops, which she was happy
to do. But in the end, she traveled up to
the camp with a friend who spoke Portuguese so they
could help translate and distribute supplies. I asked her what
it was like to see the supplies she'd purchased a
(33:21):
few hours before end up in the hands of people
who desperately needed them.
Speaker 8 (33:26):
They don't even have a grocery store in her cumber
They have one mini mart with nothing in it, and
that was sold out the first day. So these people
(33:46):
who we would look at without a lot of resources,
passing the abundance of what they actually have, well, I
saw a lot of families. I could tell that there
were leaders within the group because they were helping organize
as much as the volunteers were. And unfortunately there was
(34:10):
language barriers, you know, and so those that could speak
multiple languages, whether they were border crossers or volunteers, were
together in it. And that was part of that organization
that I'm talking about, you know. And it was actually
(34:33):
a very calm scene when we first came up. I
saw my son's hat that I donated and a little
boy hugging this jaguar stuffed animal, and the jaguar was
really significant to my friend and I when we found it.
So it was really touching just to like see the
(34:58):
things that we were bringing being literally being distributed, like
sometimes when you think you're helping I worked for a
door to door campaign when I was in my teens,
and I got fifty percent of what I raised, and
it was like disheartening, and you're like, oh, this is
how it works. And in this case, money that I
(35:24):
directly spent on resources that were needed was going directly
to the people.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
In all likelihood, people crossed in a specific spot because
someone dropped them there telling them it would be easy.
In fact, it was anything but people die crossing around here.
In the dirt around Cucumber, I found discarded fly t
itineries and documents from Turkey, Nicaragua, Columbia, Mexico. There were
also little children's toys, shoes, and hundreds of empty water
(35:53):
bottles which we diligently picked up. But none of the
more than one thousand people who had board patrol held
in this camp have planned for what got, which was
several days being detained in the desert by CBP with
inefficient water, no shelter, and very little food and no
information on what was happening or how long they could
expect to be there. Sadly didn't get there in time
(36:13):
to speak to any of them. I was in Arizona
looking for border vigilantes and wondering what CBP had been
doing to migrants there where they have the full support
of local law enforcement and a large percentage of the
aging population. To my surprise, I didn't find much. It
seems like most people had crossed in the San Diego
County area. Many had flown or walked to Tijuana. Of course, migrants,
(36:35):
just like us, have accessed the news and to weather
forecast and maps. Crossing in Arizona, a place known for
cruelty and very hot weather doesn't make any sense when
California offers a better political and weather climate, and with
the mixed messages coming down about immigration law, these folks
may not have been intending to evade border patrol, but
to come to the USA and to take their legal
right to claim asylum. I spoke to Sam, a volunteer
(36:58):
with extensive on the ground experience humanitarian crises, about what
he'd seen.
Speaker 6 (37:02):
At the camp.
Speaker 11 (37:03):
Oh my name is Sam Schultz.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
He said, many of the.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
People who found themselves in a cumber had likely been
told by people smokelers, but this was an easy way
into the US. In the end, it was anything but
they I.
Speaker 11 (37:15):
Mean, I know they didn't expect that they were just
waltz across the border at a normal check station. But
they thought it was going to be they were sold
in bill of goods.
Speaker 6 (37:23):
Let's put it back walking.
Speaker 11 (37:25):
Yes, that's it, And so I mean, I feel sorry
for anybody who's taken advantage of all like that. But
most of the people that I met again who are
not Colombians, were of the wealthier side of the on
their countries. I met some of Becky's, some Kazakis, a
bunch of people from India, a couple of Pakistani guys. Mind,
(37:45):
I mean, they didn't get here cheap.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
The wall behind the people in Hookumba cost twenty five
million dollars a mile.
Speaker 6 (37:51):
On average.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
The border patrol agent drove around in f one to
fifty raped to trucks that started eighty thousand dollars and
each make a starting salary of sixty thousand dollars in
their first year. Surveillance towers that dot the desert, including
one which provided a tiny scrap of shade to migrants
resting under its solar panels, can cost a million dollars apiece.
(38:12):
But people in a cumber received only one small water
bottle each day, despite the punishing weather. Although customs and
Border Protection did not seem to make any plan to
shelter migrants in Nucumber. They did plan to have contractors
paid forty dollars an hour to take them away. I
found a job advert for a Southwest Border Transportation and
(38:33):
security officer at ISS Action Security. The agency photograph transporting
migrants in Kumba. The job posting, which was posted two
weeks before the end of Title forty two, has a
description that includes patting down all detainees and applying appropriate
restraints prior to boarding vehicles. The process through its migrants
(38:54):
become detainees normally involves processing which had not been done
in Nucumber, but it seems a presumption of ineligibility announced
on the day Title forty two ended came into effect.
Here this might seem a minor distinction, but it's important.
It means that people have to file a defensive asylum
claim and not an affirmative one. They have to plead
why they shouldn't be deported, rather than why they have
(39:15):
a right to stay. Many of the people who have
been trying to cross before the end of Title forty two,
like Diana, because they felt they would face a less
serious penalty. Many of them flew to t Win I
walked from further south in Mexico or even in Central America.
I likely spent their entire savings on a trip to
the gap in the wall near hercumber that ended with
them being held by border patrol and the open desert
(39:36):
with next to nothing in the way of shelter, sanitation,
or sustenance. As a way to quantify this, I want
to reference to UCSD US Immigration Policy Center report apparently
had some pretty problematic practices, but anyway, these are results
from its survey. When asked whether border patrol gave them
enough water for the day, over half of the asylum
(39:57):
seekers that we interviewed, approximately fifty three per said no.
Border patrol distributed one water bottle to each migrant in
the morning. When asked where the border patrol gave them
enough food for the day, all of the asylum seekers
said no. Border patrol did not distribute any food. When
asked where the border patrol provided adequate sanitation such as toilets,
(40:19):
all of the asylum seekers that we interviewed, meaning one
hundred percent, said no. Border patrol provided one porter body
for the entire encampment. When asked where the border patrol
provided adepriate shelter, such as shade to protect them from
the sun. All of the asylum seekers that we interviewed
said no. Border patrol did not provide any shelter. When
(40:40):
asked where the border patrol provided blankets to keep them
warm at night, all but one of the asylum seekers
we interviewed said no. Border patrol provided blankets. Some migrants,
but the overwhelming majority, did not receive blankets. Altogether, two
thirds of the asylum seekers we interviewed said that they
agree or strongly agree with the statement if I did
(41:01):
not receive food and water from volunteers, I would not
get enough food and water from border patrol to survive.
These aren't exaggerations, as we'll see, several migrants did come
very close to losing their lives in the five or
more days that CBP detained people out in the open
along the border. Medical incidents in this kind of attention
(41:43):
are far from uncommon. A lawsuit filed against Customers of
Border Protection by the Southern Border Communities Coalition regarding their
actions this week, stated that quote many migrants have fallen
into medical distress because of the conditions, and CVP has
been slow to provide access to medical attention, often only
responding at the insistence of advocates. As a result, one
(42:03):
woman suffered life threatening allergies, a child suffered an epileptic seizure,
and a man suffered an unattended infection on his leg.
Medical attention was slow to arrive, and when it did arrive,
it was often insufficient. Like Kay, but describe the conditions
they saw a couple of days after the end of
Title forty two.
Speaker 7 (42:20):
It's really the product that it's hard in the state.
The conditions there were not safe or sanitary. I guess
this is sort of related.
Speaker 6 (42:30):
To medical issues. But there was that's been you know,
to their credit assessment. Has been reported in the media.
Speaker 7 (42:38):
But there was a single wordable toilet for anywhere from
I guess there's probably a twilt be four hundred people there.
