WEBVTT - Title 42, Pt 2: Migrant Stories 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.600 Going on, yelling and gen length by Molly. It's going off, 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:08.039 not going lengthy and elms see im for the sky 0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:11.520 not me im pre Mama says some push free and 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:14.560 for them say might smile them. No, no, i' must 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:20.680 do be Gannata canna watch me hey man, grateful man, 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:24.239 grateful I went not on Manna smile. 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:28.560 Yeah. Once there is a live God, I'll. 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:33.440 Want give me everything for some five Yeah, love sack fries, 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:35.760 pick up to joy car, I got to eat and 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:40.240 come back. I'm see yeah man, that's it one love Oh. 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:43.319 On the eleventh of May this year, title forty two 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:46.479 finally ended. I actually began to write this episode the 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:48.960 day before, on the tenth of May, but it was 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:51.600 that day the DHS announced that Title forty two would 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:55.160 be enforced until eight fifty nine pm Pacific or midnight Eastern. 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:58.040 They kept Title forty two in place for every single 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.480 minute they could, and that's same day. Five hundred active 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:04.600 duty troops arrived in El Paso and one thousand more 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.160 set off for the border towns to join the two thousand, 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:11.000 five hundred troops already deployed to the border. According to 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:13.640 opress rates from an apartment of Homeland Security. 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:17.800 CBP, and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement are further expanding 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:21.679 detention capacity, ramping up removal flights, and shifting agents and 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:26.160 officers to high priority regions along the southwest border. This week, 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:29.399 CBP opened two new holding facilities, and the Department of 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:32.640 Health and Human Services is increasing its bed capacity to 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:36.839 prepare for a potential increase in unaccompanied children. DHS also 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:40.880 launched targeted enforcement operations and high priority regions along the border, 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:44.600 including El Paso, to quickly process migrants and place them 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:48.680 in removal proceedings. DHS last week also announced over two 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:52.440 hundred and fifty million dollars in additional assistance for communities 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:54.160 receiving migrants. 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.680 On the ground. This assistant and planning didn't exactly meet 0:01:56.720 --> 0:01:59.640 the task at hand, albeit the specific call out of 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:01.800 El PASA so does suggest that they saw their task. 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:04.920 It's not looking bad in the right wing media hits 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:07.480 some audio recorded after a couple of hours walking around 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:10.960 talking to people at Sanisedro, where Customs and Border Protection 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.040 had detained around five hundred people in between the two 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:16.799 thirty foot fences that make up the border between Salisedro 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:20.799 and Tijuana. I'm just for people familiar with San Diego 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:25.880 in the Tijuana River Valley park by International Hill, where 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:31.480 border patrol are holding people in between the two border fences. 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:35.000 For those who thought we didn't have a border wall 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:37.360 or weren't having a border wall, we have at least two, 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:41.760 sometimes three, but right here we have two. People are 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:44.480 being put in between these fences by border patrol. So 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:47.480 I just spoke to some young Colombian women who had 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:52.160 crossed about fifteen miles east of here and then been 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:55.360 relocated here and there in between these border walls. They 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:58.080 don't have running water. What food and water they have 0:02:58.120 --> 0:02:59.960 appear to be in supplied by volunteers on the nor 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.720 inside they've just been given space blankets, but a lot 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:07.160 of people are literally sleeping under bin bags right now, blankets. 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:10.640 It's pretty breek. There's one portal toilet sort of thing 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.200 that we can see about five hundred people. So I'm 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.079 going to give you an idea of the conditions. Obviously 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:18.360 those don't live up to the detention conditions that border 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:22.600 patrol are supposed to up a hole people under, but 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:26.440 here we are, I guess Border patrol have just said 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:28.079 that they're calling an ambulance. There have been a number 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:31.239 of medical emergencies that nearly always are in these situations 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:34.880 because you're holding people. They're you know, old people, young people, 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:37.640 sick people, and they're in the sun all day, they're 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:39.800 in the cold all night. If it rains, they get wet. 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:42.440 It's hot, they get hot. If it's cold, they get cold. 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.960 Their little children were just asking me for a blanket 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:50.080 a minute ago, which is always a pretty bleak thing. 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:52.440 If you've not been here, you'd be forgiven for not 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:54.520 knowing that. We have a double layer of wall separating 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.520 us from our neighbors in Tijuana, both sections and now 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:00.360 the Trump period design. But we're standing in a we're 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.040 not so very long ago. Nancy Reagan stood and said 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:04.640 she hoped that there wouldn't be a fence here for 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:08.440 very long. Now there are two towering walls, and their 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:12.400 little children stuck sleeping in the dust between them. Or 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:14.880 the aid to these people had to go through the wall, too, 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:17.240 and that meant no hot meals. Because the gaps are 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:20.240 smaller than a plate. Someone tried to bring tents, but 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:24.040 they wouldn't fit. Everything from food to clothes to medical 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:26.440 supplies had to go through the gaps. In the War 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:30.560 Hamara Usephi, a volunteer from the Partnership for the Advancement 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:33.720 of New Americans, described to me what she saw that night. 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:40.599 I see about five hundred beautiful, smiling faces of people 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:47.080 who are desperately trying to get to safety, and they're confused. 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:49.279 They don't know what's going on. They don't know how 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:53.479 long it will take them. You know, they many of 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:57.160 them are aware that something is happening today. Many of 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:00.239 them are asking does this mean that I'll be turned back? 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:07.000 What is going on? I see, you know, people who 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:11.279 don't even have many kids, don't have shoes, they don't 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:15.520 have I talked to individuals who lost everything on them. 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.680 They don't have jackets. They're trying to cover themselves with 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.400 any kind of covering that they have, some of them 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:26.640 using trash bags, others using scarves and other types of 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:29.080 things to cover themselves from the sun. We are in 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.159 San Diego, so it's quite sunny here. 