WEBVTT - The Darién Gap: Where Dreams Die 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:03.120 Media. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:05.600 Hey everybody, Robert Evans here and I wanted to let 0:00:05.600 --> 0:00:09.280 you know this is a compilation episode. So every episode 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:12.520 of the week that just happened is here in one 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:16.360 convenient and with somewhat less ads package for you to 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:18.880 listen to in a long stretch if you want. If 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:20.800 you've been listening to the episodes every day this week, 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:22.560 there's going to be nothing new here for you, but 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:24.320 you can make your own decisions. 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:27.320 It's me James, and before we listen to this episode today, 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:28.920 I just did want to make you aware that I 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:33.440 conducted these interviews in French and Spanish, mostly Spanish, and 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:36.560 then transcribed and translated them. So what you're hearing is 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:39.880 a translated interview that's been edited for brevity and content. 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:44.320 I hope you enjoyed the episode. 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:54.120 The most difficult part of the Jinney is wing. We 0:00:54.200 --> 0:01:00.360 are tricking and your meet dead bodies on It makes 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:07.160 you rep it makes you cry, But there's only one 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:11.720 for coss in the forest ahead. You'll have to keep going. 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:21.480 You'll see modest children. They're crying just to have a 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:29.160 sip of water. It is not easy. 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:34.320 A few weeks ago I found myself sitting beside the 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:38.000 Tuquesa River on a warm afternoon in late September, making 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.240 silly faces at a two minths old baby as we 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:44.440 both marveled at the cloud yellow butterflies. Anywhere else on 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:47.120 earth it could be in a dyllic summer day, but 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:49.520 in these final steps of the journey across the daddy 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:51.920 and gap, it's hard to open up your mind to 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:56.120 experience joy. I'd only been in the tiny Emberra village 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.000 of a couple of days, and I had already seen 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:01.800 the lifeless body of a girl as the migrants carried 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:05.080 her into town. The river I was sleeping around him 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:07.160 with this group of migrants resting here in the shade 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:09.920 had swept sleeping children to their deaths earlier this year, 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:12.200 and up to stream of me there were at least 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:16.519 three people's remains here. It was shin deep, but crossing 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.200 upstream where it's above head height and raides down out 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:22.480 of the mountains in steep ravines. Was the migrants I 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:25.519 walked back to town with told me the stuff of nightmares. 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:28.359 The voice you just heard was a migrant from Cameroon 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:31.760 who called himself James. That's not his real name, and 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:34.639 astute listeners would have noticed that it is my real name, 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:37.799 but for the protection of James and his family, it's 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:41.239 a name we'll be using when I met James. We're 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:44.160 in a migrant reception center called Las Blancas, to the 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:47.600 north of the Daien Gap. To get there, one has 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.919 to take a dugout canoe called a piragua from Bajo Jiquito. 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.960 The voyage takes five hours, and for that five hours, 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:57.920 migrants are packed fifteen to a boat wearing bright orange 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:01.400 life jackets. Here the boat with Embra Praguero, who sits 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:03.760 at the back driving the boat with a tooth stroke motor, 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:06.520 and a guide who sits on the front, using a 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:09.200 pole when necessary to push the boat through shallow sections. 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:12.280 The Umbraa people are indigenous to the area that's commonly 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:14.760 known as a Darian Gap, or at least to this 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:17.960 part of it, and a tiny Embrea village of Bajo Juquito. 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:20.960 It's a first settlement migrants encounter is they emerge from 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:23.720 the perilous crossing of the jungle that divides Central America 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:27.760 from South America and thousands of people from a better future. 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:31.560 There's a morale patch that the Panamanian Border Patrol and 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:34.800 military wear on their uniforms. The reflects a slogan in 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:42.160 a government messaging campaign, da Jungla. It says. The campaign 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:44.320 was launched in August, and it translates to the Darien 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:46.880 isn't a route or maybe a road to a better translation, 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:52.760 it's a jungle. Obviously it's actually both. But this is 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:54.720 like no route. Most of us will be familiar with. 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:57.960 The dark and foreboding jungle I saw in Bahajiguito is 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:01.200 one of the most impenetrable on Earth, and the crossing 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:03.960 of it is among the most dangerous land migration routes. 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:07.240 In the nineteen seventies, the British Army said it most 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:10.320 experienced explorers to find a way through the gap. Their 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:14.000 commander called the gap a gold for saken place. Today, 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:17.479 migrants have their own names for it, Route del Morte 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:21.640 or sometimes the Green Hell. Here's a group from Cameroon 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:24.280 explaining why they didn't see a future there and they 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:26.279 decided to take this dangerous route. 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:29.800 We are coming from Cameroon and my name is Powers. 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:32.200 There's a lot of crisis in our country. There's a 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:34.760 civil war going on in Cameroon right now because of 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.479 our president. President Pombia has been in power over forty 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:41.560 two years, so I was the anglophone. We started revolting 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:44.240 for him to step down because it doesn't develop the 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:50.599 Southern American sorry, the English section of Cameroon. Yeah, the 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:53.800 anglophone section a revolt insid he was set in the military, 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.200 and what's killing the citizens of our country. There's a 0:04:57.200 --> 0:04:59.159 lot of hardship, a lot of that. I for one, 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:01.640 I've lost every body. I lost one of my family, 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:04.159 my mom, my dad, my two brothers, and I'm the 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:05.200 only one left. 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:06.400 So things a moan. 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:09.359 There's no job. I've completed school, but there's nothing for 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:10.479 me to do, so that's right. 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:12.120 We decided to migrate. 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:15.919 To get to Baho Jiquito from Columbia, as James and 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:19.120 other migrants did. There's no road you can take. You 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:22.320 can't even take a boat or a train. Instead, you 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:25.960 have to walk the Darrying Gap, an area of rainforested 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:28.479 mountains that it is one of the most dangerous migration 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:32.960 routes in the world, for anywhere between two and fifteen days. 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.200 Migrants trek through waste timeh mud, and rivers deeper than 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:40.960 they are tall. They must climb giant boulders, cross perilous ravines, 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:45.159 and traverse sheer cliff faces. All of this with barely 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:48.320 any water than what they can carry, little to no food, 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:53.760 inadequate clothing, a terrible footwear, and no medical attention. They 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:56.600 must walk past dead bodies and past people who might 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:00.279 soon become dead bodies, as they beg for help, carry 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:04.320 their children, their dreams, and sometimes each other. Across mountains 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:08.000 and rivers and about Jiqito. They take what, for many 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:10.120 of them will be the final steps of this part 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.520 of their journey. It's a journey that few of us 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.240 can imagine, and they were lucky to be able to avoid. 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:19.919 My own migration to the US sixteen years ago was 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.640 much simpler and safer. But for migrants like James, the 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:26.799 journey's worth it because what they're leaving behind is worse. 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:31.919 His James describing the situation in the stative Cameroon. The 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:37.240 situation in Cameroon is, how can I put it, very 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:44.159 very very very difficult, especially in the anglophone part of 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:50.480 the country. Yeah, because for about five to six years 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:56.120 there's a wall, the ongoing war in the anglophone crisis 0:06:57.120 --> 0:06:57.960 we are sort have been. 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:05.800 There has been fighting the shooting Killing's I myself speaking 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:14.440 to you. Yeah, I've been targeted. My cousin was shot 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:21.560 and with his husband, he was shot together. Both of 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:27.600 them were Nessis and they were shot by the army 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:32.120 that were there to protect the people. So the situation 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:38.360 back at home, it's very very tense. Yeah, it's very 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:44.000 very tense. When you see most of Camaronians traveling taking 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:48.960 the Ric's part from Columbia Brazy right up to where 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:52.480 I am. It is not because they like it. It's 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.800 because of the situation back at home and most of it, 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:59.360 and most of the time it is the anglophone population 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.560 that is of most of them. They choose this part 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:05.800 because they'll not have a direct result to American. 