Speaker 6 (42:47):
I heard a couple of different citations.
Speaker 7 (42:50):
Of how often this toilet is serviced and cleaned and
the waste removed anywhere from once or twice a week
to once every week or two weeks. Either way, that's
not remotely sufficient for four hundred people using the back
room multiple times a day in this single portable like
just a construction site toilet. It was right next to
(43:13):
the phone charging station on their side of the wall.
And my I would just feel sick if I get
if I sit too close to it.
Speaker 8 (43:21):
It was really vile.
Speaker 6 (43:22):
It was not safe.
Speaker 7 (43:25):
It is not a way for people to be helping.
And I do know, I think a lot of thankfully
people stop using it, but then they don't have any
you know, a privacy or that that's still not you know,
a sanitary in a situation to.
Speaker 6 (43:39):
Be in since I mean, they don't have a future
space anywhere.
Speaker 7 (43:43):
So that's definitely one of the ways that people are
doing in terms of their health and safety.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
Here's Amara, who will hear more from tomorrow, describe being
ano of a medical incident.
Speaker 5 (43:52):
And the call that I got this morning was of
a woman who was rushed out because she had an
emergency situation, taken to the hospital. The hospital didn't know
what to do with her, so they sat her right
back here in the middle of the night, in the
middle of the night, and they brought her here. She
doesn't have any documents. CBP didn't get a chance to
process her yet, so she doesn't even have any proof
(44:14):
that she actually came to the port of entry and
tried to seek asylum. And she was just sleeping right here.
And she has burns all over her body, has an infection.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
I read the.
Speaker 5 (44:26):
Seven medications that they gave her, and she speaks daddy.
She's from avon Astan. Her husband got taken by the
Taliban and she escaped, running for her life. And she's
here and she has sunburns all over her face and
she has nowhere to go. She thought she was still detained.
She actually thought she was still detained. She was just
trying to get back to the other side of the border.
(44:48):
She thought she was still in Mexico. No one explained
anything to her. They brought her back here in the
middle of the night, and she was freezing and so wet.
That's why I came out here. I talked to her.
Her The other folks who were out here didn't know
why she was just sleeping here, and I came out
and tried and translate it. And now we have her
at a hotel.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
Okay, the witness one of the emergencies described in the
Southern Border Communities Coalition lawsuit. When they visited the camp.
He's describing it in.
Speaker 7 (45:16):
Terms of you know, medical care as well, like I said,
one of the parts of the aid operation I was
my name was most people. I think there's a probination
both of people who were.
Speaker 6 (45:28):
You know and then street medicine as well as people.
Speaker 7 (45:31):
Who were like nurses volunteering their prime and that and
mostly taking care of just kind of routine first aid
for the most part. There was a situation where someone
was having an a perject reaction, a fairly severe one,
and I happened to carry and epythens, so I simply
(45:53):
give that to one of one of the street medics
and then they eventually did all this person the reaction
bought severe enough about it was an an hour or
so later at that nine, one was called, I assumed
by one of the volunteers, and uh AM vialance and
(46:15):
border patrol came to.
Speaker 6 (46:16):
Open the gate and bring this person in the country.
Speaker 7 (46:19):
They did eventually treat her, but it was a very
it was a long time. I connuanced it of sometimes
which is someone as someone who has anaphylexis reactions food
and it's had that happened many times.
Speaker 6 (46:31):
In their life.
Speaker 7 (46:32):
That is an absolutely terrifying I cannot imagine how terrifying
it would be to be experiencing a life writing situation
when you work trapped and and and you know there's
no authority that really cares that you're there. And I
don't know if she would have been able to get help.
Speaker 6 (46:49):
If there have been volunteers. I I said the ball,
especially once.
Speaker 3 (46:53):
With medical training, where volunteers weren't. Things were worse in Texas,
and I just av Reyes Alvarez, an eight year old
girl born in Panama to Honduran parents, died in CBP custody. Rossellerees,
the girl's father, told NBC News that they gave authorities
(47:13):
documents about the girl's medical conditions congenital heart disease and
sickle cellonemia while they were in immigration custody. They said
that a doctor there examined Danideth and that she had
contracted the flu Alvarez. Her mother said she spoke to
both detentional authorities and medical personnel at the station multiple
times to explain her daughter was complaining of pain and
(47:36):
shortness of breath and that she was getting worse. All
quite the next part directly from the NBC story. They
never listened to me, she said. Rayes said his daughter
was in a lot of pain, a lot of pain.
I begged them to call an ambulance, Alvarez said, adding
their authorities told her the girl's condition wasn't serious enough
(47:57):
to warrant calling an ambulance. Avarez said her daughter begged
authorities as well, telling them she could not breathe from
her nose or mouth. Alvarez says that eventually her daughter
lost consciousness and died in my arms. She said, authorities
took the girl from her arms and put her on
the floor trying to revive her. My daughter died there
(48:22):
in the station, she said. Avare said she feels authorities
did not do enough to help her little girl. My
daughter is a human being. They had to take care
of her, she said. Despite what you might have heard
on the network news, the asylum process is anything but easy.
I've had several visas, a Green card and a US passport,
(48:43):
and I can completely tell you the only easy way
I've ever seen to come here is to be very rich.
But even among the convoluted bureaucratic mess at his US immigration,
the asylum process stands out as both rigorous and complicated.
Asylum is a process by which people unable are unwilling
to return to their country because of persecution or a
well founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, politics,
(49:09):
or membership of a particular social group, may remain in
a safe country. From the eleventh of May onwards, migrants
at the border were assumed ineligible for asylum. If they
cross between points of entry, they must enter the defensive
asylum process to prevent themselves from being deported. What this
means for people we heard from earlier is that they
are now taken, for whatever God forsake and holding area.
(49:31):
They're in a bust to a processing facility where they're
interviewed by an asylum officer to determine if they have
a credible fear of persecution. They may need to provide
a translator if there is an interviewing agent who speaks
their language, and if they're determined to have a credible fear,
they're told to check in with the US Customs and
Immigration Office and sometimes given a notice which may or
(49:52):
may not be dated to appear in court. My colleague
Joe tried to get into one of these hotels to
talk to one of the people we'd spoken to at
the border, but he was pretty quickly shut down.
Speaker 12 (50:01):
Yeah, how you doing either. I'm a freelance journalist. I'm
here reporting for my boss, James Stout, He's at iHeartMedia.
I'm wondering if you're letting media in here to see.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
The guys, sadly not.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
Okay. Also the act you guys, and not the strict
any of this area here. Okay, you're going to set up,
it has to be on the side of the line
because they have a lot of traffic. Yeah, and it's
very dangerous for you.
Speaker 12 (50:23):
Okay, So like beyond here, a past the college. Yeah,
from here over Okay, cool, I'll say how you're working.
Speaker 5 (50:28):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (50:30):
One of the folks we'd met was able to stay
in touch for our WhatsApp and share the hotel rules
with us. They were pretty strict. Migrants are confined to
their rooms, they can't have visitors, and they can't even
order food delivery from the hotel where they're hosted by
Catholic charities. Migrants need to get to their sponsor in
the United States.
Speaker 6 (50:48):
If they have one.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
If they don't have one, they can be sent just
about anywhere. I've heard of East African folks having ended
up in Alaska, for example. Once they get to where
they're going to be. They check him with US Customers
and Immigration services in their new location, and they're given
a special phone which also tracks their movements. They may
have a DNA sample take and in addition to fingerprints. Later,
(51:10):
sometimes years later, they attend a court hearing or two
to determine their eligibility to stay. I've heard of lawyers
charging from five thousand dollars to twelve thousand dollars for
these hearings, and nonprofit legalists and services are totally overwhelmed.