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:34.640 The first thing I noticed on arrival was dozens of 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:38.960 hands sticking through the wall holding phones and charges. That's 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:41.200 because people need to use the CBP one app to 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:44.520 interact with border enforcement, but they've been detained by the 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.359 same border enforcement in between two walls in an open 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:51.320 field where there obviously isn't any electricity. They also need 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:53.520 their phones to stay in touch with their families, to 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.200 let them know they survived a difficult and dangerous journey 0:05:56.640 --> 0:06:00.240 and that they're now technically inside the USA. Is the 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:03.680 advet a CBP broadcast in Spanish to encourage asylum seekers 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:05.919 to download the app before they put them in a 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:07.440 place they couldn't charge their phones. 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:09.400 Attencion migrante. 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:14.360 Attention migrants in Mexico City or further north in the country. 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:17.480 Why do you need to download CBP one. It's a 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:20.240 free and legal way to get an appointment guaranteed at 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:23.520 a port of entry. It's a clear way to solicit asylum, 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.039 and you have the possibility to work while your case 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.359 is being processed. If you present without an appointment, you 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:32.520 can be prohibited from entering the US for five years. 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:36.080 You will be subject to expedite a deportation unless you 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:39.680 comply with the strict requirements of the asylum process. In 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:42.720 the majority of cases, it is assumed that migrants do 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:45.679 not comply with the requirements for asylum, and you won't 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:48.039 have the right to work unless you comply with the 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:51.279 strict requirements. Again, if you are now in Mexico City 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:54.440 or further north, download CBP one. 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:58.479 As we heard yesterday, CBP one has been an a 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:02.039 mitigated disaster. I'd shown a very clear bias towards certain 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:05.919 types of wealthy and white asylum seekers, despite that it 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:07.480 seemed to have been the only plan in place the 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:10.720 end of Title forty two. The hundreds of people detained 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:14.200 in between defenses wheably didn't have appointments, and with no 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:17.360 way to charge their phones, they couldn't make them. It's 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:19.440 not clear of making them would have helped, as it 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:21.920 seems that they were already being detained, and thus they 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:25.600 would have to file defensive asylum claims, effectively stopping the 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:28.640 repatriation process by claiming that they couldn't safely be sent 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:31.280 back to their country of origin. This is opposed to 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:34.080 making an affirmative asylum claim that people should have been 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:36.400 able to make at the border. With a CBP one appointment, 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:39.200 these would not have to be argued with the threat 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:43.240 of repatriation hanging over the person making the claim. Volunteers, 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.560 local people, a mosque group, and a church group all 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:50.120 showed up soon after CBP began dumping more people in 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:53.680 between the fences. An hour after my own arrival, I'd 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:55.400 given away all the charge cables that I had in 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:57.160 my truck, which is a lot more charge cables than 0:07:57.200 --> 0:07:59.560 I thought I had in my truck, and all my 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:02.160 charge bricks accrude over six years of getting free shed 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:05.400 at the consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas later, I 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:07.480 came back with a massive solar generator that I'd like 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:09.080 to use when I'm living off grid. But I still 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:12.720 need to write stuff. Even all my home electronics ephemera 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:16.360 and the combined efforts of nonprofits, religious and mutual aid 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:19.160 groups couldn't really make much difference to the five hundred 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.760 people from around the world, mostly families with children being 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:26.280 held between the two fences. When it got hot, they 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:29.720 got hot. When it got cold, they got cold. When 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:32.440 the wind blew, they got dust in their eyes, and 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:36.439 everything was constantly dirty. The only hot food volunteers could 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.160 get to them was pizza. Some of the detained people 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:41.440 have cash, and they were able to order door dash 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:43.760 on the Tijuana side, but again the meals had to 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.760 fit through a hole barely wider than my arm. The 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:49.480 only way to get clean was with wet wipes. And 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:52.280 there was only one bathroom. There was no shade or 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.240 shelter either, and the only way people could construct shelters 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:58.520 were through tying tops to the border wall itself. I 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:01.160 like Kaba, one of the volunteers who came to help, 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:04.480 describe what they saw when participating in Mutilated a couple 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:05.679 of days after, but. 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:06.240 It was. 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:11.080 Definitely was. I don't think it really struck me until, 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:15.479 you know, after, after everything, and you know, after I left. 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:19.360 Several hours later. But the kind of I mean, I 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:21.640 am right about the situation at the border, but the 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.800 kind of a matter of fatness of there's just several 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:27.320 hundred people, including children. 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:31.959 Just kind of between this fence and they're just. 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:35.680 Stuck there with nothing, and the sort of a matter 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:41.040 of fatness of the all was I think, I think 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:44.680 the part that struck me the most. And it's been 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:46.080 a much challenge in the process. 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:48.160 In the days before the end of Title forty two, 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:50.959 confusion had rained at the border. A lot of people 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:52.880 I talked to you mentioned that they thought they had 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:55.480 to cross before the end of Title forty two or 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:57.800 they would be ejected and not able to apply for 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:01.920 five years at the title eight. This misunderstanding might in 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:04.280 part be due to some of the misleading rhetoric put 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:07.400 out by Majorcas and others, which focused on the harsh 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:10.240 penalties for crossing between ports of entry and an attempt 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:13.120 to appear strong on the border. To their colleagues in DC. 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:16.280 They didn't place as much emphasis on the right to 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:19.280 present and claim asylum at a port of entry. But 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:22.640 as we saw yesterday, it's virtually impossible to actually do that, 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:25.400 and Tijuando is already full of thousands of people trying 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:29.360 to do that exact thing. Given a set of circumstances, 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:31.800 it makes sense that many people took the days before 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.319 the end of Title forty two. At the final chance 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:37.800 to cross before Title forty two ended, I spoke to 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:41.360 Diana Rodriguez from Colombia about her understanding of what was 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:41.959 going to happen. 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:45.280 Later that night, Diana Rodriguez the Columbia. 