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:06.880 Yeah, it's very hard to get one right. 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:09.520 Yes, it's very very difficult, so they have to use 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:10.320 the hard. 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.400 Way, which is the only way. The truth is that 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:16.880 dead bodies, terrible stories and families celebrating the end of 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:19.840 their walk is nothing out of the ordinary. And Bahajiqito, 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:23.160 the Enbarra town with the population of just five hundred 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:25.440 and ninety, is a place I've been trying to come 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:27.960 to for almost as long as I've been writing about migration. 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:30.440 There are a few stories in my time as a 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:32.880 journalist that I've been pitching for close to a decade. 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:35.480 Most of the time, I give up if there are 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:38.320 no bites after a few months, and that's why you 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:40.079 won't see me write about the people who try to 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:43.440 hire mercenaries to intimidate voters in twenty twenty, or the 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:45.640 Burmese rebels who if I did their revolution with co 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:48.680 op produced tea or a surfing team in the Gaza strip, 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:51.400 And on reflection, you probably won't hear about that last 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:55.120 one anywhere now. The media cycle has a way of 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:58.080 coming around to these stories eventually, sure, but I not 0:08:58.160 --> 0:08:59.480 really want to go back to what it is who 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:01.640 didn't give a sh about people before and only care 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:04.960 about their stories now because they get more traffic. But 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:07.600 there's one story I've never given up on. That's the 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:10.079 story of the daddy En Gap and the people who 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:12.120 risk their lives crossing it for a shot at the 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:15.640 American dream. And at this point I do want to agnolige. 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:17.680 I'm incredibly grateful to the people I work with for 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:19.600 trusting me when I ask them to pay for me 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:22.360 to disappear in a dugout canoe into the jungle and 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.800 come back two weeks later with a story. The Daddy 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:28.000 and looms in the stories of migrants I meet in 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:30.640 the US border as a sort of heart of darkness 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.360 on what is a very difficult and dangerous journey. It's 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:36.640 worse than the freight trains they hop on in Mexico, 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:40.400 worse than the crowded buses, worse even than the months 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:44.120 of waiting for an asylum appointment. I've only believe that 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:48.760 you can't really understand and write about things you haven't seen, smelt, 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:51.720 and heard. So for years I've been asking, yet it 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:53.360 is to send me to the tiny, en but our 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.360 community on the banks of the river, so that I 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:58.960 could share the final steps of this horrific journey with 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:01.079 the people who see little option but to risk their 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:04.840 lives for a better future for their children. Because the 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:08.839 US refuses to create more legal pathways, people instead take 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:11.199 the sudden pathway straight up and down the mountains of 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:14.800 the Darian rainforest. The journey will take them past the 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:17.880 corpse of the people who never left. The terrain is 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:20.720 too fierce for anyone to carry their remains out, so 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:23.160 they must simply run there. As a reminder to migrants, 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:26.000 so they must keep going. It's a sort of deterrent 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:28.440 through death that has been the unofficial and official US 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:32.120 border policy for decades to turn or not. Once you're 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:34.640 in the Darien, there's no turning back, and the lack 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:37.800 of escape routes has made the gap popular among criminals, 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:41.520 who commit untold numbers of sexual assaults, murders, and armed 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:45.520 robberies every year in the jungle. Despite this, more than 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:48.160 half a million migrants made the perilous journey last year 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:50.600 and if many, if not more, will do so this year. 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:54.439 To understand the Dadian you have to first understand US 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:57.160 immigration policy, which is something I talk about a lot 0:10:57.160 --> 0:10:59.839 on this podcast. I want to include here a clip 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:02.599 amos Am I going from North Africa, who met my 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.160 friends and helped them build shelters in the Cumba last year, 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:08.120 explaining his journey to the United States. 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:12.680 So another route right now, which is a difficult route, 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:16.840 is through Brazil because Brazil has a I don't know 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:21.200 if you guys know, and I think they do that 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:25.400 for Americans too. Yeah, So Brazil has sort of I 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:27.520 don't know the word, but the equivalent to them is 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:31.480 if you impose a visa on Brazil. Brazilians were imposed 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:34.960 his own news. They do that to Americans too, so 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:38.360 so you know where I'm from. They don't have a 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:42.360 visa to as far as for Brazilians, so we don't. 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:45.280 So a lot of Africans can go to Brazil and 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:47.880 from Brazil take the route. 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:52.120 All the way was Jims couldn't fly here directly, that 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:53.800 he was able to get a little bit closer to 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.640 the US by flying to Columbia. I'll let him explain 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:57.560 how he pulled that off. 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:03.280 For me to have a pass to Colombia, it was 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:08.760 not easy, so we had we had to. There was 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:12.280 a female female on that twenty World Cup that was 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:17.720 that was taking place in Colombia, so we had to 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:19.840 go to Columbia as football fans. 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:22.040 That's why they had. 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:26.040 They had to give us our bizare yes all right? 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:30.200 From Colombia, we'll find our way out of the airport to. 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:36.800 Where we are today, both from the Continental America, we'll 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:40.320 have to travel to Brazil, just like amos. Here's one 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:42.800 a cap. I'll let the speakers introduce themselves. 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:45.960 My name is tom May, I'm from Ida. 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:49.679 My name is Mohade from Iran. 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:52.360 My name is Ali and I'm from ira. 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:56.120 They told me why they left around but I'm sure Manydicul, 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:58.160 we that went out of yourself, so we weren't included here. 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:01.400 How did you come from Iran? Here you got for 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:01.920 a Turkey. 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:09.280 It was so difficult, and we came from Iran Tehran 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:14.600 to Dubai, after that South Aul of Brazil and after 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:21.079 that Believe Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Ecokley and jungle Panama 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:25.679 here Panama, And it was so difficult for us because 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:31.840 we're young. We just leave our family, my sister, my 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:35.600 mother and father. It was so emotional and it was 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:38.679 so hard for us. But because of the freedom, because 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:41.600 we can't speak in our country. You know, if you 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:45.600 speak in your in the street something like it, they 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:49.080 will arrest you to and yeah, in the Jaid when 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:53.120 you are not Muslim, when you will be like something 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:56.960 like Christian or something else, they will arrest you. Yes, 0:13:57.160 --> 0:14:00.760 it was It was so so, so so the because 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:06.000 living in Iran. But it's a wonderful country, but not government. 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:09.080 When I talk to migrants, I always want to offer 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:11.160 them the chance to share their stories in ways that 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:14.600 they want to share them. And I asked them what 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:16.840 they would want to say if they could talk directly 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:19.640 to Americans. It's a question I ask a lot, because 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:21.920 in all the coverage of migration I've seen in this country, 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:26.080 I rarely see migrants' voices. I'm very familiar with being 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:27.880 the only journalist in a place, and I'd be lying 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:30.160 if I said I didn't prefer it that way. But 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:33.040 I do always feel obliged to use the platform I 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:35.720 have here to give people a chance to share their stories, 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.200 their voices, and their struggles. So here's their message to you. 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:40.440 We love you. 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:43.960 Hope too, you love is it's hard to share. 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:48.040 Yeah, yeah, I think that's very good. 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:52.440 It will be our next home and we should be 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:55.520 proud of that. We should be vote for that, We 0:14:55.560 --> 0:15:00.000 should be be a real American for the country. 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:06.360 Yeah, they know Romans are very bad situations, have a 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:13.800 bad situation in Iran. Yeah, for all people, that is saying, 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:18.040 But for women is very, very, very hard. I think 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:25.440 American people know about Massa Amini. Yeah, and they really 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:31.120 they chill us, really, they chill women for simple things. 