At the moment, the system's massively backed up, and court
dates are being given as far out as twenty twenty
seven already. They may or may not be able to
(51:32):
work during that period, and unther the table work is
getting harder and harder to find. Even if they do
find work on less than minimum wage, it can be
very hard to say about five thousand dollars for a
lawyer A Migrants who can't find nonprofit help are at
a significant disadvantage when it comes to their asylum hearings. Again,
private security contractors, this time from Allied, were transporting migrants
(51:54):
to the hotel and guarding it. Like CBP, the private
contractors you guard transport and ink pass rate migrants or
rely on the broken in immigration system to make money.
Unlike CBP, the agents themselves aren't well paid. Nineteen dollars
an hours are going rate for Allied, not much higher
than San Diego's sixteen dollars and thirty cents minimum wage.
(52:14):
But the company itself is huge. It's the third last
year at private employer in North America after Walmart and Amazon.
Allied guards are at prisons, airports, and shopping malls across America,
and it's alleged that some are underpaid, insufficiently trained, and
improperly vetted. The company grosses over twenty billion dollars and
it's affiliates are frequent political donors. All across this story
(52:38):
you'll see this Allied security iss action, security people, smugglers,
customs and border protection, contractors who build the war pieces
and contractors who install the wall pieces, General Atomics who
sell CBP drones, and the Israelian American companies who sell
the surveillance technology to the government. All these people make money,
(52:59):
but the poorest people in the world are the only
ones losing money, and sometimes they're lives when they cross
our southern border tomorrow we'll hear from some of the
people who made no money and looked after the migrants,
and we'll continue to support them through the asylum process.
Speaker 4 (53:17):
It Could Happen Here as a production of cool Zone Media.
Speaker 9 (53:20):
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
cool zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 8 (53:29):
You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated
monthly at coolzonemedia dot com slash sources.
Speaker 9 (53:34):
Thanks for listening.
Going on, yelling and gen length by Molly.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's going off, going lengthy and elms see im for
the sky not me. I'm pre Mama says some push
free and for them say might smile them. No, no, i'
must do be Gannata canna watch me hey man, grateful man, grateful.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I went not in on Manna smile. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Once there is a live God, I'll want give me
everything for some five Yeah, love sack fries, pick up
to joy car. I got to eat and come back.
I'm see yeah man, that's it one love Oh.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
On the eleventh of May this year, title forty two
finally ended. I actually began to write this episode the
day before on the tenth of May, but it was
that day the DHS announced that Title forty two would
be enforced until eight fifty nine pm Pacific or midnight Eastern.
They kept Title forty two in place for every single
minute they could, and that's same day. Five hundred active
(01:01):
duty troops arrived in El Paso and one thousand more
set off for the border towns to join the two thousand,
five hundred troops already deployed to the border. According to
opress rates from an Apartment of Homeland Security.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
CBP, and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement are further expanding
detention capacity, ramping up removal flights, and shifting agents and
officers to high priority regions along the southwest border. This week,
CBP opened two new holding facilities, and the Department of
Health and Human Services is increasing its bed capacity to
prepare for a potential increase in unaccompanied children. DHS also
(01:36):
launched targeted enforcement operations and high priority regions along the border,
including El Paso, to quickly process migrants and place them
in removal proceedings. DHS last week also announced over two
hundred and fifty million dollars in additional assistance for communities
receiving migrants.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
On the ground. This assistant and planning didn't exactly meet
the task at hand, albeit the specific call out of
El pasa so does suggest that they saw their task.
It's not looking bad in the right wing media hits
some audio recorded after a couple of hours walking around
talking to people at Sanisedro, where Customs and Border Protection
had detained around five hundred people in between the two
thirty foot fences that make up the border between Salisedro
(02:16):
and Tijuana. I'm just for people familiar with San Diego
in the Tijuana River Valley park by International Hill, where
border patrol are holding people in between the two border fences.
For those who thought we didn't have a border wall
or weren't having a border wall, we have at least two,
(02:37):
sometimes three, but right here we have two. People are
being put in between these fences by border patrol. So
I just spoke to some young Colombian women who had
crossed about fifteen miles east of here and then been
relocated here and there in between these border walls. They
don't have running water. What food and water they have
(02:58):
appear to be in supplied by volunteers on the nor
inside they've just been given space blankets, but a lot
of people are literally sleeping under bin bags right now, blankets.
It's pretty breek. There's one portal toilet sort of thing
that we can see about five hundred people, so I
can give you an idea of the conditions. Obviously those
don't live up to the detention conditions that border patrol
(03:18):
are supposed to up a hole people under, but here
we are, I guess Border patrol have just said that
they're calling an ambulance. There have been a number of
medical emergencies that nearly always are in these situations because
you're holding people. They're you know, old people, young people,
sick people, and they're in the sun all day, they're
in the cold all night. If it rains, they get wet.
(03:39):
If it's hot, they get hot. If it's cold, they
get cold. Their little children were just asking me for
a blanket a minute ago, which is always a pretty
bleak thing. If you've not been here, you'd be forgiven
for not knowing that. We have a double layer of
wall separating us from our neighbors in Tijuana, both sections
and now the Trump period design. But we're standing in
(03:59):
a we're not so very long ago. Nancy Reagan stood
and said she hoped that there wouldn't be a fence
here for very long. Now there are two towering walls,
and their little children stuck sleeping in the dust between them.
Or the aid to these people had to go through
the wall, too, and that meant no hot meals. Because
the gaps are smaller than a plate. Someone tried to
bring tents, but they wouldn't fit. Everything from food to
(04:23):
clothes to medical supplies had to go through the gaps.
In the War Hamara Usephi, a volunteer from the Partnership
for the Advancement of New Americans, described to me what
she saw that night.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
I see about five hundred beautiful, smiling faces of people
who are desperately trying to get to safety, and they're confused.
They don't know what's going on. They don't know how
long it will take them. You know, they many of
them are aware that something is happening today. Many of
(04:57):
them are asking does this mean that I'll be turned back?
What is going on? I see, you know, people who
don't even have many kids, don't have shoes, they don't
have I talked to individuals who lost everything on them.
They don't have jackets. They're trying to cover themselves with
(05:18):
any kind of covering that they have, some of them
using trash bags, others using scarves and other types of
things to cover themselves from the sun. We are in
San Diego, so it's quite sunny here.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
The first thing I noticed on arrival was dozens of
hands sticking through the wall holding phones and charges. That's
because people need to use the CBP one app to
interact with border enforcement, but they've been detained by the
same border enforcement in between two walls in an open
field where there obviously isn't any electricity. They also need
their phones to stay in touch with their families, to
(05:53):
let them know they survived a difficult and dangerous journey
and that they're now technically inside the USA. Is the
advet a CBP broadcast in Spanish to encourage asylum seekers
to download the app before they put them in a
place they couldn't charge their phones.
Speaker 6 (06:07):
Attencion migrante.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Attention migrants in Mexico City or further north in the country.
Why do you need to download CBP one. It's a
free and legal way to get an appointment guaranteed at
a port of entry. It's a clear way to solicit asylum,
and you have the possibility to work while your case
is being processed. If you present without an appointment, you
can be prohibited from entering the US for five years.