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:48.760 Diana was with two friends, all of them wearing little 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.560 daisies in their hair and sharing a tarp shelter they'd 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.320 made by tying a blue tarp against the wall so 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:57.520 they could get some shade and privacy. I asked her 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.199 where the flowers had come from. You hear the rec 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:01.360 into your voice by Scherine. 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:06.520 Oh the flowers, the flowers. H Well, there are these 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:10.000 little flowers, flowers that are growing here like in a garden. 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:12.560 So when we went and took a walk over there 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:15.680 and we found them, we put them on and they're pretty. 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:19.640 We call these the little yellow flowers of hope, and 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.679 they match the color of our bracelets. We picked them 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:24.760 on the day we arrived, and we knew that we 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:28.480 needed a little bit of encouragement. We got the yellow bracelets. 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:31.600 Because we arrived on Tuesday, everyone got the same bracelet. 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:34.400 I asked, Diana, which you'd heard about Title forty two, 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:36.920 which is ending a few hours after we talked. 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:42.400 Yes, it's the end of Title forty two. Title forty 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:46.640 two is the one that endorses mass deportations. Yes, and well, 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:50.960 it's a question of you not just getting deported, but 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:55.000 being repatriated. In other words, after this they do a 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:59.080 full repatriation. But right now you are not registered in 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:01.880 the system. But what they do is that they only 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:05.680 return you. They don't register you. But let's say, on 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:08.440 the basis of Article eight, is that a few at 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:13.280 least we are invading American territory, then we are in 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:17.320 effect breaking a law, and what Article eight does is 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:19.240 that they deport you and they put you in the 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:22.520 registered database saying that you broke the law, and they 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.360 punish you for five years and you lose the right 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:29.600 to request your asylum through legal channels. 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:31.839 People at another camp in u Cumba heard the same 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:34.840 thing from Colombians, and it seems like there are even 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.800 news pieces run on domestic television explaining that US plan 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:40.800 to return many Colombians in the coming months and this 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:43.280 might be the last best chance to cross the border 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:47.320 without permanent consequences if you got caught in a Cumba. 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:50.199 Volunteers estimated that two thirds of the people corraled and 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.760 the deasert son from Colombia. Of course, in recent years 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:57.079 there has been instability and violence there, which also drives migration. 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:00.319 One of my sources also mentioned a lot of Lumbian 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:03.600 people had seen misleading information about immigration law on TikTok. 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:08.280 Two days had passed since Janna arrived. She came with 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:10.160 one of the girls she was now sharing a top with. 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:12.240 I met another when they were all dumped in the 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:16.000 camp together. In the days before they were detained here. 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:18.520 They crossed three countries on their way to what they 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:20.400 hope was a better life for young women like them. 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:22.560 I asked them to describe that journey for me. 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.960 Yes, eight days, eight days more or less walking from 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:31.080 Colombia from El Salvador to Guatemala, the New Mexico. To 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:35.800 hear all that time walking and taking the bus. There's 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:38.400 a part fifteen or twenty minutes from here where the 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:41.680 wall ends, and we crossed there there was a Mexican 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:44.840 patrol and when they changed shifts, we ran and here 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:48.400 we are on American soil. We arrived on foot and 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.000 the police brought us here. They opened the gate and 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:51.680 dropped us. 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:54.760 Here along the way. She said, they've run into a 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.319 lot of people, and my good journey north is such 0:13:57.320 --> 0:13:59.360 a common trick that people living along the way have 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:01.640 found a way to make a buck, but also a 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.840 way to make a difference. It's not uncommon for migrant 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:08.120 to be extorted, robbed, or threatened. It's also not uncommon 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:10.679 for them to be fed by strangers, perhaps handing off 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:12.920 bags with food in them to passing trains or buses, 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:15.240 or perhaps given a place to sleep for the night 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:16.960 by someone they might never see again. 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:20.760 There were parts where we were extorted they took all 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:24.160 the money we brought, They robbed us, they stole our passports, 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:28.360 they still our documents. So it's always quite dangerous. Let's 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:32.160 say that it's dangerous to take this journey. Yes, just 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:34.560 as we have met some bad people along the way, 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:37.080 we have also met some very good people, people who 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:39.400 have given us a hand, people who have helped us, 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:43.000 people who have collaborated with us in ways you least expect. 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:45.640 I asked Diana what she hoped for now she was 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.600 technically inside the USA. 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:51.040 Yes, let's say the hope is that they will listen 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:53.320 to our case, listen to our case, and let us 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:56.680 fight the case inside. Yes, because we want to be 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:59.200 able to explain the conditions we are in and the 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:01.800 reasons that those of us who are here came here, 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:06.000 things like extortion, kidnapping, and because our lives are in 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:09.680 danger in Colombia. So we wish that they at least 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:12.760 listen to our case and let us plead our cause. 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:17.200 Before we started recording, Deanna asked what network I was with. 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:20.480 I thought that was an astute question. Networks like Fox 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:22.240 show up at the WAD, although I didn't see any 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:25.560 Fox National reporters on my trip. Certainly local news channel 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:27.840 k us I was there, but they're reporting on the 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:31.680 ground differed from their xenophobic and outright incorrect online coverage. 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:33.880 I asked Diana, what you'd want to say to folks 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:36.040 who might have had their perspective influence by the constant 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:38.160 demonization of migrants by right wing media. 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:42.320 If there are many people who, let's say, are in 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:45.480 a mindset of not wanting migrants and they view them 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:50.600 with contempt, because where xenophobia exists, it's hard for us 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:53.960 because we suffer along the way. We would like you 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:56.240 to change your way of seeing things and your way 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.239 of thinking so that you don't look at us with contempt. 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:02.800 We have a saying in Columbia that says that he 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:06.440 who was born in a golden cradle never suffers or 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:09.840 never sees what he does not know. So it's hard 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:12.480 when you're born in a golden cradle and you don't 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:15.600 see beyond what you have. So there are people that 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.160 in our case, in my case, I lived a very 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:21.480 hard life where you see the war between armed groups. 