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:35.520 I heard hundreds of stories like this in my time 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.520 in Bajo Jiquito and the last Blancast migrant reception center, 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:41.320 that migrants travel to after they arrive in Baja Chiquito. 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:45.920 People left horrific things behind them and saw horrific things 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:49.120 on their journey, but they all remained hopeful for a 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:59.720 better future in America. These journeys, in some cases can 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.520 take a year or more. When the poorly man I 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.120 met in Bajo Gito, I'd spent thirty months just to 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:08.440 get that far, and among his group, his journey had 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:12.560 been the fastest. As long as these journeys are, that 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:16.920 darien often stems out. There's the hardest part to understand why. 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:19.240 I want to take you back to that shady spot 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:21.960 by the river just a few minutes south of Bajoji Keepo. 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:25.680 So what I'm doing right now, you can hear from 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:27.680 my footsteps, is I'm doing what it taught me not 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.720 to do. I'm walking along the migrant trail. There's lots 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:37.040 of like vines and creepers. Oh fucking hell, that's me 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:41.600 nely eating shit. There's little bits of tape marking the trail. 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:45.760 I think they just come down the river here and 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:48.120 some local guys are pushing out wheelbarrows on the trail 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:52.960 to dump trash. There's trash everywhere to fucking mess. The 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.560 little wood arrows that they've carved just outside town to 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:58.920 direct people into town, and if I heard, I can 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:02.720 see migrants making what probably hopefully their final crossing of 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:06.160 the river here. One thing I noticed was that as 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:07.720 soon as I got out of sight in near shot 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.480 of the town, the jungle seemed a lot more intimidating. 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:13.600 I'm somebod who spends a lot of time in the mountains, 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:16.480 and I grew up playing in the woods. I'm comfortable outdoors, 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:19.320 and I frequently camp and hike for days on my own. 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.240 I like it better that way, and I might see 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:24.679 more comfortable forty feet under the sea free diving, or 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:26.399 three hours from the nearest road. Then I'm in a 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:29.840 busy city sometimes, But in the jungle, after all the 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:35.040 stories I'd heard that week, I was afraid. I keept scary. 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:39.880 I don't know why. I mean, everything's new to me. I'm, 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:45.960 you know, relatively comfortable in the outdoors. But fucking there's 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:48.760 new animals, there's new plants. I don't know what's poisonous. 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:50.600 I don't know what's going to kill me. I don't 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:53.440 know who's going to try and hurt me. Got another 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.840 fucking horse, Jesus wept. I'm jumping out my skin everything. 0:17:56.880 --> 0:18:07.879 Now it's funny. I'm in a place that's beautiful, you know, 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:10.920 like these better paradise plants are just just growing here. 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:17.320 It's gorgeousness. Horses belong to people of the black community. 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:22.560 I suppose it's having snacks, you know, eating jungle horse food. 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:25.760 And here here I am at the river. It's wide. 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:29.560 Here it's sort of shallow, and it's been dammed up 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:32.040 a little bit with rubbish. It's like flocks and jets 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:36.240 some kind of stuff. And then this is where people 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:37.920 cross because of that little dam. But it's still got 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:40.200 some force to it, like you wouldn't want to fall 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:42.800 and crack your head or you know, a lot of 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:47.000 these folks can't swim even without the fear. It's hard going. 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:50.119 If you've only hiked on trails, you probably don't realize 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:53.520 how much work goes into making that surface possible. There 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:55.840 are no trail crews in the dry it and as 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:58.320 a result, every step has the potential to results in 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:01.560 a sprained ankle or another injury, which might sound trivial 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:04.600 but can be faithal in such a remote and challenging place. 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:08.760 Trail is all rocks, like maybe rocks the size of 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:12.200 a fist. By that way nows and then there are 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:15.120 sort of in this area we only have the lower canopy, 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:19.440 so we have ferns, we have reeds, bamboo plants growing 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:21.200 really tall and straight. That's what they use for the poles, 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:26.240 so the pitag was and then sort of low grassy 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:28.520 kind of plants. And then where the migrants walk is 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:30.760 just this muddy trail that every time it rains just 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:34.840 turns into like ankle to knee deep mud. And I 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:37.200 could see them making pretty slow progress along the trail 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:40.200 towards me. At the end of the day, as I 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.000 took a piaguard back to Madagante, where I would be 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:46.080 staying the night, I reflected again on this and the 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.400 incredible tenacity it took for people with little outdoor experience 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.520 and terrible equipment to path through the jungle. You know, 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:55.360 I'm a fit person. I run ultra marathons, I used 0:19:55.400 --> 0:20:00.439 to be exercised for a living. And it's fucking hard wet. 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:04.800 Everything's wet all the time. If you're wet from the rain, 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:08.280 then you're wet. If you're wet from the sweat and 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:10.440 you're wet. If you cross rivers, you get wet. You 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:14.639 just can't stay dry. And everyone's feet are just fucked 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:16.560 when they get into town, like the size of the 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:21.080 blisters I've seen. Like one lady had a cramp today 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:23.879 where like it just locked up a whole she like 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:26.480 I grabbed her or she was falling down and I 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:29.879 was able to hold her up. But people are really 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:35.040 pushing themselves physically as well as psychologically. That river crossing 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:37.760 south of Bajiqito was as far south as I was 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:39.359 going to be able to get without being forced to 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:42.199 be adjacted from Panama, and my request to take a 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.280 boat or walk further south was denied by the Panamanian 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:48.520 Ministry of Security. So the only part of the migrants 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:50.840 journey I would share with them was the last kilometer 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:54.600 or so of their walk. Even then I wasn't really 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:57.879 supposed to be leaving town at all, So several times 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:01.000 of the days I spent in Bahajikito, log over my shoulder, 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:04.200 hop down the river bank, jump across the stream, and 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:07.680 lightly jog out of town. Once on the trail, I 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:10.520 started to walk slowly and try and waive a groups 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:13.679 of outcoming migrants. I didn't want to scare them. I 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:16.480 offered to carry their bags and gant any help I could, 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:19.280 supporting them as they walked towards their first meal and 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:41.159 clean drink of water in up to a week. Just 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:43.639 getting to bahji Ghita was a journey in itself for me. 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:47.639 I took two flights, a five hour drive, which was 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:50.960 equally split between paved roads, roads that aspired to pavement, 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:54.040 and dirt roads. At the end of our road journey, 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:57.960 the Pan American Highway, the links Alaska to Argentina, seems 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:00.760 to give up on fighting the jungle and peters out. 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:04.880 Asphalt turned to worse asphalt, which turned to dirt, which 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:09.120 turned to mud, which led us to a river. A driver, however, 0:22:09.560 --> 0:22:13.239 was prepared for this. The drive here was mad, like 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:15.720 that road was fucked. We're in this tiny little car. 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:18.320 The driver took off his shoes and socks to conduct 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:21.720 the more technical section of the drive, which I thought 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:25.840 was quite amusing. And yeah, really steep, lots of holes, 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:29.480 lots of potholes, you know, just really rutted out a 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:31.680 kind of dirt road. And then we got here and 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:36.159 talked to some guys, negotiated a price, and told them 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:37.960 where we wanted to go, and they said, yeah, sure, 0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:40.600 buy some water. You know, snow water on the way 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:44.280 about three hours and so we bought some water right there, 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:49.640 and yeah, here we are on the boat now, as 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:52.240 you can hear, I recorded this on a piragua. It's 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:54.720 a kind of dugout canoe with the hole made out 0:22:54.720 --> 0:22:57.399 of a single tree and a toothtroke motor bolted on 0:22:57.440 --> 0:23:00.320 the back. It's the only way to travel here other 0:23:00.359 --> 0:23:03.080 than on your feet, and it's the only way the 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:07.119 embarra can get the produced cigaret to market. The skill 0:23:07.160 --> 0:23:10.480 of the piragueros, the people who drive the piraguas, is incredible. 0:23:11.200 --> 0:23:13.199 They navigate parts of the river so shallow that they 0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:15.679 have to pull up the two stroke motor. And I 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:17.960 noticed all the motors have propellers that are covered in 0:23:18.080 --> 0:23:21.640 chips and bashes from smacking into the rocks at the bottom. 