(06:32):
You will be subject to expedite a deportation unless you
comply with the strict requirements of the asylum process. In
the majority of cases, it is assumed that migrants do
not comply with the requirements for asylum, and you won't
have the right to work unless you comply with the
strict requirements. Again, if you are now in Mexico City
or further north, download CBP one.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
As we heard yesterday, CBP one has been an a
mitigated disaster. I'd shown a very clear bias towards certain
types of wealthy and white asylum seekers, despite that it
seemed to have been the only plan in place the
end of Title forty two. The hundreds of people detained
in between defenses wheably didn't have appointments, and with no
way to charge their phones, they couldn't make them. It's
(07:17):
not clear of making them would have helped, as it
seems that they were already being detained, and thus they
would have to file defensive asylum claims, effectively stopping the
repatriation process by claiming that they couldn't safely be sent
back to their country of origin. This is opposed to
making an affirmative asylum claim that people should have been
able to make at the border. With a CBP one appointment,
these would not have to be argued with the threat
(07:39):
of repatriation hanging over the person making the claim. Volunteers,
local people, a mosque group, and a church group all
showed up soon after CBP began dumping more people in
between the fences. An hour after my own arrival, I'd
given away all the charge cables that I had in
my truck, which is a lot more charge cables than
I thought I had in my truck, and all my
(07:59):
charge bricks accrude over six years of getting free shed
at the consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas later, I
came back with a massive solar generator that I'd like
to use when I'm living off grid. But I still
need to write stuff. Even all my home electronics ephemera
and the combined efforts of nonprofits, religious and mutual aid
groups couldn't really make much difference to the five hundred
people from around the world, mostly families with children being
(08:22):
held between the two fences. When it got hot, they
got hot. When it got cold, they got cold. When
the wind blew, they got dust in their eyes, and
everything was constantly dirty. The only hot food volunteers could
get to them was pizza. Some of the detained people
have cash, and they were able to order door dash
on the Tijuana side, but again the meals had to
(08:43):
fit through a hole barely wider than my arm. The
only way to get clean was with wet wipes. And
there was only one bathroom. There was no shade or
shelter either, and the only way people could construct shelters
were through tying tops to the border wall itself. I
like Kaba, one of the volunteers who came to help,
describe what they saw when participating in Mutilated a couple
(09:04):
of days after, but.
Speaker 7 (09:05):
It was.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
Definitely was. I don't think it really struck me until, you.
Speaker 7 (09:11):
Know, after, after everything, and you know, after I left
several hours later. But the kind of I mean, I
am right about the situation at the border, but the
kind of a matter of fatness of there's just several
hundred people, including children.
Speaker 6 (09:27):
Just kind of between this fence and they're just stuck.
Speaker 7 (09:32):
There with nothing, and the sort of a matter of fatness.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
Of the all was I think, I think the part
that struck me the most. And it's been a much
challenging the process.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
In the days before the end of Title forty two,
confusion had rained at the border. A lot of people
I talked to you mentioned that they thought they had
to cross before the end of Title forty two or
they would be ejected and not able to apply for
five years at the title eight. This misunderstanding might in
part be due to some of the misleading rhetoric put
out by Majorcas and others, which focused on the harsh
(10:07):
penalties for crossing between ports of entry and an attempt
to appear strong on the border. To their colleagues in DC.
They didn't place as much emphasis on the right to
present and claim asylum at a port of entry. But
as we saw yesterday, it's virtually impossible to actually do that,
and Tijuando is already full of thousands of people trying
to do that exact thing. Given a set of circumstances,
(10:29):
it makes sense that many people took the days before
the end of Title forty two. At the final chance
to cross before Title forty two ended, I spoke to
Diana Rodriguez from Colombia about her understanding of what was
going to happen.
Speaker 8 (10:42):
Later that night, Diana Rodriguez the Columbia.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Diana was with two friends, all of them wearing little
daisies in their hair and sharing a tarp shelter they'd
made by tying a blue tarp against the wall so
they could get some shade and privacy. I asked her
where the flowers had come from. You hear the rec
into your voice by Scherine.
Speaker 9 (11:03):
Oh the flowers, the flowers. H Well, there are these
little flowers, flowers that are growing here like in a garden.
So when we went and took a walk over there
and we found them, we put them on and they're pretty.
We call these the little yellow flowers of hope, and
they match the color of our bracelets. We picked them
on the day we arrived, and we knew that we
(11:24):
needed a little bit of encouragement. We got the yellow bracelets.
Because we arrived on Tuesday, everyone got the same bracelet.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I asked, Diana, which you'd heard about Title forty two,
which is ending a few hours after we talked.
Speaker 9 (11:38):
Yes, it's the end of Title forty two. Title forty
two is the one that endorses mass deportations. Yes, and well,
it's a question of you not just getting deported, but
being repatriated. In other words, after this they do a
full repatriation. But right now you are not registered in
(11:59):
the system. But what they do is that they only
return you. They don't register you. But let's say, on
the basis of Article eight, is that a few at
least we are invading American territory, then we are in
effect breaking a law, and what Article eight does is
that they deport you and they put you in the
(12:19):
registered database saying that you broke the law, and they
punish you for five years and you lose the right
to request your asylum through legal channels.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
People at another camp in u Cumba heard the same
thing from Colombians, and it seems like there are even
news pieces run on domestic television explaining that US plan
to return many Colombians in the coming months, and this
might be the last best chance to cross the border
without permanent consequences. You got caught in a Cumba. Volunteers
estimated that two thirds of the people corraled and the
(12:50):
deadert son from Colombia. Of course, in recent years there
has been instability and violence there, which also drives migration.
One of my sources also mentioned a lot of Lumbian
people had seen misleading information about immigration law on TikTok.
Two days had passed since Janna arrived. She came with
one of the girls she was now sharing a top with.
I met another when they were all dumped in the
(13:12):
camp together. In the days before they were detained here.
They crossed three countries on their way to what they
hope was a better life for young women like them.
I asked them to describe that journey for me.
Speaker 9 (13:23):
Yes, eight days, eight days more or less walking from
Colombia from El Salvador to Guatemala, the New Mexico. To
hear all that time walking and taking the bus. There's
a part fifteen or twenty minutes from here where the
wall ends, and we crossed there there was a Mexican
patrol and when they changed shifts, we ran and here
(13:44):
we are on American soil. We arrived on foot and
the police brought us here. They opened the gate and
dropped us.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Here along the way. She said, they've run into a
lot of people, and my good journey north is such
a common trick that people living along the way have
found a way to make a buck, but also a
way to make a difference. It's not uncommon for migrant
to be extorted, robbed, or threatened. It's also not uncommon
for them to be fed by strangers, perhaps handing off
bags with food in them to passing trains or buses,
(14:13):
or perhaps given a place to sleep for the night
by someone they might never see again.
Speaker 9 (14:18):
There were parts where we were extorted. They took all
the money we brought. They robbed us, they stole our passports,
they still our documents. So it's always quite dangerous. Let's
say that it's dangerous to take this journey. Yes, just
as we have met some bad people along the way,
we have also met some very good people, people who
have given us a hand, people who have helped us,
(14:39):
people who have collaborated with us in ways you least expect.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
I asked Diana what she hoped for now she was
technically inside the USA.
Speaker 9 (14:48):
Yes, let's say the hope is that they will listen
to our case, listen to our case, and let us
fight the case inside. Yes, because we want to be
able to explain the conditions we are in and the
reasons that those of us who are here came here,
things like extortion, kidnapping, and because our lives are in
danger in Colombia. So we wish that they at least
(15:09):
listen to our case and let us plead our cause.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Before we started recording, Deanna asked what network I was with.
I thought that was an astute question. Networks like Fox
show up at the WAD, although I didn't see any
Fox National reporters on my trip. Certainly local news channel
k us I was there, but they're reporting on the
ground differed from their xenophobic and outright incorrect online coverage.
I asked Diana, what you'd want to say to folks
(15:33):
who might have had their perspective influence by the constant
demonization of migrants by right wing media.
Speaker 9 (15:39):
If there are many people who, let's say, are in
a mindset of not wanting migrants and they view them
with contempt, because where xenophobia exists, it's hard for us
because we suffer along the way. We would like you
to change your way of seeing things and your way
of thinking so that you don't look at us with contempt.