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:25.080 They exist outside the law and they can control an area, 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.560 and you see the kidnapping, you see the rape of girls, 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:33.960 recruitment extortion, death. Yes, so it's hard when we experience 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:38.160 that and people say things like these migrants are coming 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:41.720 to invade our country, we also ask them to treat 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:44.880 us as people, because if we are here, it is 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:48.000 not because we want to invade a territory. It is 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:50.520 because we want to come to fight for a better 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:56.120 future for our children without stepping on anyone. Nobody wants this. 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:00.280 But where we come from, we receive travelers with open arms. 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:04.320 And it's hard when one is a migrant, when one 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:07.480 lives the experience of being a migrant, it is a 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:13.600 very hard thing to be a migrant, having to endure cold, hunger, rain, sun, 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:18.080 that is, all these things, and then arriving here and 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:23.000 seeing faces of contempt. It's hard. It is very hard. 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:27.399 So yes, the important thing is that people must know 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:32.080 that being an immigrant is not easy. Being an immigrant 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:34.840 is not easy. 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:36.760 One of her friends who she was sharing a top with, 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:38.200 leaned over to give an example. 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:43.800 Everyone despairs because everyone wants to leave, so everyone sees 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:49.000 each other as enemies. So let's say, for example, right now, 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.240 when they are sending cars to collect people to process, 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.800 so everyone there thinks, I hope they take me. Then 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:59.800 when they don't. It gets to a point where, yes, 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:05.160 were you despair? I mean it's desperate, but well everyone, 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:09.080 everyone is in the fight together, all in the fight. 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:24.119 I have to get another dusting down from a CBP 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:26.639 agent who really liked to rise his squad bike passing 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:30.000 utulaid tables. Speak to a man from Angola. I'll leave 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:31.919 his name out, as he preferred for me not to 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:34.720 share it. He'd beat into Juana for three days, he said. 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:37.600 I was waiting his chant to plead his case for asylum. 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:43.080 No, it's just me and my sister. We suffered a lot. 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:47.240 There were bandits. We came here to be safe. It's 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:49.600 no way to live. People broke into our house to 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:52.200 violate women, to look for people, and I was injured. 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:55.720 Then yeah, why did I leave to come here? Over there, 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:58.600 they're not they're not the means to live. 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:01.080 We didn't get it ants to talk for long, and 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:03.679 some of the recording I got wasn't very good. He 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:05.600 was waiting in line for food, and to be quite honest, 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:07.919 I don't like prodding people to share their trauma, but 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:10.800 with so many journalists crowding the border asking them to 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:13.200 do just that, it tends to be what people offer. 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:15.879 Lots of African migrants can be quite cautious of the 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:18.400 media because talking to the media at home could get 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:21.120 them in trouble. I spoke to a friend of mine 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:24.320 himself a migrant from Africa. He said that if migrants 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:26.160 don't speak English or Spanish, it can be very hard 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:28.560 for them to get information, and there aren't as many 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:30.480 nonprofits set up to serve them as there are for 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:33.800 Spanish speaking people, for example. They can often end up 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:37.159 isolated and alone. I did get a better chance to 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:40.119 talk to a Jamaican man called Joseph. It's his singing 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:43.119 you've heard at the start of this episode. Mostly we 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:45.840 talked about things in America, about how he lost his 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.560 phone on his journey, we got him another one at Walmart, 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:52.720 and about things like football and music. I didn't record 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:54.480 all of that because sometimes it's nice to just talk 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:56.919 to people. Hopefully it makes their dair a bit brighter 0:19:56.920 --> 0:20:00.199 and gives them some information. Maybe they could help let 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:02.480 me record a bit of an interview and some of 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:05.520 him singing. He was pretty guarded on the recording, but 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:07.000 as you can hear in this clip, we had a 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.720 good time when we weren't recording I am. 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:10.160 The best one. 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:17.360 Yeah, it's gott amps up. 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:20.760 He's gotta get up there we go and get my 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:21.440 man's up. 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:27.600 Hey, you know it's leg John is going on yelling 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:30.800 gen but Molly, it's going off, not going likely and 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:34.199 lem see ian for the sky hunted me. I'm pre 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:37.480 and Mama said something push free and glow and red 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:39.760 for them, say might smile them. No, no, I'm just 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:44.920 doing red, beIN gonna talk. Canna watch me hey man, 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:50.320 grateful man, grateful I went not and go on manna smile. Yeah, 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:54.760 once there is life. God all want give me everything 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:59.600 for some fune. Yeah, love suck, great fries, big up 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:03.160 to job, I got to eat come back. So yeah, man, 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:08.360 that's it one. Look Oh that beautiful. Yeah, I'm I'm 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:09.280 I'm Joseph. 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:11.120 I asked him about some of the stuff we spoke 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:12.800 about before, but he didn't want to share it. 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:13.680 Yeah. 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:16.480 That's the whole testimony to me and you and God 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:17.639 have to go into church for that. 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:19.600 But I'm gonna give you that the next time. 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:23.239 Okay, buddy, just experienced a lot of personal harm from 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:26.200 conflict back home in Jamaica. I had a difficult journey 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:27.440 here with his five year old son. 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:30.000 Yeah, it's rough. It's rough out there, man, you know 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:30.640 it's rough. 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:33.520 How did you come like you come? I asked him 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:35.680 how his young son a dealt with the journey. It's 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:37.600 not a safe or easy one for an adult, let 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:38.640 alone for a little child. 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:44.760 It's like he's just kind of scary one. He pulled you. Yeah, 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:48.240 that's good. You have my energy inside. That's good. 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:51.440 Yeah, are you how's he finding it here in the camp? 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:55.680 Oh? Yeah, that camp. I don't know why. That guy 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:58.439 is just like me. We just don't make anything better us. 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:02.440 Yeah, what it's working here because you guys give it 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:03.879 a strength and supported in us. 