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:23.840 In the bow of the boat, I sat on top 0:23:23.880 --> 0:23:28.080 of my giant rucksack, marveling at the birds, insects and 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:32.040 foliage of the jungle, and occasionally I jumped up to 0:23:32.040 --> 0:23:35.360 make fairly useless contributions with the boat's bamboo pole. Under 0:23:35.400 --> 0:23:38.560 the close supervision of Marcellino, our driver, and are soon 0:23:38.640 --> 0:23:41.000 to be host. Homoti just laughed at me as I 0:23:41.080 --> 0:23:43.399 leaned my whole way into the pole, which notably slipped, 0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:45.879 and I tried to avoid falling face first into the 0:23:45.920 --> 0:23:50.399 chocolate brown water. On the way to Baajiquito, we passed 0:23:50.400 --> 0:23:54.080 several small limber villages. Little children waved at us from 0:23:54.119 --> 0:23:55.880 the banks or from the shallows of the river where 0:23:55.920 --> 0:23:59.160 they washed and played. Adults slipped on. I doubtless why 0:23:59.119 --> 0:24:01.720 there's one nurse six tree. White dude was going the 0:24:01.760 --> 0:24:04.280 wrong way on the river for a migrant, but they 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:08.240 smiled and waved back anyway. After an overnight flight, a 0:24:08.280 --> 0:24:10.960 five hour drive, and three hours in a dugout canoe, 0:24:11.640 --> 0:24:14.280 we rounded a corner in the river. Ba Jigito came 0:24:14.320 --> 0:24:17.960 into view. Over the last few years, it three oriented 0:24:18.040 --> 0:24:21.360 itself from a tiny indigenous village to an unofficial reception 0:24:21.480 --> 0:24:26.000 center for migrants. On my hopelessly outdated topo map, the 0:24:26.080 --> 0:24:30.159 area has nothing but contours and green shading, no roads, 0:24:30.280 --> 0:24:33.840 no trails, no markets of human existence at all, and 0:24:33.880 --> 0:24:37.000 perhaps that's how the state sees this place. The Daddy 0:24:37.160 --> 0:24:39.879 n is as real to most Panamanians a Sesame street 0:24:40.119 --> 0:24:43.200 or Jurassic Park. But for the mb this has been 0:24:43.240 --> 0:24:46.280 their home since long before Panama and Columbia and even 0:24:46.320 --> 0:24:50.320 maps existed. A few dozen houses in the village, mostly 0:24:50.320 --> 0:24:53.640 built on stilts to avoid the seasonal floods, now offer 0:24:53.720 --> 0:24:56.840 up their rooms as hostels to the migrants. Some of 0:24:56.840 --> 0:24:59.960 them have enclosed their bottom floor using plywood or cinder blow. 0:25:00.880 --> 0:25:04.440 Others have strung hammocks from their support posts. For four 0:25:04.560 --> 0:25:07.320 or five bugs, migrants can get their first good night's 0:25:07.320 --> 0:25:09.280 sleep since they left neck or Clee in Columbia as 0:25:09.320 --> 0:25:13.000 much as a week before. Along the main street, which 0:25:13.040 --> 0:25:15.720 is really just to raise concrete footpath about a meter across, 0:25:16.359 --> 0:25:18.520 you can buy a meal any of half a dozen 0:25:18.520 --> 0:25:20.960 places for five bucks. You can get an hour of 0:25:21.040 --> 0:25:23.000 Wi Fi for a dollar, or charge your phone for 0:25:23.000 --> 0:25:26.119 at the same price. Cold drinks for a dollar as well. 0:25:26.200 --> 0:25:28.080 Are one of the many front rooms that have turned 0:25:28.080 --> 0:25:31.000 into small kiosks. And that's where the migrants I have 0:25:31.040 --> 0:25:32.760 been sitting down with at the river went when they 0:25:32.880 --> 0:25:35.560 arrived into town. I let them be for a while 0:25:35.680 --> 0:25:39.120 I went off to interview more migrants. About a thousand 0:25:39.160 --> 0:25:42.360 of them arrive in this village every day each year 0:25:42.359 --> 0:25:45.679 since a pandemic has seen record numbers arrived, and the 0:25:45.720 --> 0:25:47.959 little village on the side of a hill, surrounded by 0:25:47.960 --> 0:25:50.800 palm trees and full of smiling children in their traditional 0:25:50.840 --> 0:25:54.760 brightly colored pollumers chasing chickens and dogs, has welcomed every 0:25:54.800 --> 0:25:57.840 single one of them. About a thousand of them arrive 0:25:57.920 --> 0:26:01.000 in this town every day. Here they also take a 0:26:01.000 --> 0:26:03.800 boat from neck o'kley across the Golf of the Dabienne. 0:26:03.840 --> 0:26:07.040 They crossed on small motor boats to Capolgana or Kandel. 0:26:07.760 --> 0:26:09.399 Those are both towns on the western side of the 0:26:09.400 --> 0:26:12.560 Gulf of the Darienne. From there they begin their walk. 0:26:13.480 --> 0:26:15.840 Even though they're now north of the gulf, they're still 0:26:15.880 --> 0:26:18.600 in Colombia and on the Colombian side of the border. 0:26:18.800 --> 0:26:21.439 They're guided by guides, to whom they pay several hundred 0:26:21.440 --> 0:26:25.040 dollars and in return received protection and a wristband that 0:26:25.240 --> 0:26:28.960 ensures they can walk without being robbed. Nobody I spoke 0:26:29.000 --> 0:26:32.200 to had made it this far without paying a guide. 0:26:32.280 --> 0:26:34.760 The area is largely under the control of the Golf Cartel, 0:26:35.240 --> 0:26:37.680 several members of which were sanctioned by the USA. While 0:26:37.720 --> 0:26:40.040 I was in the jungle. The marcus I spoke to 0:26:40.119 --> 0:26:41.920 didn't really have much bad to say about this part 0:26:41.960 --> 0:26:45.399 of their experience, but universally acknowledged that the next part 0:26:45.440 --> 0:26:48.040 was where they really confronted their fears and nightmares about 0:26:48.040 --> 0:26:52.160 the Daddy. Inne he is one Venezuelan migrant sharing his experience. 0:26:55.240 --> 0:26:58.240 That's nothing compared to what comes from the border to hear, Yes, 0:26:58.280 --> 0:27:00.000 the road is better, and I say that the dane 0:27:00.280 --> 0:27:02.639 is less too, and they have everything you need there. 0:27:02.960 --> 0:27:05.960 You come prepared, you have, you come with water, and 0:27:06.000 --> 0:27:09.119 there are also many ravines where you can drink water. Well, 0:27:09.119 --> 0:27:11.520 there are springs that come from the mountain, but from 0:27:11.560 --> 0:27:13.160 the border on it's pretty ugly. 0:27:14.880 --> 0:27:18.320 It's a stretch from the Colombian Panamanian border at a 0:27:18.359 --> 0:27:21.440 place that they call Laspandabas which means to flags to 0:27:21.520 --> 0:27:26.440 Bajo Chiquito, where migrants suffer the most. There they can't 0:27:26.480 --> 0:27:29.399 drink from the river because a human waste and human 0:27:29.480 --> 0:27:33.560 remains that constantly fill it like the water deadly. They 0:27:33.640 --> 0:27:37.040 must walk on unmaintained trails. It often turns in deep mud. 0:27:38.119 --> 0:27:41.600 They only have the supplies they carry, which often run out, 0:27:41.760 --> 0:27:44.200 or they jettison to stave weight On the incredibly steep 0:27:44.240 --> 0:27:48.840 mountain path they climb and descend those mountains across rivers, 0:27:49.480 --> 0:27:51.760 often without eating or drinking for days at a time. 0:27:52.760 --> 0:27:55.360 On the trail, they pass by the bodies of their fellow travelers. 0:27:55.359 --> 0:27:58.719 It's a constant reminder of the risk they're taking. If 0:27:58.760 --> 0:28:01.439 you ask people in Panamas, they'll tell you that Darian 0:28:01.560 --> 0:28:05.840 is closed. Now, your president, nose Raoul Molino was elected 0:28:05.920 --> 0:28:08.399 on a promise to shut down the gap and this 0:28:08.560 --> 0:28:12.639 humanitarian crisis and deport more migrants with the US funding, 0:28:13.520 --> 0:28:15.880 and that funding has certainly arrived, with more than six 0:28:15.960 --> 0:28:19.720 million already spent since he took office in July. Since then, 0:28:19.800 --> 0:28:24.800 Panama has deported more than eleven hundred people to Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, 0:28:24.840 --> 0:28:30.359 and India. Each of these has been funded by US taxpayers. Obviously, 0:28:30.760 --> 0:28:33.280 the jungle isn't closed, and it can't really be closed, 0:28:34.119 --> 0:28:36.600 but in an interview before he was elected, Molino said 0:28:36.640 --> 0:28:39.400 that the border of the United States, instead of being 0:28:39.400 --> 0:28:43.680 in Texas, has moved to Panama, and that is something 0:28:43.760 --> 0:28:47.280 he can do with US support. I spoke to some 0:28:47.360 --> 0:28:49.280 venezuel And ladies to help them carry their bag because 0:28:49.320 --> 0:28:50.880 it's a steep hill, and they were saying that no 0:28:50.920 --> 0:28:52.760 one has seen any barriers. I don't know anything about 0:28:52.760 --> 0:28:54.840 any barriers or any fences in a Darian and that 0:28:55.000 --> 0:28:58.440 like they hadn't heard it was closed. Evidently it's not 0:28:58.480 --> 0:29:00.200 a standing in front of one hundred people who just 0:29:00.200 --> 0:29:06.160 got off a boat from the day enn Hubris Aside, 0:29:06.440 --> 0:29:09.480 the rhetoric of closing the Dati m signals are turn 0:29:09.600 --> 0:29:12.400 not just in Panamanian politics, but in the way the 0:29:12.440 --> 0:29:16.480 world sees and handles migration. The US has always sought 0:29:16.520 --> 0:29:20.200 to externalize its borders, from US train border patrol officers 0:29:20.200 --> 0:29:23.600 and Dominican Republic along the border is Haiti to DHS 0:29:23.640 --> 0:29:27.640 agents deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan. As migration has become 0:29:27.640 --> 0:29:30.840 more politicized, the US has sought to move its enforcement 0:29:30.920 --> 0:29:34.680 away from prying eyes and from compassion, and instead brought 0:29:34.720 --> 0:29:37.320 more trauma to a place that is already so hard. 0:29:38.560 --> 0:29:40.520 I've spent much of the last decade of my life 0:29:40.600 --> 0:29:42.800 watching the state try to bring the mountains and desert 0:29:42.920 --> 0:29:45.720 close to where I live under its control. I've stood 0:29:45.720 --> 0:29:49.800 with Kumia people as the government dynamited their graveyards. I 0:29:49.880 --> 0:29:53.400 found border wal contractors lost deep in the mountains. I've 0:29:53.480 --> 0:29:56.480 driven the impossibly steep concrete roads that they built, worried 0:29:56.480 --> 0:29:59.840 about my truck turning end on end. I've seen billions 0:29:59.840 --> 0:30:02.960 of dollars thrown at these mountains, and I've seen people 0:30:03.000 --> 0:30:05.840 with twenty dollars angle grinders or ladders made of old 0:30:05.840 --> 0:30:09.719 palettes defeat the wall in moments. Trying to close borders 0:30:09.760 --> 0:30:11.720 doesn't work at home, and it won't work in the 0:30:11.800 --> 0:30:14.760 Daddy and Gap either. Just building the roads to get 0:30:14.800 --> 0:30:17.640 the construction equipment into the gap is a gargantuan task 0:30:18.360 --> 0:30:21.160 in any attempt to create a barrier across sixty kilometer 0:30:21.240 --> 0:30:24.720 wide wilderness area, or simply push migrants onto other more 0:30:24.800 --> 0:30:28.880 dangerous routes into places where you can't build and the 0:30:28.920 --> 0:30:31.440 places where nobody can rescue you if you fall down 0:30:31.520 --> 0:30:34.400 or break your leg. That doesn't mean there's nothing the 0:30:34.560 --> 0:30:37.680 US can do. I saw first hand the impact of 0:30:37.720 --> 0:30:41.040 Americans spending here as migrants had a reception center carded 0:30:41.080 --> 0:30:44.640 Lajas Blancas, had their families torn apart, and men, women 0:30:44.680 --> 0:30:47.560 and children cried as their parents and partners were taken 0:30:47.600 --> 0:30:51.400 away for a flight back to Columbia, Cuba, or Venezuela 0:30:51.520 --> 0:30:54.440 that my taxes helped to pay for. I console, the 0:30:54.480 --> 0:30:57.280 children with toys and stickers and something to eat as 0:30:57.320 --> 0:31:00.640 their dads were loaded into a flatbed truck. A government 0:31:00.840 --> 0:31:04.000 didn't send money to feed these children, but it seemed 0:31:04.000 --> 0:31:07.480 to have the funds to fund their parents' deportation. By 0:31:07.520 --> 0:31:10.440 deporting people from Panama, the US effectively deprives them of 0:31:10.520 --> 0:31:12.760 much of the due process they should, in theory, have 0:31:12.840 --> 0:31:15.720 the right to in the United States, and the US 0:31:15.720 --> 0:31:18.600 can easily deport them back to places like Cuba and Venezuela, 0:31:18.680 --> 0:31:22.160 which it considers to be dictatorial regimes. The US does 0:31:22.200 --> 0:31:26.640 not and cannot stop migration. People have always moved, and 0:31:26.720 --> 0:31:29.280 people will always want a better future for their children. 0:31:30.280 --> 0:31:32.560 What it can do is make it as painful and 0:31:32.680 --> 0:31:35.880 dangerous as possible. But the rais of word barriers in 0:31:35.920 --> 0:31:39.000 the daddy a gap which I've seen person on social media, 0:31:39.480 --> 0:31:42.280 didn't exist for the hundreds of migrants I spoke to. 0:31:43.040 --> 0:31:45.360 No one I asked had even seen them, but what 0:31:45.440 --> 0:31:47.320 they had seen was far worse. 0:31:50.120 --> 0:31:52.520 There are many rivers that you're forced into all the time, 0:31:53.240 --> 0:31:55.680 you're putting your life and everything else on the line there. 0:31:56.280 --> 0:31:58.520 I was worried that the indigenous people would come out 0:31:58.560 --> 0:32:01.560 and do something to us in the nights. I was 0:32:01.600 --> 0:32:04.600 worried that any of the children, God forbid, would have 0:32:04.600 --> 0:32:07.800 an accident. The same for me. It's horrible to think 0:32:07.840 --> 0:32:08.680 about it now. 0:32:09.720 --> 0:32:13.360 This mother hood cruss with a five, six, and sixteen 0:32:13.400 --> 0:32:17.080 year old child, the baby of six months. They'd all 0:32:17.080 --> 0:32:19.440 made it in one piece, but the journey clearly had 0:32:19.440 --> 0:32:20.720 its impact on the children. 0:32:22.760 --> 0:32:24.640 There are many people who are left out there without 0:32:24.640 --> 0:32:27.240 food and do not have anything to give to their children. 0:32:27.680 --> 0:32:31.320 We had food until last night. Nothing left now, and 0:32:31.360 --> 0:32:34.120 we had to each one had to just eat a 0:32:34.160 --> 0:32:36.920 little bit because we had nothing else to give them. 0:32:37.200 --> 0:32:39.920 You can't find anything there. It's in the middle of nowhere. 0:32:40.240 --> 0:32:42.840 People died right now along with those who came with 0:32:42.920 --> 0:32:46.640 us yesterday. How many died yesterday? Three? I think three 0:32:46.880 --> 0:32:51.320 died yesterday. One drowned in the river. Yeah, it's really tough. 