(15:59):
We have a saying in Columbia that says that he
who was born in a golden cradle never suffers or
never sees what he does not know. So it's hard
when you're born in a golden cradle and you don't
see beyond what you have. So there are people that
in our case, in my case, I lived a very
hard life where you see the war between armed groups.
(16:22):
They exist outside the law and they can control an area,
and you see the kidnapping, you see the rape of girls,
recruitment extortion, death. Yes, so it's hard when we experience
that and people say things like these migrants are coming
to invade our country, we also ask them to treat
us as people, because if we are here, it is
(16:44):
not because we want to invade a territory. It is
because we want to come to fight for a better
future for our children without stepping on anyone. Nobody wants this.
But where we come from, we receive travelers with open arms.
And it's hard when one is a migrant, when one
lives the experience of being a migrant, it is a
(17:07):
very hard thing to be a migrant, having to endure cold, hunger, rain, sun,
that is, all these things, and then arriving here and
seeing faces of contempt. It's hard. It is very hard.
So yes, the important thing is that people must know
(17:27):
that being an immigrant is not easy. Being an immigrant
is not easy.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
One of her friends who she was sharing a top with,
leaned over to give an example.
Speaker 9 (17:38):
Everyone despairs because everyone wants to leave, so everyone sees
each other as enemies. So let's say, for example, right now,
when they are sending cars to collect people to process,
so everyone there thinks, I hope they take me. Then
when they don't. It gets to a point where, yes,
(18:00):
were you despair? I mean it's desperate, but well everyone,
everyone is in the fight together, all in the fight.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
I have to get another dusting down from a CBP
agent who really liked to rise his squad bike passing
utulaid tables. Spake to a man from Angola. I'll leave
his name out, as he preferred for me not to
share it. He'd beat into Juana for three days, he said.
I was waiting his chant to plead his case for asylum.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
No, it's just me and my sister. We suffered a lot.
There were bandits. We came here to be safe. It's
no way to live. People broke into our house to
violate women, to look for people, and I was injured.
Then yeah, why did I leave to come here? Over there,
they're not they're not the means to live.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
We didn't get it ants to talk for long, and
some of the recording I got wasn't very good. He
was waiting in line for food and to be quite honest,
I don't like prodding people to share their trauma, but
with so many journalists crowding the border asking them to
do just that, it tends to be what people offer.
Lots of African migrants can be quite cautious of the
media because talking to the media at home could get
them in trouble. I spoke to a friend of mine
(19:21):
himself a migrant from Africa. He said that if migrants
don't speak English or Spanish, it can be very hard
for them to get information, and there aren't as many
nonprofits set up to serve them as there are for
Spanish speaking people, for example. They can often end up
isolated and alone. I did get a better chance to
talk to a Jamaican man called Joseph. It's his singing
you've heard at the start of this episode. Mostly we
(19:43):
talked about things in America, about how he lost his
phone on his journey, we got him another one at Walmart,
and about things like football and music. I didn't record
all of that because sometimes it's nice to just talk
to people. Hopefully it makes their dair a bit brighter
and gives them some information. Maybe they could help let
me record a bit of an interview and some of
him singing. He was pretty guarded on the recording, but
(20:05):
as you can hear in this clip, we had a
good time when we weren't recording.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
I am the best one.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, every gather it's got a timber raps up.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
He's gotta get up there. We go and get my
man's up. Hey, you know it's leg jennally is.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
He went on yelling gen but Molly, it's going off,
not going likely and lem see ian for the sky
hunted me. I'm pre and Mama said something push free
and glow and red for them, say might smile them. No, no,
I'm just doing red, beIN gonna talk. Canna watch me
hey man, grateful man, grateful, I went not and on
(20:48):
manna smile. Yeah, once there is life. God all want
give me everything for some fune. Yeah, love suck, great fries,
big up to job, I got to eat come back.
So yeah, man, that's it one. Look Oh that beautiful. Yeah,
I'm I'm I'm Joseph.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
I asked him about some of the stuff we spoke
about before, but he didn't want to share it.
Speaker 7 (21:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
That's the whole testimony to me and you and God
have to go into church for that.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
But I'm gonna give you that the next time.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Okay, Buddy just experienced a lot of personal harm from
conflict back home in Jamaica. I had a difficult journey
here with his five year old son.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Yeah, it's rough. It's rough out there, man, you know
it's rough.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
How did you come like you come? I asked him
how his young son a dealt with the journey. It's
not a safe or easy one for an adult, let
alone for a little child.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
It's like he's just kind of scary one. He pulled you. Yeah,
that's good. You have my energy inside. That's good. Yeah?
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Are you How is he finding it here in the camp?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Oh? Yeah, that camp. I don't know why. That guy
is just like me. We just don't make anything better us.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah, what it's working here because you guys give it
a strength and supported in us.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
You know, Joseph wanted me to know that he wasn't
giving up his home. He loves Jamaica, but he also
wants a better life for his son.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Is that it's not that?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Isn't that like I'm giving away my home? My home
is a good place. Yeah, yeah, it's a good island,
nice place to be.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Of course, his perspective is very common and it's one
that often gets left out of reporting. Coming to the
USA is a very hopeful act. It's not abandoning your
family or your home. It's trying to make their lives
better in your life, livapoo. Joseph was quite guided with
his story, and that's fine. It's his to share as
much as little as he wants. I came to the
USA without having to get persecuted or hurt, and people
(22:42):
who don't look like me should have that same right
as well. Sadly, coming to the USA is also scary
and confusing, even for me with three university degrees and
all the intersectional privilege I have and fifteen years living here,
and I've recently minted US passport. Now, I worried for
years that maybe I'd made a mistake on a form
or missed some kind of deadline. Speaking of deadlines, what
(23:06):
none of the migrants could tell us, what they all
wanted to ask about was exactly what was happening to
them as Title forty two expired. A Congolese lady asked
me if her passport would be confiscated. A lady from
Senegal asked if she needed to pay a bribe like
the one she'd paid in Mexico. It wasn't really clear
at first if these people were being detained and under
what process they were being received. Would they be sent
(23:27):
back to Mexico and a Title forty two, repatriated under
Biden's interpretation of Title eight, or given the right to
plead their case as international and US law suggests should
be able to. CBP made people sit in lines all
day with no indication of when they would be taken
to the porta Entry for processing. Sometimes I heard people
saying if everyone didn't sit down, there'll be nobody processed
(23:50):
that day. But the only food, water, and medical attention
available to the migrants with ZAK which could be passed
through the wall, and they had to get out of
their lines to receive this aye. I'll let Kaber describe
what this looked like.
Speaker 7 (24:02):
They had people waiting in lines the whole like you're
to sit in a line in a specific assigned spot.
But it wasn't always clear if those how those lines
actually worked.
Speaker 6 (24:13):
Because they would kind of take people from lots of places.
I think they might have been prioritizing.
Speaker 7 (24:19):
Family for children, or people with some kind of medical
needs or something like that, but you would never know
when they were going to come, and we didn't seem
to know also who they were going to choose to take.
We assume we didn't know exactly where we were taking them,
but we assume they were taking the Port of Venture
in sanna Ce Tour, which is about a mile away.
And so what would always happen when they come and
(24:39):
get a group is like three or four people from
that group would sprint over to the world because we
still had their phones and cdpeople wasn't going to wait
for us to get the phones.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
One thing a lot of people we talked to shared
was that there was another camp, which we later found
how is as many as eight hundred single men. It's
fairly usual to keep single men apart from family, but
keeping them in an inaccessible place without adequate food or
water is not usual. The camp was further west, and
despite repeated requests from myself and others, including those delivering aid,
(25:11):
we were not allowed to access it. One pair of
Jamaican twins, both young men, told me they had walked
up there and that things were very bad. People were
only given one small water bottom the granola bar every day,
they said. One person told me they'd heard people eating grass.