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:05.920 You know, Joseph wanted me to know that he wasn't 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:09.240 giving up his home. He loves Jamaica, but he also 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:10.480 wants a better life for his son. 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:12.480 Is that it's not that? 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:16.920 Isn't that like I'm giving away my home? My home 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:19.280 is a good place. Yeah, yeah, it's a good island, 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:20.280 nice place to be. 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:22.880 Of course, his perspective is very common, and it's one 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:25.840 that often gets left out of reporting. Coming to the 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:29.080 USA is a very hopeful act. It's not abandoning your 0:22:29.119 --> 0:22:32.040 family or your home. It's trying to make their lives better. 0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:35.920 In your life, livapoo. Joseph was quite guided with his story, 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:37.679 and that's fine. It's his to share as much as 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:40.600 little as he wants. I came to the USA without 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:43.080 having to get persecuted or hurt, and people who don't 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:46.760 look like me should have that same right as well. Sadly, 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:50.360 coming to the USA is also scary and confusing, even 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:52.960 for me with three university degrees and all the intersectional 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:56.840 privilege I have and fifteen years living here, and I've 0:22:56.880 --> 0:23:00.080 recently minted US passport. Now, I worried for years that 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:02.640 maybe I'd made a mistake on a form or missed 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:06.359 some kind of deadline. Speaking of deadlines, what none of 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:08.760 the migrants could tell us, what they all wanted to 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:11.120 ask about was exactly what was happening to them as 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:15.159 Title forty two expired. A Congolese lady asked me if 0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:18.240 her passport would be confiscated. A lady from Senegal asked 0:23:18.240 --> 0:23:19.639 if she needed to pay a bribe like the one 0:23:19.680 --> 0:23:22.760 she'd paid in Mexico. It wasn't really clear at first 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:25.040 if these people were being detained and under what process 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:27.639 they were being received. Would they be sent back to 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:32.760 Mexico and a Title forty two, repatriated under Biden's interpretation 0:23:32.880 --> 0:23:35.520 of Title eight or given the right to plead their 0:23:35.600 --> 0:23:38.159 case as international and US law suggests should be able to. 0:23:39.600 --> 0:23:42.520 CBP made people sit in lines all day with no 0:23:42.640 --> 0:23:44.400 indication of when they would be taken to the porta 0:23:44.560 --> 0:23:47.840 Entry for processing. Sometimes I heard people saying if everyone 0:23:47.880 --> 0:23:51.040 didn't sit down, there'll be nobody processed that day. But 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:54.280 the only food, water, and medical attention available to the 0:23:54.359 --> 0:23:56.800 migrants with ZAK which could be passed through the wall, 0:23:57.760 --> 0:23:59.200 and they had to get out of their lines to 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:02.520 receive this aye. I'll let Kaber describe what this looked like. 0:24:02.960 --> 0:24:05.280 They had people waiting in lines the whole like you're 0:24:05.359 --> 0:24:09.240 to sit in a line in a specific assigned spot. 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:12.960 But it wasn't always clear if those how those lines 0:24:13.000 --> 0:24:14.200 actually worked. 0:24:13.920 --> 0:24:17.440 Because they would kind of take people from lots of places. 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:20.080 I think they might have been prioritizing family with children, 0:24:20.640 --> 0:24:22.679 or people with some kind of medical. 0:24:22.480 --> 0:24:23.280 Needs or something like that. 0:24:24.560 --> 0:24:26.919 But we would you would never know when they were 0:24:27.200 --> 0:24:29.240 going to come, and we didn't seem to know also 0:24:29.280 --> 0:24:30.800 that who they were going to choose to take. 0:24:31.200 --> 0:24:32.600 We assume we didn't know exactly. 0:24:32.359 --> 0:24:33.679 Where we were taking them, but we assume they were 0:24:33.720 --> 0:24:35.320 taking the Port of Venture in Sannes ce Tour, which 0:24:35.320 --> 0:24:39.040 is about a mile away. And so what would always 0:24:39.080 --> 0:24:40.920 happen when they come and get a group is like 0:24:41.040 --> 0:24:43.000 three or four people from that group would sprint over 0:24:43.640 --> 0:24:45.840 to the world because we still had their phones and 0:24:45.960 --> 0:24:49.560 cdpeople wasn't going to wait for us to get the phones. 0:24:49.920 --> 0:24:51.760 One thing a lot of people we talked to shared 0:24:52.240 --> 0:24:54.680 was that there was another camp, which we later found 0:24:54.760 --> 0:24:57.760 how is as many as eight hundred single men. It's 0:24:57.760 --> 0:25:00.240 fairly usual to keep single men apart from family, but 0:25:00.400 --> 0:25:03.359 keeping them in an inaccessible place without adequate food or 0:25:03.440 --> 0:25:07.200 water is not usual. The camp was further west, and 0:25:07.320 --> 0:25:10.960 despite repeated requests from myself and others, including those delivering aid, 0:25:11.119 --> 0:25:14.000 we were not allowed to access it. One pair of 0:25:14.080 --> 0:25:17.879 Jamaican twins, both young men, told me they had walked 0:25:17.960 --> 0:25:20.719 up there and that things were very bad. People were 0:25:20.760 --> 0:25:23.199 only given one small water bottom the granola bar every day, 0:25:23.240 --> 0:25:27.639 they said. One person told me they'd heard people eating grass. 0:25:28.600 --> 0:25:30.920 I asked CBP's press office for information on this, but 0:25:31.040 --> 0:25:34.640 they didn't respond. Here's one clip of a man trying 0:25:34.680 --> 0:25:37.320 to explain how bad things were there. It's hard to 0:25:37.359 --> 0:25:40.240 communicate across language barriers, and with a war between you 0:25:40.400 --> 0:25:42.639 is even harder. But I could tell he was very 0:25:42.760 --> 0:25:46.080 concerned for the folks that we couldn't get to, despite 0:25:46.080 --> 0:25:49.080 myself and others trying and me addressing this issue directly 0:25:49.119 --> 0:25:51.960 and emails to CBP, and never got any response on 0:25:52.040 --> 0:25:54.040 why people were not allowed to help the single men 0:25:54.080 --> 0:25:54.760 in the other camp. 0:25:55.520 --> 0:25:59.560 Just not helping. What little water? 0:26:03.800 --> 0:26:09.919 Nothing else, no food, no water, blankets, blows nothing. 0:26:15.800 --> 0:26:16.919 I'll go try and go up there. 0:26:18.440 --> 0:26:21.760 Even with these camps being pretty desperate places, folks look 0:26:21.840 --> 0:26:24.720 after one another. We spoke a lot with one lady 0:26:24.760 --> 0:26:27.520 who spoke English. She was there with her own family, 0:26:27.960 --> 0:26:30.440 but she was also looking after two Tagi children who'd 0:26:30.480 --> 0:26:33.840 come alone. Their mother spoke a little English, so she 0:26:33.960 --> 0:26:36.600 relayed news to the children by calling their mother and 0:26:36.760 --> 0:26:40.480 having her translated for her children. Other folks took it 0:26:40.560 --> 0:26:42.200 upon themselves to try and walk to the camp for 0:26:42.240 --> 0:26:45.720 single men with water, and people constantly helped us find 0:26:45.800 --> 0:26:47.920 the owners of phone Boy, wandering through the rows of 0:26:47.920 --> 0:26:50.560 people sheltering under taps and space blankets to look for 0:26:50.640 --> 0:26:57.000 people who had left us their devices to charge in Nukumber, 0:26:58.040 --> 0:26:59.920 a town an hour or so east of San die, 0:27:00.480 --> 0:27:04.040 things were worse. Cumber's home to a cute hotel, a 0:27:04.119 --> 0:27:06.560 lovely lake, a hot spring, and an awful lot of 0:27:06.560 --> 0:27:09.760 big rugs. When the border wall was being built in 0:27:09.840 --> 0:27:12.480 Earnest before the twenty twenty election, they skipped some of 0:27:12.520 --> 0:27:15.040 the harder areas. Perhaps they figured it would be too 0:27:15.080 --> 0:27:18.200 hard to cross there, it's not Perhaps they wanted to 0:27:18.240 --> 0:27:21.040 maximize the mileage before election day. Well, it didn't help much, 0:27:21.600 --> 0:27:24.440 but either way, for some reason, the wall just takes 0:27:24.440 --> 0:27:27.400 a little break in Hucumber, and this makes crossing marginally 0:27:27.480 --> 0:27:31.920 easier there. However, the boulder fields, scorching hot days and 0:27:32.000 --> 0:27:35.879 cold nights make it anything but easy. On Thursday night, 0:27:36.000 --> 0:27:38.800 the eleventh of May, locals in a Cumber became aware 0:27:38.840 --> 0:27:41.240 that CBP were holding people on a dirt road in 0:27:41.280 --> 0:27:43.480 the open desert, just a few miles east of town 0:27:43.800 --> 0:27:46.280 and a few hundred feet from the wall. The people 0:27:46.359 --> 0:27:48.960 held they didn't have access to toilets, running water, or shelter. 0:27:49.640 --> 0:27:52.240 With every hour that went past, the number of people grew. 0:27:53.520 --> 0:27:56.720 The biggest camp soon held over a thousand people desperately 0:27:56.760 --> 0:27:58.560 trying to scratch out a little shade in the desert. 0:28:00.000 --> 0:28:02.800 All accounts popped up. One was apparently in someone's yard, 0:28:03.359 --> 0:28:05.600 and the people of this tiny desert town so about 0:28:05.640 --> 0:28:09.199 helping as best they could. Soon they were joined by 0:28:09.280 --> 0:28:12.200 volunteers from all over the county. Katie was one of 0:28:12.280 --> 0:28:14.879 those volunteers. She doesn't live in a Cumber, but her 0:28:14.920 --> 0:28:18.440 friends do and her family sometimes spends time there. Once 0:28:18.440 --> 0:28:20.479 she heard about what was happening, she knew she had 0:28:20.520 --> 0:28:23.800 to help. I let her describe her feelings after she 0:28:23.880 --> 0:28:26.640 saw the post online, and then drove out to Cumber 0:28:26.720 --> 0:28:27.920 to see what she could do to help. 0:28:28.960 --> 0:28:33.119 At first, I was just super touched by the activation 0:28:34.119 --> 0:28:41.640 and the carrying, and my son was asleep, comfortable in 0:28:41.920 --> 0:28:47.320 his car seat, you know, in our Mercedes van. And 0:28:48.080 --> 0:28:53.800 my husband is still trying to get citizenship after being 0:28:53.920 --> 0:28:59.240 here since he was two years old. So and we're 0:28:59.280 --> 0:29:04.960 married and he pays taxes. And when I saw our 0:29:05.040 --> 0:29:09.440 friends activating, I just told him tomorrow's Mother's Day and 0:29:10.680 --> 0:29:14.880 I need to come back here, and it's not safe 0:29:14.920 --> 0:29:20.360 for you here. So when I first arrived, I thought 0:29:20.360 --> 0:29:25.680 it was kind of odd that everything was organized around 0:29:26.080 --> 0:29:31.200 a random road that has a gate, and there were five, 0:29:32.200 --> 0:29:42.400 only five border patrol at the time, and about that 0:29:42.600 --> 0:29:44.960 was a larger camp, so I want to say at 0:29:45.080 --> 0:29:50.080 least eight hundred people, maybe a thousand. I didn't see 0:29:50.120 --> 0:29:56.120 them all because many of them would received their donations 0:29:56.240 --> 0:29:59.880 and the assistance and went back to their shelters. 