0:32:51.640 --> 0:32:51.800 This. 0:32:52.320 --> 0:32:56.719 No, no, nobody should do this. Nobody. We do this 0:32:56.760 --> 0:32:59.600 out of pure physical necessity to look for a better 0:32:59.640 --> 0:33:02.360 future for our kids. We can't stay in our country, 0:33:02.880 --> 0:33:04.480 We couldn't stay any longer there. 0:33:05.920 --> 0:33:07.440 Here are a couple of the kids I spoke to, 0:33:07.640 --> 0:33:09.920 or in some cases, the kids who took my recorder 0:33:10.160 --> 0:33:11.680 and conducted interviews with each other. 0:33:14.000 --> 0:33:17.840 The mountains, I was so tired and I couldn't climb anymore, 0:33:18.280 --> 0:33:20.680 and when I fell on the river, I was really scared. 0:33:22.640 --> 0:33:28.760 Apparently the whole thing was like an adventure she'd seen 0:33:28.800 --> 0:33:31.840 Pepper Pig having, which at once made me giggle and 0:33:31.880 --> 0:33:33.800 also one reflection, it's one of the saddest things I've 0:33:33.840 --> 0:33:36.560 ever had to record, I'm sure. Her mum told her 0:33:36.600 --> 0:33:38.560 that to make it easier for her to pass through 0:33:38.600 --> 0:33:41.360 a terrible place, but really sure to be at home 0:33:41.480 --> 0:33:44.680 washing Peppa Pig and playing with her friends, not walking 0:33:44.720 --> 0:33:47.480 past three dead bodies which are currently decomposing on the trail. 0:33:48.120 --> 0:33:51.520 She seemed remarkably resilient. She said the long bus ride 0:33:51.560 --> 0:33:53.760 she'd taken to get there one boring because she enjoyed 0:33:53.760 --> 0:33:56.240 looking out the window, and the whole journey was well, 0:33:56.280 --> 0:33:58.880 I'll let her say it em. 0:34:01.360 --> 0:34:07.800 Her mum gave us a different account sah, I didn't 0:34:07.800 --> 0:34:09.640 want to cry because I didn't want her to see 0:34:09.680 --> 0:34:13.360 me crying. But sometimes I would explode because it's hard 0:34:13.440 --> 0:34:15.719 for your child to ask you for water, to ask 0:34:15.760 --> 0:34:18.319 you for food, and you don't have any to be 0:34:18.360 --> 0:34:20.239 in a place where you walk you walk from five 0:34:20.280 --> 0:34:23.360 in the morning, it's five in the afternoon. You're walking, 0:34:23.440 --> 0:34:25.600 you don't know what to do, going through more than 0:34:25.600 --> 0:34:28.200 one hundred rivers and asking God not to rain and 0:34:28.239 --> 0:34:31.680 not wanting it to get worse. It rained, and the 0:34:31.719 --> 0:34:35.000 girl got a fever. She got a fever. But well, 0:34:35.120 --> 0:34:38.960 God is good that we pray a lot. I say 0:34:39.000 --> 0:34:40.680 that we don't know God so much in the church 0:34:41.719 --> 0:34:43.759 from the process and the process that we are in, 0:34:44.040 --> 0:34:46.600 and we don't know we can be so strong until 0:34:46.600 --> 0:34:48.799 we go through that storm and we see that He 0:34:48.880 --> 0:34:51.240 protext us. He knows that He was always there watching 0:34:51.280 --> 0:34:53.440 over us, taking care of us at all times. 0:34:55.280 --> 0:34:58.160 Parents being amazed at their children and drawing shrink from 0:34:58.200 --> 0:35:00.960 them and their faith. It was a common message I 0:35:01.000 --> 0:35:04.880 heard from migrants. He's a migrant from Zimbabwe telling me 0:35:04.920 --> 0:35:07.160 how her daughter inspired her to keep going, but she 0:35:07.160 --> 0:35:08.719 felt like she couldn't walk anymore. 0:35:09.280 --> 0:35:12.279 My daughter, she was strong, she was strong, but she 0:35:12.840 --> 0:35:15.600 was crying also, but she has got wounds all over 0:35:15.640 --> 0:35:18.560 the body. Even me, I was crying myself. I was like, 0:35:18.640 --> 0:35:21.879 I want to just put myself in the water, then 0:35:21.920 --> 0:35:25.560 I can just go both. The gene was tough, really 0:35:25.640 --> 0:35:29.560 really tough. The mountain, the stones, the river. It's not 0:35:29.760 --> 0:35:34.560 easy at all. It's not very I don't even recommended 0:35:34.600 --> 0:35:37.719 someone to say you used that and gave no And 0:35:37.760 --> 0:35:42.000 even myself I did know about it. I was regretting myself. 0:35:42.040 --> 0:35:42.840 I was crying. 0:35:42.880 --> 0:35:46.680 I was like, God, I don't know my family and 0:35:46.760 --> 0:35:49.320 my family they don't know where I am right now. 0:35:50.840 --> 0:35:53.719 But like so many other migrants, when the government of 0:35:53.760 --> 0:35:56.400 the world abandoned her, she found strength in the strangers 0:35:56.400 --> 0:35:58.319 along the road who wouldn't abandon her. 0:35:58.680 --> 0:36:02.120 We didn't even eat any thing, were just asking people, 0:36:02.120 --> 0:36:04.680 can I have a piece of biscuit? They just help us. 0:36:05.040 --> 0:36:07.160 That's nice. The other migrants helped you. 0:36:07.080 --> 0:36:08.120 Yeah, the others. 0:36:08.440 --> 0:36:11.560 Yeah. Do you think that they treat African people differently? 0:36:13.320 --> 0:36:16.960 Very nice? The especially these Spanish people, they are very nice. 0:36:17.080 --> 0:36:19.760 I don't want to lie because if you need help, 0:36:19.800 --> 0:36:22.400 you call them for your Look. The other ones they 0:36:22.520 --> 0:36:25.719 might run away, but the other ones, they just come 0:36:25.840 --> 0:36:29.759 for help. They even give us tablets on the road, 0:36:30.480 --> 0:36:34.480 give us energy, drinks, give my daughter a sweets for energy. 0:36:35.320 --> 0:36:37.840 They push us like let's go, guys, let's call let's go. 0:36:37.960 --> 0:36:41.600 You make it, and we really make it. 0:37:06.800 --> 0:37:09.560 The journey over the mountains to Banama has become more 0:37:09.560 --> 0:37:12.239 and more popular in recent years as other routes have 0:37:12.320 --> 0:37:15.800 become more dangerous or closed themselves off to migrants entirely. 0:37:16.719 --> 0:37:19.640 It's a route the Embira tell me that started with 0:37:19.760 --> 0:37:23.360 people leaving India and then Haiti. It grew as conditions 0:37:23.360 --> 0:37:26.759 in Venezuela became more unsustainable and people found themselves too 0:37:26.800 --> 0:37:29.439 poor to stay home and too poor to travel north 0:37:29.480 --> 0:37:32.520 by any other means, and so they chose a deadly 0:37:32.640 --> 0:37:34.759 jungle over a future in a country where their votes 0:37:34.800 --> 0:37:38.960 don't matter. Last year, as many as half a million 0:37:39.000 --> 0:37:42.080 people cross the jungle. This year we might see more 0:37:42.920 --> 0:37:45.640 migrants arriving about Jiguito spend the day in the village 0:37:45.719 --> 0:37:48.080 before taking off in a piagua of their own up 0:37:48.120 --> 0:37:51.080 to Lahas Blancas, the migrant reception center I mentioned earlier. 0:37:51.800 --> 0:37:54.920 They registered with Panamanian Board Patrol known by the acronym 0:37:55.000 --> 0:37:58.200 Cena Front, and they call their families to say they survived. 0:37:59.160 --> 0:38:02.120 Then they try at their blistered feet, enjoy the cooking 0:38:02.160 --> 0:38:04.160 of several of the families who have turned their homes 0:38:04.200 --> 0:38:08.160 into sort of ersad's restaurants. They sleep on the floors 0:38:08.160 --> 0:38:11.239 of the houses or underneath them charge their phones for 0:38:11.280 --> 0:38:14.600 a dollar a time. Certainly migration has changed its town, 0:38:15.160 --> 0:38:17.680 and I want to talk about that more in tomorrow's episode. 0:38:18.200 --> 0:38:21.400 But despite more than a million people passing through this route, 0:38:21.560 --> 0:38:26.160 you don't find anti migrant sentiment here. Right now, despite 0:38:26.160 --> 0:38:28.680 the gap being a deadly de terrent, numbers are expected 0:38:28.719 --> 0:38:32.440 to reach to Equil again this year, maybe seven hundred 0:38:32.520 --> 0:38:35.520 thousand people will walk the gap. But despite these numbers, 0:38:35.800 --> 0:38:38.879 which may seem high for a small country, I didn't 0:38:38.920 --> 0:38:41.600 really find much anti migroant sentiment in Panama as a whole. 0:38:42.520 --> 0:38:44.839 There's plenty of it in the US, though, and as 0:38:44.880 --> 0:38:47.520 the United States winds down its war and terror, it 0:38:47.560 --> 0:38:50.680 needs a new nebulous enemy to justify its military spending 0:38:50.760 --> 0:38:53.560 and to keep the security in surveillance companies donate into 0:38:53.600 --> 0:38:57.840 politicians in their millions. In part it is found that 0:38:58.120 --> 0:39:01.879 by simply opening a floggate of weapons and funding, they 0:39:01.880 --> 0:39:05.560 can spew forth genocide and death in Palestine and keep 0:39:05.640 --> 0:39:08.560 some of its income streams. But it needs a more 0:39:08.719 --> 0:39:12.240 long term solution. There are only so many Palestinian babies 0:39:12.239 --> 0:39:14.319 that can balm, and we'll run out of Palestinians long 0:39:14.360 --> 0:39:17.319 before we run out of bombs. The USA is new 0:39:17.440 --> 0:39:20.040 enemy when it must seek out all over the world. 0:39:20.200 --> 0:39:23.239 It's a migrant. It's a woman I met carrying her 0:39:23.320 --> 0:39:27.400 child across the mountains. The little Venezuelan girl throwing bottle 0:39:27.440 --> 0:39:29.360 caps into a cinder block with me to pass the 0:39:29.480 --> 0:39:33.000 time as she asked me questions about America. It's a 0:39:33.040 --> 0:39:35.600 twenty one year old man whose remains my friends found 0:39:35.640 --> 0:39:38.279 in the border on a hot day this September. The 0:39:38.480 --> 0:39:41.440 US will stop at nothing and fining and destroying the migrant, 0:39:41.920 --> 0:39:43.680 and just as it did in the War on Terror, 0:39:44.000 --> 0:39:46.760 it will find fast friends in states desperate to avail 0:39:46.800 --> 0:39:50.320 themselves the seemingly unlimited flow of resources the US dedicates 0:39:50.760 --> 0:39:53.200 to keeping its conflicts out of the sights and the 0:39:53.280 --> 0:40:06.920 mines of its citizens. The USA's open hostility to migrants 0:40:06.960 --> 0:40:10.440 isn't something that's unknown here. Everyone I met knew about it. 0:40:11.040 --> 0:40:13.640 Several of them had watched with horror as Kamala Harris 0:40:13.640 --> 0:40:16.480 and Donald Trump argued not about how to treat migrants 0:40:16.920 --> 0:40:18.719 but about who could turn more of them away in 0:40:18.760 --> 0:40:22.600 a recent presidential debate. Every migrant I met had questioned 0:40:22.640 --> 0:40:26.759 about CBP, one about US asylum policy, and about how 0:40:26.760 --> 0:40:29.480 they could get to the US before a second Trump administration. 0:40:30.520 --> 0:40:32.920 Despite this, they all clung to their versions of the 0:40:32.960 --> 0:40:35.880 American dream. They wanted to work and be paid a 0:40:35.920 --> 0:40:38.520 fair wage, to send their kids to school and maybe 0:40:38.520 --> 0:40:41.239 to college, to feel safe in their homes, and to 0:40:41.280 --> 0:40:43.400 be able to speak and dress as they wished without 0:40:43.480 --> 0:40:47.239 fearing consequences. All of those things are in periling this 0:40:47.320 --> 0:40:50.319 country too, and they know that, but they still feel 0:40:50.360 --> 0:40:54.200 their dreams are worth the journey. For Noami, the little 0:40:54.239 --> 0:40:57.280 girl who took the daddy and in her stride, the American 0:40:57.360 --> 0:41:00.960 dream was pretty simple. She wanted two things. To see 0:41:01.000 --> 0:41:04.360 Minnie Mouse and to see her around. Why am I 0:41:06.760 --> 0:41:43.960 gros estudia anymore? As to deer a deer? Every day 0:41:44.040 --> 0:41:46.680 for the past two years, the population of Bajo Chikito 0:41:46.800 --> 0:41:50.520 has more than tripled. At six in the morning, piraka 0:41:50.520 --> 0:41:53.720 has come from other Embra villages along the river, dozens 0:41:53.719 --> 0:41:57.919 of them, all filled with orange life jackets. Migrants form 0:41:57.920 --> 0:42:00.120 a line so long that it stretches from the beach 0:42:00.239 --> 0:42:02.799 north of town all the way through the village and 0:42:02.800 --> 0:42:06.080 at the other side, and in groups of fifteen, they 0:42:06.080 --> 0:42:08.839 hand over their twenty five dollars each and get onto 0:42:08.880 --> 0:42:12.800 the piraguas. Each one puts on their bright orange life jacket, 0:42:13.400 --> 0:42:16.040 sits with their legs around the person in front, and 0:42:16.080 --> 0:42:18.600 they take off at the first official migrant reception center 0:42:18.760 --> 0:42:22.960 in last blankets. As the last boat leaves, those who 0:42:22.960 --> 0:42:25.239 can't afford the trip begin a walk which could take 0:42:25.280 --> 0:42:28.439 eight hours. I couldn't walk with them, but I handed 0:42:28.480 --> 0:42:30.400 to group my water filter in one of those overbright 0:42:30.520 --> 0:42:33.280 energy bars that are basically trail mix in a rectangular format, 0:42:33.680 --> 0:42:36.879 and wish them the best of luck as they force 0:42:36.920 --> 0:42:39.120 their tired legs and sore feet to walk again. The 0:42:39.160 --> 0:42:41.840 population of Barjaquito dropped back to five hundred or so 0:42:41.920 --> 0:42:45.400 indigenous people who live here, and the usual background noise 0:42:45.440 --> 0:42:48.560 of chattering dozens of languages gave way to crowing chickens 0:42:48.560 --> 0:42:52.399 and barking dogs. By the next morning, as migrants came 0:42:52.400 --> 0:42:54.640 walking in from the south, it would grow again to 0:42:54.680 --> 0:42:58.880 fifteen hundred. For the last ten years or so, fewer 0:42:58.880 --> 0:43:01.960 than two thousand people crossed in a year, but numbers 0:43:01.960 --> 0:43:05.439 have been steadily increasing, and now the resident of Bajo 0:43:05.520 --> 0:43:07.359 Jiquito see the numbers that they saw in a year. 0:43:07.400 --> 0:43:10.480 In a single weekend while you listen to this series, 0:43:10.840 --> 0:43:13.240 thousands of people will take their lives into their hands 0:43:13.239 --> 0:43:16.960 as they leap into mudcolored rivers, ascend towering mountains in 0:43:17.040 --> 0:43:19.919 the pouring rain, and desperately fight the urge to drink 0:43:19.960 --> 0:43:22.880 from a river polluted with human waste to decaying corpses. 0:43:23.640 --> 0:43:26.320 All of those who survive will walk out of that jungle, 0:43:26.800 --> 0:43:29.640 up the river bank, along a muddy path, and into 0:43:29.640 --> 0:43:32.960 Bajo Chiquito, where they'll buy themselves a cold drink and 0:43:33.080 --> 0:43:35.640 enjoy the hospitality of the locals for a night before 0:43:35.719 --> 0:43:39.080 leaving to head north. At first, the locals told me 0:43:39.120 --> 0:43:41.759 didn't charge people at all. They were shocked to see 0:43:41.760 --> 0:43:44.879 the migrants and wanted to help them, But as numbers grew, 0:43:44.960 --> 0:43:46.880 they had to start asking for money as they couldn't 0:43:46.880 --> 0:43:50.640 afford to feed and house all the migrants arriving. Over time, 0:43:50.760 --> 0:43:53.799 they said, the costs rose, and now a bed costs 0:43:53.840 --> 0:43:55.839 about five dollars for a night, and a meal's about 0:43:55.840 --> 0:43:58.799 the same. As they pointed out, that's less than half 0:43:58.840 --> 0:44:01.920 what I paid in Meta Tea, the nearest town a metait. 