I asked CBP's press office for information on this, but
they didn't respond. Here's one clip of a man trying
(25:34):
to explain how bad things were there. It's hard to
communicate across language barriers, and with a war between you
is even harder. But I could tell he was very
concerned for the folks that we couldn't get to, despite
myself and others trying and me addressing this issue directly
and emails to CBP, and never got any response on
why people were not allowed to help the single men
in the other camp.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Just not helping. What little water?
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Nothing else, no food, no water, blankets, blows nothing.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
I'll go try and go up there.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Even with these camps being pretty desperate places, folks look
after one another. We spoke a lot with one lady
who spoke English. She was there with her own family,
but she was also looking after two Tagi children who'd
come alone. Their mother spoke a little English, so she
relayed news to the children by calling their mother and
having her translated for her children. Other folks took it
(26:40):
upon themselves to try and walk to the camp for
single men with water, and people constantly helped us find
the owners of phone Boy, Wandering through the rows of
people sheltering under taps and space blankets to look for
people who had left us their devices to charge. In Nukumber,
a town an hour or so east of San die,
things were worse. Cumber's home to a cute hotel, a
(27:04):
lovely lake, a hot spring, and an awful lot of
big rugs. When the border war was being built in
Earnest before the twenty twenty election, they skipped some of
the harder areas. Perhaps they figured it would be too
hard to cross there, it's not Perhaps they wanted to
maximize the mileage before election day. Well it didn't help much,
but either way, for some reason, the wall just takes
(27:24):
a little break in Hucumber, and this makes crossing marginally
easier there. However, the boulder fields, scorching hot days and
cold nights make it anything but easy. On Thursday night,
the eleventh of May, locals in a Cumber became aware
that CBP were holding people on a dirt road in
the open desert, just a few miles east of town
and a few hundred feet from the wall. The people
(27:46):
held they didn't have access to toilets, running water, or shelter.
With every hour that went past, the number of people grew.
The biggest camp soon held over a thousand people. Desperately
trying to scratch out a little shade in the desert.
All accounts popped up, one was apparently in someone's yard,
and the people of this tiny desert town so about
helping as best they could. Soon they were joined by
(28:09):
volunteers from all over the county. Katie was one of
those volunteers. She doesn't live in a Cumber, but her
friends do and her family sometimes spends time there. Once
she heard about what was happening, she knew she had
to help. I let her describe her feelings after she
saw the post online, and then drove out to Cumber
to see what she could do to help.
Speaker 8 (28:28):
At first, I was just super touched by the activation
and the carrying, and my son was asleep, comfortable in
his car seat, you know, in our Mercedes van. And
my husband is still trying to get citizenship after being
(28:53):
here since he was two years old. So and we're
married and he pays taxes. And when I saw our
friends activating, I just told him tomorrow's Mother's Day and
I need to come back here, and it's not safe
(29:14):
for you here. So when I first arrived, I thought
it was kind of odd that everything was organized around
a random road that has a gate, and there were
five only five border patrol at the time, and about
(29:42):
that was a larger camp, so I want to say
at least eight hundred people, maybe a thousand. I didn't
see them all because many of them would received their
donations and the assistance and went back to their shelters.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
A few days after the migrants arrived, I camped out
in Hucumber. I was cold in my sleeping bag at
night and dizzy in the sun in the day. It's
not a place where you'd want to be stuck outside
the long but it's a place where fifteen hundred or
so people were held for days, little more than the
shelters they built out of creosota and mesquite to protect
their families from the elements. They slept on the dirt
(30:22):
or in cardboard boxes left over from the food volunteers
fed them and under whatever folks and tiny desert count
could find to give them. By the time I arrived,
the migrants were gone and volunteers were cleaning up. The
landscape was dotted with impressively constructed brush shelters. Volunteers from
her Cumber set up tables to distribute food, blankets, water,
(30:43):
and clothing. Other volunteers stayed away from the camp itself
and spent time packing things into individual sizes, perhaps combining
hats and socks and maybe a toy for a child
in one bag, or breaking down costco packages of snacks
into individual portions. It's not necessarily the most rewarding task,
but it's an important one. I asked Marissa, another volunteer
(31:04):
who had previously worked in San Diego for the Forest Service,
what she felt when we were cleaning out some of
those shelters together a couple of days later.
Speaker 10 (31:11):
I don't know the best way to say this, but
what hit me deeper was when this might seem strange,
but when I saw women's sanitary napkins or the diapers
or the babies, like it was kind of like a
fabric padded crib basinet type thing that suddenly hit me
(31:36):
on a deeper level. It would make me emotional because
it's like then you start to realize, like, wow, what
if that was me and my child? Or I'm not
a mother, but I can only imagine what that must
be like for them to be going through these things
as a as a woman, being on your period and
(31:59):
being out and not having anything, you know, going to
the bathroom out there, what do you use when you
don't have those supplies?
Speaker 3 (32:09):
So yeah, it just.
Speaker 10 (32:14):
That was when it hit me deeper, and I knew
I was doing the right thing by being out there
and helping in whatever way I could, because I don't
I don't when it comes to the politics side of it,
when it comes to like legality and just different aspects
of it. In that way, I don't have necessarily an
(32:39):
opinion one way or another. I'm not educated enough to
feel like I can I can argue one way or another,
or defend one position or another. I went out there
purely for my love of humanity, and I think being
able to support in whatever way I can that was
the way that I felt like I could serve and
(33:00):
bo support.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Katie hadn't expected to meet migrants at the camp when
she first showed up. She knew it was important not
to flog the camp with volunteers, and their help was
needed packaging and preparing aid drops, which she was happy
to do. But in the end, she traveled up to
the camp with a friend who spoke Portuguese so they
could help translate and distribute supplies. I asked her what
it was like to see the supplies she'd purchased a
(33:21):
few hours before end up in the hands of people
who desperately needed them.
Speaker 8 (33:26):
They don't even have a grocery store in her cumber
They have one mini mart with nothing in it, and
that was sold out the first day. So these people
(33:46):
who we would look at without a lot of resources,
passing the abundance of what they actually have, well, I
saw a lot of families. I could tell that there
were leaders within the group because they were helping organize
as much as the volunteers were. And unfortunately there was
(34:10):
language barriers, you know, and so those that could speak
multiple languages, whether they were border crossers or volunteers, were
together in it. And that was part of that organization
that I'm talking about, you know. And it was actually
(34:33):
a very calm scene when we first came up. I
saw my son's hat that I donated and a little
boy hugging this jaguar stuffed animal, and the jaguar was
really significant to my friend and I when we found it.
So it was really touching just to like see the
(34:58):
things that we were bringing being literally being distributed, like
sometimes when you think you're helping I worked for a
door to door campaign when I was in my teens,
and I got fifty percent of what I raised, and
it was like disheartening, and you're like, oh, this is
how it works. And in this case, money that I
(35:24):
directly spent on resources that were needed was going directly
to the people.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
In all likelihood, people crossed in a specific spot because
someone dropped them there telling them it would be easy.
In fact, it was anything but people die crossing around here.