0:30:01.760 --> 0:30:04.240 A few days after the migrants arrived, I camped out 0:30:04.240 --> 0:30:07.000 in Hucumber. I was cold in my sleeping bag at 0:30:07.080 --> 0:30:09.840 night and dizzy in the sun in the day. It's 0:30:09.880 --> 0:30:11.600 not a place where you'd want to be stuck outside 0:30:11.640 --> 0:30:14.320 the long but it's a place where fifteen hundred or 0:30:14.360 --> 0:30:17.360 so people were held for days little more than the shelters. 0:30:17.360 --> 0:30:19.400 They are built out of creosota and mesquite to protect 0:30:19.400 --> 0:30:22.440 their families from the elements. They slept on the dirt 0:30:22.560 --> 0:30:25.040 or in cardboard boxes left over from the food volunteers 0:30:25.080 --> 0:30:28.600 fed them and under whatever folks and tiny desert count 0:30:28.640 --> 0:30:31.880 could find to give them. By the time I arrived, 0:30:32.040 --> 0:30:35.120 the migrants were gone and volunteers were cleaning up. The 0:30:35.240 --> 0:30:39.760 landscape was dotted with impressively constructed brush shelters. Volunteers from 0:30:39.840 --> 0:30:43.400 her Cumber set up tables to distribute food, blankets, water, 0:30:43.480 --> 0:30:46.880 and clothing. Other volunteers stayed away from the camp itself 0:30:46.920 --> 0:30:50.680 and spent time packing things into individual sizes, perhaps combining 0:30:50.720 --> 0:30:52.720 hats and socks and maybe a toy for a child 0:30:52.800 --> 0:30:55.640 in one bag, or breaking down costco packages of snacks 0:30:55.680 --> 0:30:59.560 into individual portions. It's not necessarily the most rewarding task, 0:31:00.040 --> 0:31:04.080 but it's an important one. I asked Marissa, another volunteer 0:31:04.080 --> 0:31:06.520 who had previously worked in San Diego for the Forest Service, 0:31:07.040 --> 0:31:08.880 what she felt when we were cleaning out some of 0:31:08.960 --> 0:31:10.760 those shelters together a couple of days later. 0:31:11.200 --> 0:31:12.600 I don't know the best way to say this, but 0:31:16.200 --> 0:31:20.760 what hit me deeper was when this might seem strange, 0:31:20.840 --> 0:31:24.800 but when I saw women's sanitary napkins or the diapers 0:31:25.880 --> 0:31:29.600 or the babies, like it was kind of like a 0:31:29.880 --> 0:31:35.800 fabric padded crib basinet type thing that suddenly hit me 0:31:36.000 --> 0:31:39.600 on a deeper level. It would make me emotional because 0:31:39.640 --> 0:31:44.800 it's like then you start to realize, like, wow, what 0:31:45.000 --> 0:31:49.400 if that was me and my child or I'm not 0:31:49.480 --> 0:31:51.760 a mother, but I can only imagine what that must 0:31:51.840 --> 0:31:54.200 be like for them to be going through these things. 0:31:54.280 --> 0:31:58.520 As a as a woman, being on your period and 0:31:59.320 --> 0:32:02.880 being out and not having anything, you know, going to 0:32:02.960 --> 0:32:05.360 the bathroom out there. What do you use when you 0:32:05.480 --> 0:32:07.000 don't have those supplies? 0:32:09.000 --> 0:32:11.480 So yeah, it just. 0:32:14.840 --> 0:32:19.920 That was when it hit me deeper, and I knew 0:32:19.960 --> 0:32:21.719 I was doing the right thing by being out there 0:32:21.760 --> 0:32:25.200 and helping in whatever way I could, because I don't 0:32:25.480 --> 0:32:27.920 I don't when it comes to the politics side of it, 0:32:28.040 --> 0:32:34.680 when it comes to like legality and just different aspects 0:32:34.720 --> 0:32:39.360 of it. In that way, I don't have necessarily an 0:32:39.400 --> 0:32:41.760 opinion one way or another. I'm not educated enough to 0:32:41.840 --> 0:32:44.680 feel like I can. I can argue one way or another, 0:32:44.800 --> 0:32:48.200 or defend one position or another. I went out there 0:32:48.560 --> 0:32:54.280 purely for my love of humanity, and I think being 0:32:54.320 --> 0:32:57.640 able to support in whatever way I can that was 0:32:57.680 --> 0:32:59.680 the way that I felt like I could serve and 0:33:00.280 --> 0:33:00.959 bo support. 0:33:01.680 --> 0:33:03.880 Katie hadn't expected to meet migrants at the camp when 0:33:03.920 --> 0:33:06.520 she first showed up. She knew it was important not 0:33:06.600 --> 0:33:08.800 to flog the camp with volunteers, and their help was 0:33:08.840 --> 0:33:11.200 needed packaging and preparing aid drops, which she was happy 0:33:11.280 --> 0:33:13.960 to do. But in the end, she traveled up to 0:33:14.000 --> 0:33:16.200 the camp with a friend who spoke Portuguese so they 0:33:16.240 --> 0:33:20.040 could help translate and distribute supplies. I asked her what 0:33:20.120 --> 0:33:21.880 it was like to see the supplies she'd purchased a 0:33:21.920 --> 0:33:24.320 few hours before end up in the hands of people 0:33:24.360 --> 0:33:25.440 who desperately needed them. 0:33:26.040 --> 0:33:30.240 They don't even have a grocery store in her cumber 0:33:31.080 --> 0:33:38.040 They have one mini mart with nothing in it, and 0:33:38.480 --> 0:33:46.480 that was sold out the first day. So these people 0:33:46.760 --> 0:33:49.880 who we would look at without a lot of resources, 0:33:51.200 --> 0:33:55.560 passing the abundance of what they actually have, well, I 0:33:55.680 --> 0:33:59.360 saw a lot of families. I could tell that there 0:33:59.400 --> 0:34:03.560 were leaders within the group because they were helping organize 0:34:04.000 --> 0:34:09.960 as much as the volunteers were. And unfortunately there was 0:34:10.200 --> 0:34:15.000 language barriers, you know, and so those that could speak 0:34:15.800 --> 0:34:21.440 multiple languages, whether they were border crossers or volunteers, were 0:34:22.280 --> 0:34:26.600 together in it. And that was part of that organization 0:34:27.680 --> 0:34:33.680 that I'm talking about, you know. And it was actually 0:34:33.760 --> 0:34:38.719 a very calm scene when we first came up. I 0:34:38.880 --> 0:34:43.520 saw my son's hat that I donated and a little 0:34:43.600 --> 0:34:48.480 boy hugging this jaguar stuffed animal, and the jaguar was 0:34:48.680 --> 0:34:52.440 really significant to my friend and I when we found it. 0:34:52.960 --> 0:34:58.759 So it was really touching just to like see the 0:34:58.880 --> 0:35:04.239 things that we were bringing being literally being distributed like 0:35:04.440 --> 0:35:08.680 sometimes when you think you're helping. I worked for a 0:35:08.840 --> 0:35:11.720 door to door campaign when I was in my teens 0:35:12.560 --> 0:35:16.239 and I got fifty percent of what I raised, and 0:35:16.320 --> 0:35:18.520 it was like disheartening, and you're like, oh, this is 0:35:18.640 --> 0:35:23.759 how it works. And in this case, money that I 0:35:24.160 --> 0:35:29.680 directly spent on resources that were needed was going directly 0:35:29.840 --> 0:35:30.840 to the people. 0:35:31.800 --> 0:35:34.960 In all likelihood, people crossed in a specific spot because 0:35:35.000 --> 0:35:37.400 someone dropped them there telling them it would be easy. 0:35:38.000 --> 0:35:41.520 In fact, it was anything but people die crossing around here. 0:35:42.480 --> 0:35:44.960 In the dirt around Cucumber, I found discarded fly to 0:35:44.960 --> 0:35:49.319 itineries and documents from Turkey, Nicaragua, Columbia, Mexico. There were 0:35:49.320 --> 0:35:53.440 also little children's toys, shoes, and hundreds of empty water bottles, 0:35:53.480 --> 0:35:56.120 which we diligently picked up. But none of the more 0:35:56.160 --> 0:35:58.320 than one thousand people who the Board Patrol held in 0:35:58.400 --> 0:36:01.720 this camp have planned for what got, which was several 0:36:01.840 --> 0:36:05.080 days being detained in the desert by CBP with inefficient water, 0:36:05.480 --> 0:36:08.600 no shelter, and very little food and no information on 0:36:08.640 --> 0:36:10.400 what was happening or how long they could expect to 0:36:10.440 --> 0:36:14.040 be there. Sadly didn't get there in time to speak 0:36:14.080 --> 0:36:16.400 to any of them. I was in Arizona looking for 0:36:16.480 --> 0:36:19.080 border vigilantes and wondering what CBP had been doing to 0:36:19.160 --> 0:36:21.600 migrants there where they have the full support of local 0:36:21.719 --> 0:36:24.560 law enforcement and a large percentage of the aging population. 0:36:26.000 --> 0:36:28.759 To my surprise, I didn't find much. It seems like 0:36:28.880 --> 0:36:31.040 most people had crossed in the San Diego County area. 0:36:31.480 --> 0:36:35.120 Many had flown or walked to Tijuana. Of course, migrants, 0:36:35.239 --> 0:36:37.359 just like us, have accessed the news and to weather 0:36:37.440 --> 0:36:40.680 forecast and maps. Crossing in Arizona, a place known for 0:36:40.760 --> 0:36:43.520 cruelty and very hot weather doesn't make any sense when 0:36:43.560 --> 0:36:46.920 California offers a better political and weather climate, and with 0:36:47.040 --> 0:36:49.400 the mixed messages coming down about immigration law, these folks 0:36:49.800 --> 0:36:52.360 may not have been intending to evade border patrol, but 0:36:52.480 --> 0:36:54.280 to come to the USA and to take their legal 0:36:54.360 --> 0:36:58.320 right to claim asylum. I spoke to Sam, a volunteer 0:36:58.360 --> 0:37:02.040 with extensive on the ground experience humanitarian crises, about what 0:37:02.160 --> 0:37:03.040 he'd seen at the camp. 0:37:03.640 --> 0:37:05.080 Oh my name is Sam Schultz. 0:37:05.719 --> 0:37:07.440 He said, many of the people who found themselves in 0:37:07.520 --> 0:37:10.560 a cumber had likely been told by people smokelers, but 0:37:10.680 --> 0:37:13.400 this was an easy way into the US. In the end, 0:37:13.560 --> 0:37:15.120 it was anything but they I. 0:37:15.160 --> 0:37:17.480 Mean, I know they didn't expect that they were just 0:37:17.640 --> 0:37:20.520 waltz across the border. At a normal check station, but 0:37:21.200 --> 0:37:22.759 they thought it was going to be they were sold 0:37:22.800 --> 0:37:23.439 in pill of goods. 0:37:23.520 --> 0:37:24.920 Let's put it back walking. 0:37:25.200 --> 0:37:29.080 Yes, that's it, And so I mean, I feel sorry 0:37:29.160 --> 0:37:31.120 for anybody who's taken advantage of all like that. But 0:37:31.360 --> 0:37:33.480 most of the people that I met again who are 0:37:33.560 --> 0:37:37.640 not Colombians, were of the wealthier side of the on 0:37:37.840 --> 0:37:41.759 their countries. I met some of Becky's, some Kazakis, a 0:37:41.840 --> 0:37:45.239 bunch of people from India, a couple of Pakistani guys. Mind, 0:37:45.480 --> 0:37:47.319 I mean, they didn't get here cheap. 0:37:47.640 --> 0:37:50.160 The wall behind the people in Hookumba cost twenty five 0:37:50.280 --> 0:37:51.160 million dollars a mile. 0:37:51.239 --> 0:37:51.800 On average. 