0:44:01.960 --> 0:44:03.799 He doesn't have to haul its supplies up the river 0:44:03.840 --> 0:44:07.759 in a canoe using seven dollars per gallon fuel in Bahjigito. 0:44:07.920 --> 0:44:09.840 I sat down with oder man whose front room I 0:44:09.920 --> 0:44:12.080 just had luncheon. I wanted to get a sent to 0:44:12.120 --> 0:44:14.640 the change he'd seen over his lifetime in his community 0:44:14.719 --> 0:44:16.000 and how he felt about it. 0:44:25.400 --> 0:44:29.799 We saw how they arrived injured, sick, with vomiting diarrhea. 0:44:30.600 --> 0:44:33.440 Then there was no healthcare here. What did we do? 0:44:34.719 --> 0:44:37.360 We had to speak for the government. It wasn't easy. 0:44:37.440 --> 0:44:40.920 It was not easy. We told him that we needed 0:44:40.920 --> 0:44:44.160 a doctor, and finally, now, thank god, we have doctors here. 0:44:45.840 --> 0:44:49.480 The community, which has long been socially and economically marginalized 0:44:49.480 --> 0:44:53.120 and acutely underprovided with government services, had built a house 0:44:53.160 --> 0:44:56.480 themselves for the doctors and another house for migration officials. 0:44:57.200 --> 0:44:59.759 It was the only way to help migrants access services, 0:45:00.120 --> 0:45:01.799 which in turn allowed them to move on with their 0:45:01.840 --> 0:45:06.520 journeys quicker, he said. However, like almost every other ember 0:45:06.520 --> 0:45:09.160 our person I spoke with, he felt that the government 0:45:09.200 --> 0:45:12.840 should be doing more here. Even after all these years 0:45:12.880 --> 0:45:15.720 serving as the first Panamanian village, many thousands of people 0:45:15.800 --> 0:45:19.040 enter every year, they still don't have electricity or a 0:45:19.160 --> 0:45:22.480 road that's successible year round, both of which would make 0:45:22.520 --> 0:45:25.120 their lives and the transit of the migrants much safer. 0:45:25.920 --> 0:45:28.560 But that doesn't mean the state's totally absent here. It 0:45:28.640 --> 0:45:30.600 used to be possible for migrants to take a paragua 0:45:30.640 --> 0:45:33.960 from come Galina little further south up river and avoid 0:45:34.000 --> 0:45:37.360 some of the most dangerous river crossings. Bonio told me 0:45:37.360 --> 0:45:39.719 that authorities in the Cormarca, which is like a state 0:45:39.719 --> 0:45:42.839 in the USA, have prohibited this. I wanted to see 0:45:42.840 --> 0:45:44.560 more of what was going on further south and what 0:45:44.600 --> 0:45:46.839 made it so dangerous, but I wasn't permitted to join 0:45:46.840 --> 0:45:49.480 a center front patrol going out that way despite my request. 0:45:50.000 --> 0:45:53.000 I asked Bonnio what made things more dangerous than that 0:45:53.000 --> 0:45:55.719 part of the river. First, he explained that the wide 0:45:55.760 --> 0:45:58.000 and low lying beaches often seemed like good points for 0:45:58.080 --> 0:46:00.880 migrants to sleep, but that any rain in the mountains above, 0:46:00.920 --> 0:46:03.040 which result in a rapid increase for the water level, 0:46:03.440 --> 0:46:06.680 turning those beaches into rapids in minutes, he told me, 0:46:07.040 --> 0:46:09.359 looking down at the table. But not so long ago, 0:46:09.400 --> 0:46:12.880 a storm had washed away sleeping migrants, drowning them in 0:46:12.880 --> 0:46:16.239 their sleep and washing their remains towards his village. But 0:46:16.960 --> 0:46:19.040 terrible as it is, that isn't the only risk. 0:46:20.040 --> 0:46:24.240 What they say. 0:46:25.400 --> 0:46:27.680 You know very well that there's not a single country 0:46:27.800 --> 0:46:31.960 that does not have criminals. In every country, there are criminals. Yeah, 0:46:32.080 --> 0:46:35.120 so what happens at that point in the river, as 0:46:35.160 --> 0:46:37.719 I was saying, at that point, and clearly it is 0:46:37.760 --> 0:46:40.120 not everyone, but there are some certain young men who 0:46:40.160 --> 0:46:43.400 engage in robbery and even rape. So that's why in 0:46:43.400 --> 0:46:47.440 this community, in this village, in coordination with the community 0:46:47.560 --> 0:46:51.840 and the leaders, we will The leader spoke to the 0:46:51.920 --> 0:46:55.120 national government to ask for a chance to transport people 0:46:55.120 --> 0:46:59.080 from came Gaya so that nothing would happen to them. 0:46:59.760 --> 0:47:01.799 The government talked and talked, and for a while it 0:47:01.880 --> 0:47:04.120 was possible and it was safe, and nobody died and 0:47:04.160 --> 0:47:09.000 nobody robbed. It was all going well. But what happened. 0:47:09.960 --> 0:47:12.480 We have a leader at Casika. I don't know if 0:47:12.480 --> 0:47:15.600 you've heard about it, but the regional leader he put 0:47:15.600 --> 0:47:16.960 a barrier, he stopped it. 0:47:19.080 --> 0:47:19.120 No. 0:47:23.600 --> 0:47:27.680 Look, to be honest, these people with their degrees in 0:47:27.920 --> 0:47:30.840 this classic person, they're not humanitarians. 0:47:32.600 --> 0:47:35.280 Despite the struggles and the relative absence of the government 0:47:35.800 --> 0:47:37.640 of rule, he felt that the migration had been a 0:47:37.640 --> 0:47:40.920 positive for his community. He'd learned a lot from the migrants. 0:47:40.920 --> 0:47:43.960 He said, and enjoyed learning about their cuisines. In particular, 0:47:44.920 --> 0:47:47.480 there's a common narrative in media that mentions Boito that 0:47:47.520 --> 0:47:49.600 this village has been somehow stripped of its culture or 0:47:49.719 --> 0:47:52.440 ruined by migration, but the locals don't seem to agree 0:47:52.480 --> 0:48:01.440 with this. I also speke to is leader. She's the 0:48:01.440 --> 0:48:03.319 first woman in the whole con marker to hold such 0:48:03.320 --> 0:48:03.760 a position. 0:48:05.800 --> 0:48:09.280 I'm chief of the community police and leader of the community. 0:48:09.920 --> 0:48:12.319 She explained to me that Balji Guito was just one 0:48:12.360 --> 0:48:15.120 of several communities along the river, each with its own leader. 0:48:15.280 --> 0:48:17.880 Those leaders meet in the council, an answer to the 0:48:17.920 --> 0:48:26.880 Comarca Mara anti di yact in over here. She also 0:48:26.920 --> 0:48:29.359 explained that as the first woman in the position, she'd 0:48:29.400 --> 0:48:32.840 made sure to advance the cause of women in her community. 0:48:34.800 --> 0:48:37.879 So I've had my administration, which has been seven months 0:48:37.880 --> 0:48:41.040 asnoko or leader, I have put some women to work. 0:48:41.440 --> 0:48:42.760 They were waiting for the migrants. 0:48:42.760 --> 0:48:46.120 There After that, I asked her to explain to listeners 0:48:46.120 --> 0:48:48.640 what exactly a migrant encounters when they first set foot 0:48:48.640 --> 0:48:51.160 in her village and the various steps that they might 0:48:51.200 --> 0:48:53.160 go through before leaving the next morning. 0:48:54.600 --> 0:48:59.759 Is there is a check in at first verification of 0:48:59.800 --> 0:49:03.320 whether they have a crime in their country. From there 0:49:03.480 --> 0:49:06.600 they got immigration, their documents are checked and then they 0:49:06.600 --> 0:49:08.759 are free to choose where they're going to wait and 0:49:08.800 --> 0:49:11.920 rest for the next part of their journey. On behalf 0:49:11.960 --> 0:49:15.160 of UNISEF we have free toilets from the community. We 0:49:15.239 --> 0:49:17.840 also have a free place where they can camp or rest. 0:49:18.160 --> 0:49:22.600 That's theirs now. If they want better things better rest, 0:49:22.760 --> 0:49:26.040 they can find accommodation available in almost every house here. 0:49:27.239 --> 0:49:29.600 The next day we prepare everything at together with the 0:49:29.640 --> 0:49:30.719 Center front security. 0:49:31.360 --> 0:49:32.000 We go to the. 0:49:31.920 --> 0:49:35.880 Beach there and at the beach we also coordinate with 0:49:35.920 --> 0:49:39.719 a coordinator from each village. I also want to make 0:49:39.719 --> 0:49:41.719 it clear as well that the boat driver must have 0:49:41.760 --> 0:49:44.680 their idea and be of legal age. 0:49:45.000 --> 0:49:47.759 From there, the migrants pay twenty five dollars ahead and 0:49:47.840 --> 0:49:51.080 take the five hour boat trip north to Lahasblancas, which 0:49:51.120 --> 0:49:53.200 is the UN and government run camp and the first 0:49:53.239 --> 0:49:57.239 official migrant welcome center outside the dai N. Having boat 0:49:57.280 --> 0:50:00.840 drivers who are of age is important. Can't swim trust 0:50:00.840 --> 0:50:04.080 their lives to these boat drivers in high water. Once 0:50:04.120 --> 0:50:06.480 they're at last Blankers, they're close to the Pan American 0:50:06.560 --> 0:50:09.880 Highway and the beginning of the rest of their journey north. 0:50:10.480 --> 0:50:13.040 They don't have to walk any further unless they run 0:50:13.080 --> 0:50:15.640 out of money for buses. I asked what happened when 0:50:15.640 --> 0:50:17.760 someone couldn't afford the right to last blankers? 0:50:18.000 --> 0:50:21.279 Yes, then. 0:50:21.760 --> 0:50:25.319 What does the community do? The community takes responsibility presending them, 0:50:25.360 --> 0:50:29.759 not the state, the state migration center front. They don't 0:50:29.800 --> 0:50:32.920 pay for the fuel or the transport of these people. 0:50:34.960 --> 0:50:38.040 Specifically, she told me the community sends three free boats 0:50:38.040 --> 0:50:40.640 to day. Most of these are filled of women and children, 0:50:40.840 --> 0:50:42.480 and in my time there, it seemed that these people 0:50:42.560 --> 0:50:46.840 paid whatever they could those leftover, usually men would have 0:50:46.880 --> 0:50:48.960 to make the walk on their blistered feet and tired 0:50:49.040 --> 0:50:53.200 legs and risk further sickness, robbery, and heat exhaustion. I 0:50:53.239 --> 0:50:55.040 also wanted to ask a leader about the problems with 0:50:55.120 --> 0:50:57.480 theft and sexual assault that the migrants encountered on their 0:50:57.480 --> 0:51:00.120 walk into Bajo Jiquito, and she was pretty forthright this 0:51:00.239 --> 0:51:02.640 was an issue for the state, not for her community 0:51:02.640 --> 0:51:03.040 to fix. 0:51:05.640 --> 0:51:08.880 Then where is Senafron. Aren't Centafrat supposed to be on 0:51:08.920 --> 0:51:11.160 all the banks of the river, Yes, so where are 0:51:11.160 --> 0:51:11.800 those staffs? 0:51:12.560 --> 0:51:15.080 Despite being able to prevent the Embira from using their 0:51:15.080 --> 0:51:18.319 boats on their river to transport migrants. The government at 0:51:18.360 --> 0:51:23.280 any level above the village isn't really present in Bahjigitofront, 0:51:23.719 --> 0:51:27.160 Panama's combined Border Patrol and military received migrants and register 0:51:27.239 --> 0:51:30.040 them there, but all the services provided to the migrants 0:51:30.120 --> 0:51:33.440 come either from the Emperor or from non governmental organizations. 0:51:34.040 --> 0:51:36.640 This pattern of the state failing to provide basic services, 0:51:36.719 --> 0:51:38.880 when Neil told me, is one that goes back a 0:51:38.920 --> 0:51:44.920 long time before the migrants began arriving here. 0:51:45.400 --> 0:51:48.719 So now, before the migrants began arriving here, we had 0:51:49.120 --> 0:51:52.719 a town, a town that the government is supposed to 0:51:52.760 --> 0:51:56.279 give what it has to give us as Panamanians, but 0:51:56.400 --> 0:52:00.960 it doesn't. It was a town without anything. All we 0:52:01.000 --> 0:52:03.879 did was sell our products and sell stuff here for us. 0:52:04.080 --> 0:52:09.600 We grow rice, corn plantains, everything. Well, it was a lot, 0:52:10.120 --> 0:52:14.160 but products that we grow are not enough to get by. 0:52:13.920 --> 0:52:16.839 Even today in late twenty twenty four, the village doesn't 0:52:16.880 --> 0:52:19.480 have mains electricity, nor does it have a connection to 0:52:19.480 --> 0:52:22.359 telephone networks or a road that it can take year 0:52:22.480 --> 0:52:24.560 round to connect it to the rest of the country. 0:52:25.040 --> 0:52:27.000 And a few clean water taps in the town come 0:52:27.000 --> 0:52:31.680 from UNICEF, not Panama City. Doctors here come from European NGOs, 0:52:31.880 --> 0:52:34.239 and even the policing of the community is largely done 0:52:34.320 --> 0:52:38.640 by the community, by a group called the Zara. And 0:52:38.760 --> 0:52:41.759 never to better understand there but our communities, both with 0:52:41.880 --> 0:52:45.040 and without migrants. I wanted to visit another Embero village 0:52:45.200 --> 0:53:07.359 and after the break, we'll hear about that ring, all right. 0:53:07.600 --> 0:53:09.759 So I'm just in my hammock now kind of the 0:53:09.800 --> 0:53:14.680 end of the day. We were staying in another in 0:53:15.440 --> 0:53:19.080 village today just probably, I mean, but it's a kilometer 0:53:19.320 --> 0:53:24.000 two kilometers away, you know, probably a decent walk, but 0:53:24.160 --> 0:53:27.640 it was pretty fast in the Agua. Just it's a 0:53:27.680 --> 0:53:32.480 little more peaceful here. And a boat driver passed us 0:53:32.520 --> 0:53:36.719 to stay his house. We said we would. You can 0:53:36.760 --> 0:53:40.600 probably hear like, I don't know how much of this 0:53:40.800 --> 0:53:50.960 is getting picked up. It's a nice little village, you know. 0:53:51.080 --> 0:53:55.160 The fucking way to the dogs have stopped. I guess 0:53:57.480 --> 0:54:00.560 when I wasn't in, I took a boat every evening 0:54:00.560 --> 0:54:04.040 to Maraganti. Maraganti is only a couple of kilometers away 0:54:04.040 --> 0:54:06.040 on a different branch of the river, but the walk 0:54:06.120 --> 0:54:09.640 might take hours through a thick jungle. A Perraguero had 0:54:09.680 --> 0:54:12.040 invited us to stay with his family and to see 0:54:12.040 --> 0:54:15.960 another Inmbara village. I'm always down to sleep outside, so 0:54:16.040 --> 0:54:19.800 I gladly accepted his invitation and slung my hammock across 0:54:19.840 --> 0:54:22.520 his front porch after a long discussion on whether the 0:54:22.560 --> 0:54:24.839 dynamic cordage I was using would actually hold my weight, 0:54:24.960 --> 0:54:27.400 and on my part of probably ill advised free solo 0:54:27.440 --> 0:54:29.319 onto the roof of his house to find a good 0:54:29.360 --> 0:54:32.719 anchor point for my hammock. In my time in Maraganti, 0:54:33.160 --> 0:54:35.840 I found myself growing fonder and fond of his little community. 