In the dirt around Cucumber, I found discarded fly t
itineries and documents from Turkey, Nicaragua, Columbia, Mexico. There were
also little children's toys, shoes, and hundreds of empty water
(35:53):
bottles which we diligently picked up. But none of the
more than one thousand people who had board patrol held
in this camp have planned for what got, which was
several days being detained in the desert by CBP with
inefficient water, no shelter, and very little food and no
information on what was happening or how long they could
expect to be there. Sadly didn't get there in time
(36:13):
to speak to any of them. I was in Arizona
looking for border vigilantes and wondering what CBP had been
doing to migrants there where they have the full support
of local law enforcement and a large percentage of the
aging population. To my surprise, I didn't find much. It
seems like most people had crossed in the San Diego
County area. Many had flown or walked to Tijuana. Of course, migrants,
(36:35):
just like us, have accessed the news and to weather
forecast and maps. Crossing in Arizona, a place known for
cruelty and very hot weather doesn't make any sense when
California offers a better political and weather climate, and with
the mixed messages coming down about immigration law, these folks
may not have been intending to evade border patrol, but
to come to the USA and to take their legal
right to claim asylum. I spoke to Sam, a volunteer
(36:58):
with extensive on the ground experience humanitarian crises, about what
he'd seen.
Speaker 6 (37:02):
At the camp.
Speaker 11 (37:03):
Oh my name is Sam Schultz.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
He said, many of the.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
People who found themselves in a cumber had likely been
told by people smokelers, but this was an easy way
into the US. In the end, it was anything but
they I.
Speaker 11 (37:15):
Mean, I know they didn't expect that they were just
waltz across the border at a normal check station. But
they thought it was going to be they were sold
in bill of goods.
Speaker 6 (37:23):
Let's put it back walking.
Speaker 11 (37:25):
Yes, that's it, And so I mean, I feel sorry
for anybody who's taken advantage of all like that. But
most of the people that I met again who are
not Colombians, were of the wealthier side of the on
their countries. I met some of Becky's, some Kazakis, a
bunch of people from India, a couple of Pakistani guys. Mind,
(37:45):
I mean, they didn't get here cheap.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
The wall behind the people in Hookumba cost twenty five
million dollars a mile.
Speaker 6 (37:51):
On average.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
The border patrol agent drove around in f one to
fifty raped to trucks that started eighty thousand dollars and
each make a starting salary of sixty thousand dollars in
their first year. Surveillance towers that dot the desert, including
one which provided a tiny scrap of shade to migrants
resting under its solar panels, can cost a million dollars apiece.
(38:12):
But people in a cumber received only one small water
bottle each day, despite the punishing weather. Although customs and
Border Protection did not seem to make any plan to
shelter migrants in Nucumber. They did plan to have contractors
paid forty dollars an hour to take them away. I
found a job advert for a Southwest Border Transportation and
(38:33):
security officer at ISS Action Security. The agency photograph transporting
migrants in Kumba. The job posting, which was posted two
weeks before the end of Title forty two, has a
description that includes patting down all detainees and applying appropriate
restraints prior to boarding vehicles. The process through its migrants
(38:54):
become detainees normally involves processing which had not been done
in Nucumber, but it seems a presumption of ineligibility announced
on the day Title forty two ended came into effect.
Here this might seem a minor distinction, but it's important.
It means that people have to file a defensive asylum
claim and not an affirmative one. They have to plead
why they shouldn't be deported, rather than why they have
(39:15):
a right to stay. Many of the people who have
been trying to cross before the end of Title forty two,
like Diana, because they felt they would face a less
serious penalty. Many of them flew to t Win I
walked from further south in Mexico or even in Central America.
I likely spent their entire savings on a trip to
the gap in the wall near hercumber that ended with
them being held by border patrol and the open desert
(39:36):
with next to nothing in the way of shelter, sanitation,
or sustenance. As a way to quantify this, I want
to reference to UCSD US Immigration Policy Center report apparently
had some pretty problematic practices, but anyway, these are results
from its survey. When asked whether border patrol gave them
enough water for the day, over half of the asylum
(39:57):
seekers that we interviewed, approximately fifty three per said no.
Border patrol distributed one water bottle to each migrant in
the morning. When asked where the border patrol gave them
enough food for the day, all of the asylum seekers
said no. Border patrol did not distribute any food. When
asked where the border patrol provided adequate sanitation such as toilets,
(40:19):
all of the asylum seekers that we interviewed, meaning one
hundred percent, said no. Border patrol provided one porter body
for the entire encampment. When asked where the border patrol
provided adepriate shelter, such as shade to protect them from
the sun. All of the asylum seekers that we interviewed
said no. Border patrol did not provide any shelter. When
(40:40):
asked where the border patrol provided blankets to keep them
warm at night, all but one of the asylum seekers
we interviewed said no. Border patrol provided blankets. Some migrants,
but the overwhelming majority, did not receive blankets. Altogether, two
thirds of the asylum seekers we interviewed said that they
agree or strongly agree with the statement if I did
(41:01):
not receive food and water from volunteers, I would not
get enough food and water from border patrol to survive.
These aren't exaggerations, as we'll see, several migrants did come
very close to losing their lives in the five or
more days that CBP detained people out in the open
along the border. Medical incidents in this kind of attention
(41:43):
are far from uncommon. A lawsuit filed against Customers of
Border Protection by the Southern Border Communities Coalition regarding their
actions this week, stated that quote many migrants have fallen
into medical distress because of the conditions, and CVP has
been slow to provide access to medical attention, often only
responding at the insistence of advocates. As a result, one
(42:03):
woman suffered life threatening allergies, a child suffered an epileptic seizure,
and a man suffered an unattended infection on his leg.
Medical attention was slow to arrive, and when it did arrive,
it was often insufficient. Like Kay, but describe the conditions
they saw a couple of days after the end of
Title forty two.
Speaker 7 (42:20):
It's really the product that it's hard in the state.
The conditions there were not safe or sanitary. I guess
this is sort of related.
Speaker 6 (42:30):
To medical issues. But there was that's been you know,
to their credit assessment. Has been reported in the media.
Speaker 7 (42:38):
But there was a single wordable toilet for anywhere from
I guess there's probably a twilt be four hundred people there.
Speaker 6 (42:47):
I heard a couple of different citations.
Speaker 7 (42:50):
Of how often this toilet is serviced and cleaned and
the waste removed anywhere from once or twice a week
to once every week or two weeks. Either way, that's
not remotely sufficient for four hundred people using the back
room multiple times a day in this single portable like
just a construction site toilet. It was right next to
(43:13):
the phone charging station on their side of the wall.
And my I would just feel sick if I get
if I sit too close to it.
Speaker 8 (43:21):
It was really vile.
Speaker 6 (43:22):
It was not safe.
Speaker 7 (43:25):
It is not a way for people to be helping.
And I do know, I think a lot of thankfully
people stop using it, but then they don't have any
you know, a privacy or that that's still not you know,
a sanitary in a situation to.
Speaker 6 (43:39):
Be in since I mean, they don't have a future
space anywhere.
Speaker 7 (43:43):
So that's definitely one of the ways that people are
doing in terms of their health and safety.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
Here's Amara, who will hear more from tomorrow, describe being
ano of a medical incident.
Speaker 5 (43:52):
And the call that I got this morning was of
a woman who was rushed out because she had an
emergency situation, taken to the hospital. The hospital didn't know
what to do with her, so they sat her right
back here in the middle of the night, in the
middle of the night, and they brought her here. She
doesn't have any documents. CBP didn't get a chance to
process her yet, so she doesn't even have any proof
(44:14):
that she actually came to the port of entry and
tried to seek asylum. And she was just sleeping right here.
And she has burns all over her body, has an infection.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
I read the.
Speaker 5 (44:26):
Seven medications that they gave her, and she speaks daddy.
She's from avon Astan. Her husband got taken by the
Taliban and she escaped, running for her life. And she's
here and she has sunburns all over her face and
she has nowhere to go. She thought she was still detained.
She actually thought she was still detained. She was just
trying to get back to the other side of the border.
(44:48):
She thought she was still in Mexico. No one explained
anything to her. They brought her back here in the
middle of the night, and she was freezing and so wet.