0:37:52.360 --> 0:37:54.840 The border patrol agent drove around in f one to 0:37:54.880 --> 0:37:58.560 fifty raped to trucks that started eighty thousand dollars and 0:37:58.640 --> 0:38:01.200 each make a starting salary of sixty thousand dollars in 0:38:01.239 --> 0:38:05.600 their first year. Surveillance towers that dot the desert, including 0:38:05.640 --> 0:38:08.200 one which provided a tiny scrap of shade to migrants 0:38:08.280 --> 0:38:11.680 resting under its solar panels, can cost a million dollars apiece, 0:38:12.400 --> 0:38:14.799 But people in a cumber received only one small water 0:38:14.880 --> 0:38:19.640 bottle each day, despite the punishing weather. Although customs and 0:38:19.680 --> 0:38:21.759 border protection did not seem to make any plan to 0:38:21.840 --> 0:38:25.080 shelter migrants in Nucumber. They did plan to have contractors 0:38:25.600 --> 0:38:29.160 paid forty dollars an hour to take them away. I 0:38:29.200 --> 0:38:32.920 found a job advert for a Southwest Border transportation and 0:38:33.000 --> 0:38:37.920 security officer at ISS Action Security. The agency photograph transporting 0:38:38.000 --> 0:38:42.200 migrants in Kumba. The job posting, which was posted two 0:38:42.239 --> 0:38:44.759 weeks before the end of Title forty two, has a 0:38:44.840 --> 0:38:48.920 description that includes patting down all detainees and applying appropriate 0:38:48.960 --> 0:38:54.120 restraints prior to boarding vehicles. The process through its migrants 0:38:54.160 --> 0:38:58.000 become detainees normally involves processing which had not been done 0:38:58.040 --> 0:39:01.360 in Nucumber, but it seems a presumption of ineligibility announced 0:39:01.480 --> 0:39:03.760 on the day Title forty two ended came into effect. 0:39:03.840 --> 0:39:07.040 Here this might seem a minor distinction, but it's important. 0:39:07.680 --> 0:39:09.920 It means that people have to file a defensive asylum 0:39:09.960 --> 0:39:12.759 claim and not an affirmative one. They have to plead 0:39:12.800 --> 0:39:15.000 why they shouldn't be deported, rather than why they have 0:39:15.040 --> 0:39:18.759 a right to stay. Many of the people who have 0:39:18.840 --> 0:39:20.920 been trying to cross before the end of Title forty two, 0:39:21.080 --> 0:39:23.560 like Diana, because they felt they would face a less 0:39:23.600 --> 0:39:26.400 serious penalty. Many of them flew to t win I 0:39:26.560 --> 0:39:29.160 walked from further south in Mexico or even in Central America, 0:39:29.560 --> 0:39:31.920 I likely spent their entire savings on a trip to 0:39:32.000 --> 0:39:34.239 the gap in the wall near hercumber that ended with 0:39:34.360 --> 0:39:36.480 them being held by border patrol and the open desert 0:39:36.560 --> 0:39:38.600 with next to nothing in the way of shelter, sanitation, 0:39:39.040 --> 0:39:42.440 or sustenance. As a way to quantify this, I want 0:39:42.440 --> 0:39:47.240 to reference to UCSD US Immigration Policy Center report apparently 0:39:47.280 --> 0:39:51.080 had some pretty problematic practices, but anyway, these are results 0:39:51.080 --> 0:39:55.000 from its survey. When asked whether border patrol gave them 0:39:55.120 --> 0:39:57.720 enough water for the day, over half of the asylum 0:39:57.760 --> 0:40:01.000 seekers that we interviewed, approximately fifty three per said no. 0:40:01.680 --> 0:40:04.680 Border patrol distributed one water bottle to each migrant in 0:40:04.719 --> 0:40:08.000 the morning. When asked where the border patrol gave them 0:40:08.080 --> 0:40:10.840 enough food for the day, all of the asylum seekers 0:40:11.040 --> 0:40:15.319 said no. Border patrol did not distribute any food. When 0:40:15.400 --> 0:40:19.120 asked where the border patrol provided adequate sanitation such as toilets, 0:40:19.560 --> 0:40:22.480 all of the asylum seekers that we interviewed, meaning one 0:40:22.560 --> 0:40:26.360 hundred percent, said no. Border patrol provided one porter body 0:40:26.440 --> 0:40:30.320 for the entire encampment. When asked where the border patrol 0:40:30.560 --> 0:40:33.160 provided adepriate shelter, such as shade to protect them from 0:40:33.160 --> 0:40:36.200 the sun. All of the asylum seekers that we interviewed 0:40:36.360 --> 0:40:40.480 said no. Border patrol did not provide any shelter. When 0:40:40.560 --> 0:40:43.200 asked where the border patrol provided blankets to keep them 0:40:43.239 --> 0:40:46.000 warm at night, all but one of the asylum seekers 0:40:46.040 --> 0:40:50.200 we interviewed said no Border patrol provided blankets. Some migrants, 0:40:50.440 --> 0:40:54.879 but the overwhelming majority, did not receive blankets. Altogether, two 0:40:55.000 --> 0:40:57.799 thirds of the asylum seekers we interviewed said that they 0:40:57.880 --> 0:41:01.120 agree or strongly agree with the statement if I did 0:41:01.200 --> 0:41:04.000 not receive food and water from volunteers, I would not 0:41:04.120 --> 0:41:06.760 get enough food and water from border patrol to survive. 0:41:08.360 --> 0:41:12.279 These aren't exaggerations, as we'll see, several migrants did come 0:41:12.480 --> 0:41:14.480 very close to losing their lives in the five or 0:41:14.520 --> 0:41:16.919 more days that CBP detained people out in the open 0:41:17.040 --> 0:41:43.360 along the border. Medical incidents in this kind of attention 0:41:43.520 --> 0:41:46.880 are far from uncommon. A lawsuit filed against Customers of 0:41:46.920 --> 0:41:50.080 Border Protection by the Southern Border Communities Coalition regarding their 0:41:50.120 --> 0:41:53.759 actions this week, stated that quote many migrants have fallen 0:41:53.800 --> 0:41:56.960 into medical distress because of the conditions, and CVP has 0:41:57.000 --> 0:42:00.239 been slow to provide access to medical attention, often only 0:42:00.320 --> 0:42:03.920 responding at the insistence of advocates. As a result, one 0:42:03.960 --> 0:42:07.880 woman suffered life threatening allergies, a child suffered an epileptic seizure, 0:42:08.239 --> 0:42:10.759 and a man suffered an unattended infection on his leg. 0:42:11.960 --> 0:42:14.359 Medical attention was slow to arrive, and when it did arrive, 0:42:14.520 --> 0:42:17.960 it was often insufficient. Like Kay, but describe the conditions 0:42:18.000 --> 0:42:19.600 they saw a couple of days after the end of 0:42:19.680 --> 0:42:20.440 Title forty two. 0:42:20.920 --> 0:42:23.279 It's really the product that it's hard in the state. 0:42:24.480 --> 0:42:29.680 The conditions there were not safe or sanitary. I guess 0:42:29.719 --> 0:42:32.480 this is sort of related to medical issues, but there 0:42:32.640 --> 0:42:36.400 was it's been you know, to their credit assessment. Has 0:42:36.440 --> 0:42:40.800 been reported in the media. But there was a single 0:42:41.280 --> 0:42:44.400 wordable toilet for anywhere from I guess there's probably a 0:42:44.400 --> 0:42:48.160 twilt be four hundred people there. I heard a couple 0:42:48.160 --> 0:42:53.400 of different citations of how often this toilet is serviced 0:42:53.600 --> 0:42:57.480 and cleaned and the waste removed anywhere from once or 0:42:57.520 --> 0:42:59.879 twice a week to once every week or two weeks. 0:43:00.719 --> 0:43:04.120 Either way, that's not remotely sufficient for four hundred people 0:43:04.360 --> 0:43:06.920 using the back room multiple times a day in this 0:43:07.080 --> 0:43:12.239 single portable like just a construction site toilet it was 0:43:12.440 --> 0:43:14.640 right next to the phone charging station on their side 0:43:14.640 --> 0:43:18.879 of the wall, and my I would just feel sick 0:43:18.960 --> 0:43:20.440 if I get if I sit too close to it. 0:43:21.080 --> 0:43:22.319 It was really vile. 0:43:22.800 --> 0:43:23.840 It was not safe. 0:43:25.360 --> 0:43:27.120 It is not a way for people to be helping. 0:43:27.200 --> 0:43:30.640 And I do know, I think a lot of thankfully 0:43:30.719 --> 0:43:34.960 people stop using it, but then they don't have any 0:43:35.239 --> 0:43:37.279 you know, a privacy or that that's still not you know, 0:43:37.360 --> 0:43:40.279 a sanitary in a situation to be in since I mean, 0:43:40.320 --> 0:43:44.520 they don't have a future space anywhere. So that's definitely 0:43:44.520 --> 0:43:46.640 one of the ways that people are doing the food 0:43:46.640 --> 0:43:47.200 in terms of their. 0:43:47.160 --> 0:43:47.800 Health and safety. 0:43:48.200 --> 0:43:50.880 Here's Samara, who will hear more from tomorrow, describe being 0:43:50.920 --> 0:43:51.960 ano of a medical incident. 0:43:52.200 --> 0:43:53.920 And the call that I got this morning was of 0:43:54.000 --> 0:43:58.040 a woman who was rushed out because she had an 0:43:58.080 --> 0:44:01.960 emergency situation, taken to the hospital. The hospital didn't know 0:44:02.000 --> 0:44:04.160 what to do with her, so they sat her right 0:44:04.200 --> 0:44:06.200 back here in the middle of the night, in the 0:44:06.320 --> 0:44:08.759 middle of the night, and they brought her here. She 0:44:08.920 --> 0:44:11.719 doesn't have any documents. CBP didn't get a chance to 0:44:11.840 --> 0:44:14.840 process her yet, so she doesn't even have any proof 0:44:14.960 --> 0:44:17.680 that she actually came to the port of entry and 0:44:17.760 --> 0:44:20.839 tried to seek asylum. And she was just sleeping right here. 0:44:21.080 --> 0:44:24.360 And she has burns all over her body, has an infection. 0:44:24.560 --> 0:44:25.080 I read the. 0:44:26.880 --> 0:44:30.520 Seven medications that they gave her, and she speaks daddy. 0:44:30.600 --> 0:44:33.520 She's from avon Astan. Her husband got taken by the 0:44:33.600 --> 0:44:36.919 Taliban and she escaped, running for her life. And she's 0:44:37.040 --> 0:44:40.560 here and she has sunburns all over her face and 0:44:40.680 --> 0:44:43.280 she has nowhere to go. She thought she was still detained. 0:44:43.560 --> 0:44:45.759 She actually thought she was still detained. She was just 0:44:45.840 --> 0:44:47.960 trying to get back to the other side of the border. 0:44:48.280 --> 0:44:51.760 She thought she was still in Mexico. No one explained 0:44:51.760 --> 0:44:53.759 anything to her. They brought her back here in the 0:44:53.880 --> 0:44:57.960 middle of the night, and she was freezing and so wet. 0:44:58.120 --> 0:44:59.960 That's why I came out here. I talked to her. 0:45:00.080 --> 0:45:01.920 Her The other folks who were out here didn't know 0:45:02.000 --> 0:45:05.279 why she was just sleeping here, and I came out 0:45:05.600 --> 0:45:07.920 and tried and translate it. And now we have her 0:45:08.040 --> 0:45:08.680 at a hotel. 0:45:09.400 --> 0:45:09.680 Okay. 0:45:09.719 --> 0:45:12.120 The witness one of the emergencies described in the Southern 0:45:12.160 --> 0:45:15.399 Border Communities Coalition lawsuit. When they visited the camp. He's 0:45:15.680 --> 0:45:16.799 describing it in. 0:45:16.880 --> 0:45:19.560 Terms of you know, medical care as well, like I said. 0:45:19.560 --> 0:45:22.800 One of the parts of the aid operation I was 0:45:22.800 --> 0:45:25.800 my name was most people. I think there's a probination 0:45:26.000 --> 0:45:27.359 both of people who were. 0:45:28.200 --> 0:45:31.160 You know, and then street medicine as well as people. 