0:54:36.640 --> 0:54:40.239 Everyone's doors were open and the village's children enjoyed unsupervised 0:54:40.239 --> 0:54:43.439 playtime everywhere. There was never not a pick up game 0:54:43.480 --> 0:54:46.239 going on at the concrete football and basketball court, and 0:54:46.280 --> 0:54:48.600 despite the fact that they were on average several feet 0:54:48.600 --> 0:54:51.479 short than me and playing on concrete without shoes, local 0:54:51.560 --> 0:54:55.120 kids humiliated me at a wide variety of sports with 0:54:55.239 --> 0:54:58.200 no electricity of them generators, one Wi Fi connection in 0:54:58.200 --> 0:55:00.160 the whole village as far as I can tell, and 0:55:00.239 --> 0:55:02.720 a few hours to myself. In the evening, I happily 0:55:02.719 --> 0:55:05.120 settled into a routine of washing in a river along 0:55:05.160 --> 0:55:08.080 with everyone else in the hour before sunset, walking around 0:55:08.120 --> 0:55:11.080 town chatting with the inhabitants, who seemed surprised but happy 0:55:11.120 --> 0:55:13.440 to see a gangly British man ambling around their neighborhood 0:55:13.440 --> 0:55:16.480 and petting their dogs. Once it got dark, I'd spend 0:55:16.480 --> 0:55:18.520 my evening sitting in my hammer, because the grandchildren of 0:55:18.520 --> 0:55:20.960 our host asked me how to say various things in English. 0:55:21.360 --> 0:55:23.359 I played with the little toys I always bring along 0:55:23.360 --> 0:55:25.520 in case I run into children on my work trips. 0:55:26.120 --> 0:55:28.160 Being in Maragantine made me think a lot about my 0:55:28.160 --> 0:55:30.920 own life and the US in general. I certainly have 0:55:30.960 --> 0:55:33.120 a lot more possessions here, but my neighbors don't let 0:55:33.160 --> 0:55:35.560 their kids run around in the streets, and cars would 0:55:35.640 --> 0:55:38.239 hit them if they did. People in my community, if 0:55:38.320 --> 0:55:40.719 the next door Wrapp is anything to go by, spend 0:55:40.760 --> 0:55:43.279 seeing mely countless hours bitching about the unhoused in other 0:55:43.280 --> 0:55:46.160 people's children. But here everyone had a roof over their heads, 0:55:46.200 --> 0:55:48.239 and other people's children ran in and out my host's 0:55:48.280 --> 0:55:51.560 kitchen without anyone batting an eyelid. Aside from laughing at 0:55:51.560 --> 0:55:54.120 my paleness when I was washing in the river, nobody 0:55:54.120 --> 0:55:56.920 here seemed that concerned that I was different. They let 0:55:56.960 --> 0:55:59.560 me hold their babies while they cooked. They didn't overcharge 0:55:59.560 --> 0:56:01.120 me for the It was a water of snacks that 0:56:01.160 --> 0:56:04.000 I brought from their front room convenience stores. What seemed 0:56:04.000 --> 0:56:06.360 that bothered about sharing their meals and their homes with me. 0:56:07.320 --> 0:56:10.160 At night, we sat on tiny plastic chairs and talked 0:56:10.160 --> 0:56:13.160 about our shared interest in woodwork and what they wanted 0:56:13.160 --> 0:56:15.640 for their children. We talked about their boats and the river, 0:56:15.719 --> 0:56:18.360 and about how terrible things must be for migrants to 0:56:18.440 --> 0:56:20.920 risk their lives and abandon their homes making the journey 0:56:20.920 --> 0:56:24.080 across these mountains that the Embrara and their Kuna neighbors 0:56:24.200 --> 0:56:27.400 call home. Ever since I left their village, I've been 0:56:27.440 --> 0:56:29.279 thinking a lot about the part of The Dawn of 0:56:29.320 --> 0:56:33.360 Everything in which Grab and Wengrove detail how many indigenous 0:56:33.360 --> 0:56:36.840 people were adopted into colonial society but chose to return 0:56:36.880 --> 0:56:40.479 to their communities. How by settlers in indigenous communities often 0:56:40.560 --> 0:56:43.760 chose to remain among the indigenous communities. I don't wish 0:56:43.760 --> 0:56:46.440 to romanticize the very real struggles the Mbra have with 0:56:46.480 --> 0:56:49.680 their economic marginalization and lack of access to basic services 0:56:49.680 --> 0:56:52.760 compared to other Panamanians, But I just want to reflect 0:56:52.800 --> 0:56:54.640 on the fact that there was something really special about 0:56:54.640 --> 0:56:57.080 the little river community, where dogs and chickens and ducks 0:56:57.120 --> 0:56:59.640 woke me up in the morning, little children welcome me 0:56:59.680 --> 0:57:02.360 back evening. They told me what they did at school, 0:57:02.440 --> 0:57:05.040 or just a little ball back and forth, and seemed 0:57:05.200 --> 0:57:08.000 entirely comfortable chatting to an adult from across the world. 0:57:08.520 --> 0:57:11.160 The people a Baho Jiqito have shown that same hospitality 0:57:11.200 --> 0:57:13.759 to migrants and indeed to me, and so I wanted 0:57:13.760 --> 0:57:16.760 to ask the village leader how migration had changed her community. 0:57:17.800 --> 0:57:20.080 Like everyone else I spoke to, she insisted that they 0:57:20.080 --> 0:57:22.680 had held on to important parts of their culture, which 0:57:22.680 --> 0:57:24.560 he illustrated by giving me a history lesson. 0:57:24.800 --> 0:57:30.160 Well, the town of Bajo Chikito was founded in nineteen 0:57:30.200 --> 0:57:35.800 sixty five. At first there were three families, the Vaparizo, 0:57:36.120 --> 0:57:41.400 the Rosales, the Chagos. They came here for education reasons. 0:57:41.960 --> 0:57:45.480 Before everyone lived on their own, the education came and 0:57:45.520 --> 0:57:46.760 that is why we grew this town. 0:57:49.120 --> 0:57:51.680 It was the education, she said, that had changed town, 0:57:51.880 --> 0:57:55.320 not the migrants. They have night school now for adults 0:57:55.360 --> 0:57:57.360 and a school for all the children with seven teachers. 0:57:58.080 --> 0:58:00.960 The children speak Emberbra and Spanish and have a chance 0:58:01.040 --> 0:58:04.920 to get more education in Metaiti or even in Panama City. 0:58:05.720 --> 0:58:09.280 Yes, it's dudo education, not because the migrants travel through here. 0:58:09.520 --> 0:58:11.800 Let this be clear, that is not because the migrants 0:58:11.840 --> 0:58:12.280 came here. 0:58:13.640 --> 0:58:17.240 Cly though, the perception of changing their community is a concern. 0:58:17.880 --> 0:58:19.840 She told me that a local woman marries what she 0:58:19.880 --> 0:58:22.880 called a Latino man, they can't live together in the village, 0:58:23.240 --> 0:58:24.640 and she wanted to make sure I knew that the 0:58:24.680 --> 0:58:28.040 children learn in Emberra as well as Spanish. They also 0:58:28.080 --> 0:58:30.920 still knew dances and ceremonies, Bloniolla told me. But some 0:58:30.960 --> 0:58:34.560 of the changes, she said, were positive, including one in 0:58:34.600 --> 0:58:35.320 gender relationship. 0:58:38.240 --> 0:58:41.160 That's an ongoing struggle. I'll say that to show that 0:58:41.200 --> 0:58:44.640 we women have the same capacity for thought creativity as men. 0:58:45.720 --> 0:58:48.040 We are fighting every day, and as you will see, 0:58:48.040 --> 0:58:48.680 it's not easy. 0:58:49.960 --> 0:58:52.280 One thing that surprised me was that the Emberra would 0:58:52.320 --> 0:58:55.880 always remind me that they themselves have been migrants. They 0:58:55.920 --> 0:58:58.640 migrated to Panama City sometimes, they said, and they have 0:58:58.640 --> 0:59:00.760 a little choice if they want postsec and education or 0:59:00.840 --> 0:59:03.880 higher level medical attention. Some of their kids even make 0:59:03.880 --> 0:59:05.880 the journey to the USA to study. What kind of 0:59:05.960 --> 0:59:08.400 hypocrites would they be, they said, if they look down 0:59:08.440 --> 0:59:13.200 on people making the same journey. 0:59:13.240 --> 0:59:15.760 I'm going to tell you that before the immigrants arrived here, 0:59:15.800 --> 0:59:19.640 within this community, we lived in the same way. I mean, 0:59:19.680 --> 0:59:22.920 we came from the countryside, we worked in agriculture, and 0:59:22.960 --> 0:59:27.040 we still continue working in the agriculture stuff, fishing, hunting 0:59:27.040 --> 0:59:27.520 and so on. 0:59:28.560 --> 0:59:30.120 We liked it a lot. 0:59:30.920 --> 0:59:33.280 Now after the immigrants started to come, we are still 0:59:33.320 --> 0:59:36.600 the same and it doesn't affect us having them within 0:59:36.640 --> 0:59:42.920 our community because they are they're people, they're humans. The 0:59:43.000 --> 0:59:45.560 journey that the immigrants make is out of need. It 0:59:45.680 --> 0:59:50.680 is in need. So really we too, for example, if 0:59:50.720 --> 0:59:54.080 we were to deal with problems like them, since we 0:59:54.120 --> 0:59:56.320 are just like them, we also have the right to 0:59:56.320 --> 0:59:57.120 emigrate as well. 0:59:59.480 --> 1:00:02.000 This is not the first influx of migration into Embra 1:00:02.160 --> 1:00:05.240 and Guna land. In fifteen oh one, a wave of 1:00:05.320 --> 1:00:08.640 undocumented immigration from Spain in the form of settler colonia 1:00:08.760 --> 1:00:12.320 like Francisco Balboa, arrived in the Guna and Embera territories. 1:00:12.640 --> 1:00:15.240 Ever since his Europeans first saw for themselves what the 1:00:15.280 --> 1:00:18.080 Embra already knew that this area was part of a 1:00:18.160 --> 1:00:21.520 narrow strip of land between two Great Oceans. People from 1:00:21.520 --> 1:00:23.400 around the world have been coming to what is now 1:00:23.440 --> 1:00:26.200 Panama as part of their journeys from north to south 1:00:26.280 --> 1:00:28.880 or east to west. The thin strip of land that 1:00:29.000 --> 1:00:31.640 joins the two American continents has been at the crossroads 1:00:31.640 --> 1:00:35.080 of the world for half a millennium. Archaeological digs in 1:00:35.080 --> 1:00:37.720 a region show that there were once roads, and that 1:00:37.800 --> 1:00:41.320 gold and jade came here from Afar. This ritinalization is 1:00:41.320 --> 1:00:44.440 one that Vasco Nunies de Balboa first encountered, and it 1:00:44.480 --> 1:00:46.160 was they who first told him that their land lay 1:00:46.200 --> 1:00:49.000 between two oceans. It was somewhere just to the south 1:00:49.000 --> 1:00:52.120 of where I was staying that exactly five hundred eleven 1:00:52.160 --> 1:00:55.000 years ago to the day, Barboa became the first European 1:00:55.040 --> 1:00:58.920 to set eyes upon the Pacific. Since Barbara, many other 1:00:58.960 --> 1:01:01.880 colonizers have come to Dabienne to pit their notions of 1:01:01.920 --> 1:01:06.280 superiority against the might of the rainforest. The Kingdom of 1:01:06.320 --> 1:01:09.040 Scotland sent a group of settlers here in the seventeenth century, 1:01:09.680 --> 1:01:12.480 mounted the side. This isn't a place with any similarity 1:01:12.520 --> 1:01:14.680 to Scotland, and it's easy enough to see why the 1:01:14.720 --> 1:01:18.520 plan failed, killed three out of four colonists and essentially 1:01:18.600 --> 1:01:21.880 bankrupted an entire nation in two years, forcing it into 1:01:21.880 --> 1:01:23.840 a colonial relationship with its own with its neighbor to 1:01:23.880 --> 1:01:27.960 the south. After the Scots left, having failed to create 1:01:28.000 --> 1:01:30.680 what they'd hoped would be a quote Scottish Amsterdam of 1:01:30.720 --> 1:01:33.360 the Indies and a Spanish found a flatter and easier 1:01:33.360 --> 1:01:36.920 connection between the Pacific and Caribbean. The Dadian region returned 1:01:36.920 --> 1:01:40.439 to its indigenous people, whose home it remains, but over 1:01:40.480 --> 1:01:43.520 the course of several hundred years, many empires have come 1:01:43.720 --> 1:01:46.640 to the dai En to die. The French tried to 1:01:46.640 --> 1:01:48.760 build a sea level callout not so far from here, 1:01:48.880 --> 1:01:52.520 the canal without locks, but they ultimately failed. The US 1:01:52.600 --> 1:01:54.720 tried in the eighteen fifties and eighteen seventies to forge 1:01:54.720 --> 1:01:56.480 a route to build a canal to get east coast 1:01:56.520 --> 1:01:59.720 Banks Acces to west coast Gold, before eventually finding an 1:01:59.760 --> 1:02:03.160 easy route further north. A century later, the US and 1:02:03.160 --> 1:02:06.240 Panama openly discussed dropping nuclear bombs on the jungle to 1:02:06.240 --> 1:02:08.840 make it passable and to allow the construction of a road. 1:02:09.320 --> 1:02:11.360 The US offered to shoulder two thirds at a cost 1:02:11.360 --> 1:02:13.400 of building such a road, and hoped to have the 1:02:13.440 --> 1:02:16.200 Pan American Highway completed in time for its nineteen seventy 1:02:16.200 --> 1:02:19.560 six by centennial, but the GAP's hostility in the growing 1:02:19.640 --> 1:02:22.440 environmental movement, as well as a desire to protect US 1:02:22.520 --> 1:02:24.640 livestock from a foot of mouth disease it's endemic in 1:02:24.680 --> 1:02:27.560 South America. One the day, the gap remained a gap 1:02:28.000 --> 1:02:32.040 latly without the influence of the state. In the nineteen seventies, 1:02:32.040 --> 1:02:35.120 a British Army expedition traversed to Dadien in two range rovers. 1:02:35.200 --> 1:02:39.040 Assisted by horses, parachute drop resupplies and a team of engineers, 1:02:39.360 --> 1:02:42.080 they crossed the jungle in ninety six days. They had 1:02:42.120 --> 1:02:44.000 to make their own bugnets for their horses out of 1:02:44.040 --> 1:02:45.960 the parachutes, so were used to drop corn cobs to 1:02:46.000 --> 1:02:49.280 the animals and rice for the humans. Expedition leader and 1:02:49.400 --> 1:02:51.960 seasons explorer, as well as possibly the most British Man 1:02:52.000 --> 1:02:56.919 in history, Lieutenant Colonel John Blashford Snell wrote, without doubt 1:02:56.960 --> 1:02:58.800 it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. 1:02:59.000 --> 1:03:02.920 Calling the daddi Enne a god forsaken place, the daddy 1:03:02.960 --> 1:03:04.960 Inn is one of the wettest places on the planet. 1:03:05.360 --> 1:03:08.120 A particularly cruel twist for that would be colonizers from Scotland. 