That's why I came out here. I talked to her.
Her The other folks who were out here didn't know
why she was just sleeping here, and I came out
and tried and translate it. And now we have her
at a hotel.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
Okay, the witness one of the emergencies described in the
Southern Border Communities Coalition lawsuit. When they visited the camp.
He's describing it in.
Speaker 7 (45:16):
Terms of you know, medical care as well, like I said,
one of the parts of the aid operation I was
my name was most people. I think there's a probination
both of people who were.
Speaker 6 (45:28):
You know and then street medicine as well as people.
Speaker 7 (45:31):
Who were like nurses volunteering their prime and that and
mostly taking care of just kind of routine first aid
for the most part. There was a situation where someone
was having an a perject reaction, a fairly severe one,
and I happened to carry and epythens, so I simply
(45:53):
give that to one of one of the street medics
and then they eventually did all this person the reaction
bought severe enough about it was an an hour or
so later at that nine, one was called, I assumed
by one of the volunteers, and uh AM vialance and
(46:15):
border patrol came to.
Speaker 6 (46:16):
Open the gate and bring this person in the country.
Speaker 7 (46:19):
They did eventually treat her, but it was a very
it was a long time. I connuanced it of sometimes
which is someone as someone who has anaphylexis reactions food
and it's had that happened many times.
Speaker 6 (46:31):
In their life.
Speaker 7 (46:32):
That is an absolutely terrifying I cannot imagine how terrifying
it would be to be experiencing a life writing situation
when you work trapped and and and you know there's
no authority that really cares that you're there. And I
don't know if she would have been able to get help.
Speaker 6 (46:49):
If there have been volunteers. I I said the ball,
especially once.
Speaker 3 (46:53):
With medical training, where volunteers weren't. Things were worse in Texas,
and I just av Reyes Alvarez, an eight year old
girl born in Panama to Honduran parents, died in CBP custody. Rossellerees,
the girl's father, told NBC News that they gave authorities
(47:13):
documents about the girl's medical conditions congenital heart disease and
sickle cellonemia while they were in immigration custody. They said
that a doctor there examined Danideth and that she had
contracted the flu Alvarez. Her mother said she spoke to
both detentional authorities and medical personnel at the station multiple
times to explain her daughter was complaining of pain and
(47:36):
shortness of breath and that she was getting worse. All
quite the next part directly from the NBC story. They
never listened to me, she said. Rayes said his daughter
was in a lot of pain, a lot of pain.
I begged them to call an ambulance, Alvarez said, adding
their authorities told her the girl's condition wasn't serious enough
(47:57):
to warrant calling an ambulance. Avarez said her daughter begged
authorities as well, telling them she could not breathe from
her nose or mouth. Alvarez says that eventually her daughter
lost consciousness and died in my arms. She said, authorities
took the girl from her arms and put her on
the floor trying to revive her. My daughter died there
(48:22):
in the station, she said. Avare said she feels authorities
did not do enough to help her little girl. My
daughter is a human being. They had to take care
of her, she said. Despite what you might have heard
on the network news, the asylum process is anything but easy.
I've had several visas, a Green card and a US passport,
(48:43):
and I can completely tell you the only easy way
I've ever seen to come here is to be very rich.
But even among the convoluted bureaucratic mess at his US immigration,
the asylum process stands out as both rigorous and complicated.
Asylum is a process by which people unable are unwilling
to return to their country because of persecution or a
well founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, politics,
(49:09):
or membership of a particular social group, may remain in
a safe country. From the eleventh of May onwards, migrants
at the border were assumed ineligible for asylum. If they
cross between points of entry, they must enter the defensive
asylum process to prevent themselves from being deported. What this
means for people we heard from earlier is that they
are now taken, for whatever God forsake and holding area.
(49:31):
They're in a bust to a processing facility where they're
interviewed by an asylum officer to determine if they have
a credible fear of persecution. They may need to provide
a translator if there is an interviewing agent who speaks
their language, and if they're determined to have a credible fear,
they're told to check in with the US Customs and
Immigration Office and sometimes given a notice which may or
(49:52):
may not be dated to appear in court. My colleague
Joe tried to get into one of these hotels to
talk to one of the people we'd spoken to at
the border, but he was pretty quickly shut down.
Speaker 12 (50:01):
Yeah, how you doing either. I'm a freelance journalist. I'm
here reporting for my boss, James Stout, He's at iHeartMedia.
I'm wondering if you're letting media in here to see.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
The guys, sadly not.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
Okay. Also the act you guys, and not the strict
any of this area here. Okay, you're going to set up,
it has to be on the side of the line
because they have a lot of traffic. Yeah, and it's
very dangerous for you.
Speaker 12 (50:23):
Okay, So like beyond here, a past the college. Yeah,
from here over Okay, cool, I'll say how you're working.
Speaker 5 (50:28):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (50:30):
One of the folks we'd met was able to stay
in touch for our WhatsApp and share the hotel rules
with us. They were pretty strict. Migrants are confined to
their rooms, they can't have visitors, and they can't even
order food delivery from the hotel where they're hosted by
Catholic charities. Migrants need to get to their sponsor in
the United States.
Speaker 6 (50:48):
If they have one.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
If they don't have one, they can be sent just
about anywhere. I've heard of East African folks having ended
up in Alaska, for example. Once they get to where
they're going to be. They check him with US Customers
and Immigration services in their new location, and they're given
a special phone which also tracks their movements. They may
have a DNA sample take and in addition to fingerprints. Later,
(51:10):
sometimes years later, they attend a court hearing or two
to determine their eligibility to stay. I've heard of lawyers
charging from five thousand dollars to twelve thousand dollars for
these hearings, and nonprofit legalists and services are totally overwhelmed.
At the moment, the system's massively backed up, and court
dates are being given as far out as twenty twenty
seven already. They may or may not be able to
(51:32):
work during that period, and unther the table work is
getting harder and harder to find. Even if they do
find work on less than minimum wage, it can be
very hard to say about five thousand dollars for a
lawyer A Migrants who can't find nonprofit help are at
a significant disadvantage when it comes to their asylum hearings. Again,
private security contractors, this time from Allied, were transporting migrants
(51:54):
to the hotel and guarding it. Like CBP, the private
contractors you guard transport and ink pass rate migrants or
rely on the broken in immigration system to make money.
Unlike CBP, the agents themselves aren't well paid. Nineteen dollars
an hours are going rate for Allied, not much higher
than San Diego's sixteen dollars and thirty cents minimum wage.
(52:14):
But the company itself is huge. It's the third last
year at private employer in North America after Walmart and Amazon.
Allied guards are at prisons, airports, and shopping malls across America,
and it's alleged that some are underpaid, insufficiently trained, and
improperly vetted. The company grosses over twenty billion dollars and
it's affiliates are frequent political donors. All across this story
(52:38):
you'll see this Allied security iss action, security people, smugglers,
customs and border protection, contractors who build the war pieces
and contractors who install the wall pieces, General Atomics who
sell CBP drones, and the Israelian American companies who sell
the surveillance technology to the government. All these people make money,
(52:59):
but the poorest people in the world are the only
ones losing money, and sometimes they're lives when they cross
our southern border tomorrow we'll hear from some of the
people who made no money and looked after the migrants,
and we'll continue to support them through the asylum process.
Speaker 4 (53:17):
It Could Happen Here as a production of cool Zone Media.
Speaker 9 (53:20):
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
cool zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 8 (53:29):
You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated
monthly at coolzonemedia dot com slash sources.
Speaker 9 (53:34):
Thanks for listening.
It Could Happen Here News
Hosts And Creators
Robert Evans
Garrison Davis
James Stout
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