0:45:31.040 --> 0:45:33.400 Who were like nurses volunteering their prime and like that 0:45:34.880 --> 0:45:37.560 and mostly taking care of just kind of routine first 0:45:37.600 --> 0:45:42.080 aid for the most part. There was a situation where 0:45:42.160 --> 0:45:48.719 someone was having an a perject reaction, a fairly severe one, 0:45:49.719 --> 0:45:53.320 and I happened to carry and epythens, so I simply 0:45:53.400 --> 0:45:57.960 give that to one of one of the street medics 0:45:58.440 --> 0:46:03.760 and then they eventually did all this person the reaction 0:46:03.920 --> 0:46:06.680 bought severe enough about it was an an hour or 0:46:06.719 --> 0:46:10.720 so later at that nine, one was called, I assumed 0:46:10.719 --> 0:46:15.120 by one of the volunteers, and uh AM vialance and 0:46:15.160 --> 0:46:17.320 border patrol came to open the gate and bring this 0:46:17.400 --> 0:46:20.600 person in the country. They did eventually treat her, but 0:46:20.680 --> 0:46:22.840 it was a very it was a long time. I 0:46:22.920 --> 0:46:27.239 connuanced it of sometimes which is someone as someone who 0:46:27.640 --> 0:46:31.480 has anaphylexis reactions food and it's had that happened many 0:46:31.520 --> 0:46:33.960 times in their life. That is an absolutely terrifying I 0:46:34.040 --> 0:46:37.440 cannot imagine how terrifying it would be to be experiencing 0:46:39.680 --> 0:46:43.200 a life writing situation when you work trapped and and 0:46:43.480 --> 0:46:46.440 and you know there's no authority that really cares that 0:46:46.560 --> 0:46:48.920 you're there. And I don't know if she would have 0:46:48.960 --> 0:46:49.920 been able to get help. 0:46:49.800 --> 0:46:52.200 If there have been volunteers. I I said the ball, 0:46:53.160 --> 0:46:53.840 especially once. 0:46:53.719 --> 0:46:59.000 With medical training, where volunteers weren't. Things were worse in Texas, 0:46:59.440 --> 0:47:02.440 and I just Ae Reyes Alvarez, an eight year old 0:47:02.480 --> 0:47:08.960 girl born in Panama to Honduran parents, died in CBP custody. Rossellerees, 0:47:09.440 --> 0:47:13.840 the girl's father, told NBC News that they gave authorities 0:47:13.920 --> 0:47:17.320 documents about the girl's medical conditions congenital heart disease and 0:47:17.360 --> 0:47:22.040 sickle cellonemia while they were in immigration custody. They said 0:47:22.080 --> 0:47:24.799 that a doctor there examined Danideth and that she had 0:47:24.840 --> 0:47:30.200 contracted the flu Alvarez. Her mother said she spoke to 0:47:30.239 --> 0:47:33.840 both detentional authorities and medical personnel at the station multiple 0:47:33.920 --> 0:47:36.400 times to explain her daughter was complaining of pain and 0:47:36.480 --> 0:47:40.279 shortness of breath and that she was getting worse. All 0:47:40.360 --> 0:47:44.120 quite the next part directly from the NBC story. They 0:47:44.200 --> 0:47:47.480 never listened to me, she said. Rayes said his daughter 0:47:47.920 --> 0:47:49.959 was in a lot of pain. A lot of pain. 0:47:51.160 --> 0:47:54.800 I begged them to call an ambulance, Alvarez said, adding 0:47:54.840 --> 0:47:57.719 their authorities told her the girl's condition wasn't serious enough 0:47:57.800 --> 0:48:01.680 to warrant calling an ambulance. Avarez said her daughter begged 0:48:01.719 --> 0:48:05.120 authorities as well, telling them she could not breathe from 0:48:05.160 --> 0:48:09.239 her nose or mouth. Alvarez says that eventually her daughter 0:48:09.360 --> 0:48:15.440 lost consciousness and died in my arms. She said, authorities 0:48:15.480 --> 0:48:17.239 took the girl from her arms and put her on 0:48:17.320 --> 0:48:21.759 the floor trying to revive her. My daughter died there 0:48:22.160 --> 0:48:26.640 in the station, she said. Avare said she feels authorities 0:48:26.719 --> 0:48:30.000 did not do enough to help her little girl. My 0:48:30.160 --> 0:48:32.960 daughter is a human being. They had to take care 0:48:33.040 --> 0:48:36.279 of her, she said. Despite what you might have heard 0:48:36.320 --> 0:48:39.440 on the network news, the asylum process is anything but easy. 0:48:40.080 --> 0:48:43.320 I've had several visas, a Green card, and a US passport, 0:48:43.360 --> 0:48:45.279 and I can comply tell you the only easy way 0:48:45.280 --> 0:48:47.919 I've ever seen to come here is to be very rich. 0:48:48.920 --> 0:48:52.040 But even among the convoluted bureaucratic mess at his US immigration, 0:48:52.640 --> 0:48:56.040 the asylum process stands out as both rigorous and complicated. 0:48:57.040 --> 0:48:59.960 Asylum is a process by which people unable are unwilling 0:49:00.120 --> 0:49:02.719 to return to their country because of persecution or a 0:49:02.840 --> 0:49:09.040 well founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, politics, 0:49:09.440 --> 0:49:12.640 or membership of a particular social group, may remain in 0:49:12.719 --> 0:49:16.680 a safe country. From the eleventh of May onwards, migrants 0:49:16.680 --> 0:49:19.880 at the border were assumed ineligible for asylum. If they 0:49:19.960 --> 0:49:23.480 cross between points of entry, they must enter the defensive 0:49:23.480 --> 0:49:27.040 asylum process to prevent themselves from being deported. What this 0:49:27.239 --> 0:49:29.400 means for people we heard from earlier is that they 0:49:29.440 --> 0:49:31.799 are now taken, for whatever God forsake and holding area. 0:49:31.840 --> 0:49:35.279 They're in a bust to a processing facility where they're 0:49:35.320 --> 0:49:37.640 interviewed by an asylum officer to determine if they have 0:49:37.680 --> 0:49:40.760 a credible fear of persecution. They may need to provide 0:49:40.760 --> 0:49:43.280 a translator if there is an interviewing agent who speaks 0:49:43.280 --> 0:49:46.279 their language, and if they're determined to have a credible fear, 0:49:46.640 --> 0:49:48.360 they're told to check in with the US Customs and 0:49:48.440 --> 0:49:52.080 Immigration Office and sometimes given a notice which may or 0:49:52.120 --> 0:49:55.320 may not be dated to appear in court. My colleague 0:49:55.360 --> 0:49:57.160 Joe tried to get into one of these hotels to 0:49:57.239 --> 0:49:58.920 talk to one of the people we'd spoken to at 0:49:58.960 --> 0:50:01.160 the border, but he was pretty quickly shut down. 0:50:01.880 --> 0:50:05.880 Yeah, how you doing either. I'm a freelance journalist. 0:50:06.080 --> 0:50:09.680 I'm here reporting for my boss, James Stout, He's at iHeartMedia. 0:50:10.000 --> 0:50:12.240 I'm wondering if you're letting media in here to see. 0:50:12.040 --> 0:50:12.920 The guys, sadly not. 0:50:13.120 --> 0:50:16.080 Okay. Also the act you guys, and that's the strict 0:50:16.239 --> 0:50:18.759 union of this area here. Okay, you're going to set up, 0:50:18.760 --> 0:50:20.319 it has to be on the side of the line 0:50:20.320 --> 0:50:22.600 because I have a lot of traffic. Yeah, and it's 0:50:22.680 --> 0:50:25.120 very dangerous for you. Okay, So like beyond here, a 0:50:25.200 --> 0:50:28.200 past the college. Yeah, from here over Okay, cool, I'll 0:50:28.200 --> 0:50:29.120 say how you're working. Thank you. 0:50:30.560 --> 0:50:32.399 One of the folks we'd met was able to stay 0:50:32.400 --> 0:50:34.600 in touch for our WhatsApp and share the hotel rules 0:50:34.640 --> 0:50:38.480 with us. They were pretty strict. Migrants are confined to 0:50:38.520 --> 0:50:40.759 their rooms, they can't have visitors, and they can't even 0:50:40.840 --> 0:50:44.840 order food delivery from the hotel where they're hosted by 0:50:44.880 --> 0:50:47.840 Catholic charities. Migrants need to get to their sponsor in 0:50:47.840 --> 0:50:48.719 the United States. 0:50:48.520 --> 0:50:49.080 If they have one. 0:50:49.680 --> 0:50:51.040 If they don't have one, they can be sent just 0:50:51.040 --> 0:50:54.000 about anywhere. I've heard of East African folks having ended 0:50:54.040 --> 0:50:57.480 up in Alaska, for example. Once they get to where 0:50:57.520 --> 0:51:00.080 they're going to be. They check him with US customers 0:51:00.080 --> 0:51:03.120 and Immigration services in their new location, and they're given 0:51:03.120 --> 0:51:06.160 a special phone which also tracks their movements. They may 0:51:06.200 --> 0:51:10.000 have a DNA sample take and in addition to fingerprints. Later, 0:51:10.200 --> 0:51:12.879 sometimes years later, they attend a court hearing or two 0:51:13.160 --> 0:51:16.720 to determine their eligibility to stay. I've heard of lawyers 0:51:16.800 --> 0:51:19.719 charging from five thousand dollars to twelve thousand dollars for 0:51:19.800 --> 0:51:23.480 these hearings, and nonprofit legalists and services are totally overwhelmed. 0:51:23.520 --> 0:51:27.200 At the moment, the systems massively backed up, and court 0:51:27.280 --> 0:51:29.160 dates are being given as far out as twenty twenty 0:51:29.200 --> 0:51:32.320 seven already. They may or may not be able to 0:51:32.400 --> 0:51:34.920 work during that period, and uther the table work is 0:51:34.960 --> 0:51:37.880 getting harder and harder to find. Even if they do 0:51:38.040 --> 0:51:40.600 find work on less than minimum wage, it can be 0:51:40.719 --> 0:51:42.680 very hard to say about five thousand dollars for a 0:51:42.760 --> 0:51:45.680 lawyer A Migrants who can't find nonprofit help are at 0:51:45.680 --> 0:51:49.640 a significant disadvantage when it comes to their asylum hearings. Again, 0:51:49.840 --> 0:51:54.360 private security contractors, this time from Allied, were transporting migrants 0:51:54.400 --> 0:51:57.920 to the hotel and guarding it. Like CBP, the private 0:51:57.960 --> 0:52:01.000 contractors you guard transport and ink pass rate migrants or 0:52:01.040 --> 0:52:03.640 rely on the broken in immigration system to make money. 0:52:04.360 --> 0:52:08.360 Unlike CBP, the agents themselves aren't well paid. Nineteen dollars 0:52:08.360 --> 0:52:10.799 an hours are going rate for Allied, not much higher 0:52:10.840 --> 0:52:13.880 than San Diego's sixteen dollars and thirty cents minimum wage. 0:52:14.760 --> 0:52:17.680 But the company itself is huge. It's the third last 0:52:17.719 --> 0:52:20.800 yearest private employer in North America after Walmart and Amazon. 0:52:21.760 --> 0:52:25.280 Allied guards are at prisons, airports, and shopping malls across America, 0:52:25.760 --> 0:52:28.960 and it's alleged that some are underpaid, insufficiently trained, and 0:52:29.040 --> 0:52:34.120 improperly vetted. The company grosses over twenty billion dollars, and 0:52:34.480 --> 0:52:38.440 it's affiliates are frequent political donors. All across this story 0:52:38.480 --> 0:52:44.080 you'll see this Allied security iss action, security people, smugglers, 0:52:44.200 --> 0:52:47.480 customs and border protection, contractors who build the war pieces 0:52:47.520 --> 0:52:50.880 and contractors who install the wall pieces, General Atomics who 0:52:50.960 --> 0:52:54.160 sell CBP drones, and the Israelian American companies who sell 0:52:54.239 --> 0:52:58.279 the surveillance technology to the government. All these people make money, 0:52:59.040 --> 0:53:00.640 but the poorest people in the world are the only 0:53:00.719 --> 0:53:03.840 ones losing money, and sometimes they're lives when they cross 0:53:03.880 --> 0:53:07.400 our southern border tomorrow, we'll hear from some of the 0:53:07.480 --> 0:53:10.320 people who made no money and looked after the migrants, 0:53:10.480 --> 0:53:13.000 and we'll continue to support them through the asylum process. 0:53:17.600 --> 0:53:19.920 It Could Happen Here as a production of cool Zone Media. 0:53:20.160 --> 0:53:22.840 For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 0:53:22.880 --> 0:53:25.080 cool zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the 0:53:25.120 --> 0:53:28.520 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 0:53:29.120 --> 0:53:31.240 You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated 0:53:31.320 --> 0:53:34.320 monthly at coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. 0:53:34.560 --> 0:53:35.320 Thanks for listening.