1:03:08.680 --> 1:03:10.600 In the months before I came here, I spent hours 1:03:10.640 --> 1:03:12.960 trying to work out how to water proof my podcast equipment, 1:03:13.280 --> 1:03:15.360 and most of what you're hearing is recorded on a 1:03:15.440 --> 1:03:18.600 voice recorder that I sealed up with gasket maker, shoved 1:03:18.600 --> 1:03:21.800 inside a condom, inside a dry bag, inside a pelican case. 1:03:22.440 --> 1:03:25.720 This rain causes flash flooding, the kind which sweeps whole 1:03:25.800 --> 1:03:28.640 villages away. The rivers in the Gap onont Bridge largely 1:03:28.680 --> 1:03:31.640 because they simply wash away bridges after a storm. On 1:03:31.680 --> 1:03:34.400 our journey to Bahojigito, I saw the remains of bridges 1:03:34.440 --> 1:03:37.360 that had dared to try. That's why my hosts built 1:03:37.360 --> 1:03:39.760 their houses on stilts, and it's on those stilts that 1:03:39.800 --> 1:03:43.280 I slung my hammock in Maraganti. Ever since the failed 1:03:43.320 --> 1:03:46.080 Daddian scheme, the Gap has been constructed in the Western 1:03:46.080 --> 1:03:49.520 imagination as the deepest and darkest jungle. The Gap today 1:03:49.560 --> 1:03:52.280 is home to every type of malaria and numerous others diseases. 1:03:52.560 --> 1:03:56.160 There are deadly vipers, deadly spiders, big cats, and as 1:03:56.160 --> 1:03:58.680 if the natural threats were not enough, the US dropped 1:03:58.720 --> 1:04:01.120 bombs here in the Cold Wars test this destructive might 1:04:01.160 --> 1:04:02.840 against one of the few areas of the planet that 1:04:02.880 --> 1:04:05.840 hadn't been made amenable to capitalism. Many of them remain 1:04:05.920 --> 1:04:10.040 unexploded in the mountains. Certainly the physical geography of the 1:04:10.080 --> 1:04:12.600 Dallienne posted a challenge, but I would argue that the 1:04:12.640 --> 1:04:15.400 imaginative geography of the gap which is a greater impediment 1:04:15.400 --> 1:04:18.280 to travelers. In Spanish they call it the top on 1:04:18.720 --> 1:04:21.920 the Stopper. Local legend has it that the Spanish conquistado, 1:04:22.480 --> 1:04:24.200 one of the first to take his last breaths in 1:04:24.240 --> 1:04:27.680 the waters of Dallienne. Rivers carved to phrase into the rock, 1:04:27.720 --> 1:04:30.960 which is endured long after he expired. When you go 1:04:31.040 --> 1:04:33.560 to the dalli Ennes and trust yourself to Mary, for 1:04:33.640 --> 1:04:36.040 in her hands of the entrance and he gods the exit, 1:04:36.960 --> 1:04:38.760 it doesn't sound that different to the things I heard 1:04:38.800 --> 1:04:40.600 from migrants and in the modern day they'll tell you 1:04:40.640 --> 1:04:43.400 about the horrific tiktoks they saw before they enter the gap, 1:04:43.920 --> 1:04:46.520 and the decaying remains fellow travelers they saw as they 1:04:46.520 --> 1:04:49.640 passed through. Media reports in a Gap consistently referred to 1:04:49.680 --> 1:04:52.120 it as a nomad's land, but of course it's very 1:04:52.200 --> 1:04:55.240 much someone's land, the land of the indigenous people who 1:04:55.280 --> 1:04:58.520 have been here long before countries, borders or reporters. While 1:04:58.560 --> 1:05:01.040 it may have remained hostile to appolism in the state, 1:05:01.320 --> 1:05:04.200 and it can be deadly for unexperienced travelers. It's supported 1:05:04.280 --> 1:05:07.720 life for thousands of years. And a way to Bahjigito, 1:05:07.880 --> 1:05:09.960 I was reminded of just how comfortable my hosts were 1:05:10.040 --> 1:05:11.720 in a place where I felt so out of place. 1:05:12.280 --> 1:05:14.320 So as we were coming, we got caught in a 1:05:14.440 --> 1:05:17.520 huge range storm, just absolutely bucketing it down suddenly and 1:05:18.760 --> 1:05:21.360 pulled in to a little sort of or just a 1:05:21.400 --> 1:05:24.560 flat area of might really. I helped out to the 1:05:24.600 --> 1:05:28.360 boat and next thing I know, our boat guide ran 1:05:28.440 --> 1:05:31.240 into jungle, chopped some huge palm leaves down and brought 1:05:31.240 --> 1:05:52.520 them back to me to cover me in my bag. Well, 1:05:52.600 --> 1:05:56.480 the umber might have preserved their comfort and culture. It's 1:05:56.520 --> 1:05:59.120 undeniable that migrat should have made a huge economic impact. 1:06:00.120 --> 1:06:02.080 And fifty nine migrants left on one of the days 1:06:02.080 --> 1:06:04.720 I was able to get numbers from Senaflunt. Each of 1:06:04.760 --> 1:06:07.760 them paid twenty five dollars for pedagua, about ten dollars 1:06:07.760 --> 1:06:10.160 for food and lodging, and maybe Wi Fi and pread 1:06:10.240 --> 1:06:12.200 a few bucks more for clean clothes or a pair 1:06:12.200 --> 1:06:14.240 of off bran crops to let their feet heel from 1:06:14.280 --> 1:06:18.480 three days have been constantly wet. At a conservative estimate, 1:06:18.600 --> 1:06:20.720 that's a little more than thirty three thousand per day 1:06:21.280 --> 1:06:24.520 raughly the GDP per capita of Panama. That's a lot 1:06:24.520 --> 1:06:27.000 of money down here, especially for community which has been 1:06:27.040 --> 1:06:31.480 alienated and exploited for solo. Using this money, people have 1:06:31.480 --> 1:06:33.800 been closed the bottom floors of their homes to provide 1:06:33.800 --> 1:06:36.760 more space to house migrants. All around the village, they're 1:06:36.760 --> 1:06:39.840 building better homes. Some of them have satellite internet now 1:06:39.920 --> 1:06:44.200 or Starlink or bigger and more reliable generators. This money 1:06:44.240 --> 1:06:46.400 has been spread around the Amberak communities in the area, 1:06:46.480 --> 1:06:48.960 and every morning each of them sent pedaguas to transport 1:06:49.040 --> 1:06:52.240 the migrants, as almost sixty a needed every day. Rolling 1:06:52.280 --> 1:06:55.000 out of Madaganti at five in the morning as almost 1:06:55.000 --> 1:06:57.560 the entire adult male population of the village joined us 1:06:57.560 --> 1:07:00.880 in a huge flatilla of two stroke smoke dugout canoes 1:07:01.520 --> 1:07:03.360 and the morning mists still sat in the river was 1:07:03.360 --> 1:07:06.360 an incredible experience and this is doubtless an industry for 1:07:06.360 --> 1:07:06.960 the whole area. 1:07:07.040 --> 1:07:07.280 Now. 1:07:07.960 --> 1:07:11.840 If Molino Majorcas ever successfully stops migration here, it will 1:07:11.880 --> 1:07:14.840 be a massive economic detriment to the people, already marginalized 1:07:14.880 --> 1:07:18.720 for centuries. But despite the economic benefits, the people of 1:07:18.760 --> 1:07:21.680 Maragante doesn't seem to want to become like Bahajiguito. On 1:07:21.760 --> 1:07:23.800 our last day there, as we set off back towards 1:07:23.840 --> 1:07:25.800 the dirt road to the borders, here we saw that 1:07:25.800 --> 1:07:29.360 they were building little cabins outside of town. These they 1:07:29.400 --> 1:07:32.440 said were for the migrants. They wanted the migrants to 1:07:32.480 --> 1:07:35.520 be safe and their community to stay the same. They 1:07:35.560 --> 1:07:37.280 might not be able to sell meals to the migrants 1:07:37.320 --> 1:07:39.400 this way, or charge and for Wi Fi or phone charging, 1:07:39.680 --> 1:07:42.400 but they will be able to live a little more peacefully. 1:07:42.600 --> 1:07:45.080 Yamba have gone out of their way to ensure migrant safety. 1:07:45.520 --> 1:07:47.880 They're the ones who mandate life jackets, and the ones 1:07:47.880 --> 1:07:50.280 who build a house for doctors, and they're the ones 1:07:50.280 --> 1:07:53.080 who send free boats for women and children. Of course 1:07:53.120 --> 1:07:55.560 they have an economic incentive to do this, but there 1:07:55.560 --> 1:07:57.160 nearly a week living with them, I didn't hear them 1:07:57.160 --> 1:07:59.240 bad mouth for migrants, and nor did I hear the 1:07:59.320 --> 1:08:01.160 migrants complain about the way they were treated in the 1:08:01.200 --> 1:08:04.000 village of barj Juquito. But before they get to the 1:08:04.040 --> 1:08:07.400 village of Barjuquito, migrants aren't safe, and if you ask them, 1:08:07.640 --> 1:08:09.640 they'll tell you it's indigenous people who are robbing and 1:08:09.680 --> 1:08:14.080 threatening them. Deeper into the jungle. Undoubtedly, robbery, sexual assault 1:08:14.080 --> 1:08:16.680 a murderer not uncommon. In the Daddy and Gap. You 1:08:16.680 --> 1:08:18.920 can hear anecdotes of these on a daily basis in 1:08:18.960 --> 1:08:21.640 ba Juquito, and some of the stories I heard and 1:08:21.680 --> 1:08:24.479 things I saw are among the most horrific experiences I've 1:08:24.479 --> 1:08:27.360 had in years of reporting on pretty terrible things. I 1:08:27.400 --> 1:08:29.160 haven't included a great many of them here because I 1:08:29.160 --> 1:08:31.240 think it's hard for people to meaningfully consent in those 1:08:31.320 --> 1:08:34.679 kinds of circumstances. But yesterday you heard about the human 1:08:34.720 --> 1:08:37.320 remains that almost everyone featured in this series had to 1:08:37.360 --> 1:08:41.280 walk past. This is a problem that's getting worse, not better. 1:08:42.160 --> 1:08:45.920 In just one week in February, medisanten Fontierre, the NGO 1:08:45.960 --> 1:08:48.920 that Americans called Doctors without Borders, treated one hundred and 1:08:49.000 --> 1:08:52.120 thirteen people, including nine children, after they were sexually assaulted 1:08:52.120 --> 1:08:54.960 by criminal groups in a Darienne. This number is close 1:08:55.000 --> 1:08:57.040 to one hundred and twenty people treated during the whole 1:08:57.040 --> 1:08:59.960 of January. These figures are double the monthly average tree 1:09:00.200 --> 1:09:02.519 in twenty twenty three, when six hundred and seventy six 1:09:02.520 --> 1:09:05.639 people were treated for the whole year. As you heard before, 1:09:06.240 --> 1:09:09.080 this is a problem that people in the community sometimes acknowledge, 1:09:09.439 --> 1:09:11.760 and as a village leader mentioned, it's one that could 1:09:11.760 --> 1:09:13.360 be solved as the state would live up to its 1:09:13.360 --> 1:09:16.599 obligation to protect migrants within its borders. The leader also 1:09:16.600 --> 1:09:22.240 shares me that the community has its own punishment mechanisms. 1:09:22.720 --> 1:09:25.599 The place of punishment is the stocks. Three days ago, 1:09:25.720 --> 1:09:28.280 someone behaved very badly and we had to put them 1:09:28.400 --> 1:09:31.840 in the stocks. The man who mistreats women, we also 1:09:31.880 --> 1:09:34.240 put in the stocks. The woman who gossips, we also 1:09:34.280 --> 1:09:35.400 put her in the stocks. 1:09:36.080 --> 1:09:37.880 What she's talking about here is stocks in the old 1:09:37.880 --> 1:09:41.120 fashioned sense, not in the Wall Street bet sense. We 1:09:41.160 --> 1:09:43.320 actually saw someone chatting them one day with their ankles 1:09:43.320 --> 1:09:45.960 locked in place. We didn't ask what they did, how 1:09:46.000 --> 1:09:48.160 long they were there, as it seems difficult again to 1:09:48.200 --> 1:09:50.800 consent to an interview when you're literally pinned in place. 1:09:51.680 --> 1:09:54.080 But this kind of punishment comes from the community, not 1:09:54.160 --> 1:09:57.400 the stick. Aside from these punishments, the community hasn't done 1:09:57.439 --> 1:09:59.479 much to stop things happening in the jungle, and I'm 1:09:59.520 --> 1:10:02.720 not sure if it's really able to. They're Panamanian, they say, 1:10:02.720 --> 1:10:05.080 in the States responsible for the safety of migrants when 1:10:05.120 --> 1:10:07.719 it's borders, and while it does send center front patrols 1:10:07.720 --> 1:10:10.160 into jungle. The state doesn't appear to be doing much 1:10:10.280 --> 1:10:14.200 protect migrants of sexual assault, robbery or murder. Early this year, 1:10:14.240 --> 1:10:16.599 the state did take decisive action to eject Made Saint 1:10:16.600 --> 1:10:19.680 san Fentier after not reviewing their permission to work in 1:10:19.720 --> 1:10:22.519 the Darienne. This is quite a challenging permission to obtain, 1:10:22.840 --> 1:10:25.160 even as a solo journalist. It took months for me 1:10:25.240 --> 1:10:28.240 to get mine, forcing me to rebook my flight several times. 1:10:28.920 --> 1:10:31.639 I had various explanations for why MSF were not allowed 1:10:31.680 --> 1:10:34.080 to keep working. I couldn't get an official response, but 1:10:34.080 --> 1:10:36.880 it's probably worth noting that they published a report headlined 1:10:37.360 --> 1:10:39.960 lack of action, she's sharp rise in sexual violence on 1:10:40.000 --> 1:10:42.439 people transiting the dari Enne Gap on the twenty ninth 1:10:42.479 --> 1:10:45.000 of February, and they refused permission to remain in the 1:10:45.040 --> 1:10:47.880 region in the first week of March. MSF was allowed 1:10:47.920 --> 1:10:50.679 to return in October of this year and wouldn't comment 1:10:50.760 --> 1:10:52.760 further than the following statement, which they emailed me in 1:10:52.760 --> 1:10:56.160 mid October. In October of twenty twenty four, MSF resumed 1:10:56.200 --> 1:10:59.840 medical and humanitarian activities at Lahas Blanca's migration Reception center, 1:11:00.360 --> 1:11:02.599 located at the edge of the dai in jungle. After 1:11:02.640 --> 1:11:07.080 Panamanian authorities approved a three month medical intervention. MSF welcomes 1:11:07.120 --> 1:11:11.000 its decision and advocates to collaborate closely with Panama's Ministry 1:11:11.000 --> 1:11:13.839 of Health to provide comprehensive medical care to migrants crossing 1:11:13.840 --> 1:11:16.240 this route, as well as to the local population of 1:11:16.240 --> 1:11:20.680 the area. Right now, UNICEF med Saint Dumont Corporate and 1:11:20.800 --> 1:11:24.120 Espanola and the Red Cross are helping migrants in Bauciquito. 1:11:24.760 --> 1:11:28.400 UNICEF in salt showers and toilets, Global Brigades in unifests 1:11:28.439 --> 1:11:32.400 provided taps and drinking water, and the medical endeos provide healthcare, 1:11:32.479 --> 1:11:35.360 which is fighting saving lives and providing survivors of sexual 1:11:35.360 --> 1:11:37.759 assault with medical care in a seventy two hour window 1:11:37.960 --> 1:11:40.720 where it can be most beneficial. It's worth noting that 1:11:40.760 --> 1:11:43.639 most migrants too are sexually assaulted won't stay depressed charges. 1:11:44.240 --> 1:11:46.000 I know of one case of sexual assault of a 1:11:46.080 --> 1:11:48.560 child while I was there, but the family wanted to 1:11:48.600 --> 1:11:50.839 continue their journey and so the charges won't be pressed. 1:11:51.080 --> 1:11:53.280 This makes it very hard to ascertain how many cases 1:11:53.320 --> 1:11:55.360 a sexual assault there are in a dai and every year, 1:11:55.800 --> 1:11:59.040 aside from through medical reports from NGOs, and those only 1:11:59.040 --> 1:12:02.000 include the people who make it to ba alahas blancats. 1:12:02.479 --> 1:12:05.200 The numbers are clearly high, and it's a fear that 1:12:05.240 --> 1:12:08.679 many migrants a articulated to me. In the jungle, they're 1:12:08.800 --> 1:12:12.320 their most vulnerable, they said. Most people robbed, they tell me, 1:12:12.680 --> 1:12:16.800 held by armed attackers carrying guns and machetes. But once 1:12:16.800 --> 1:12:20.240 a migrants set foot in Baju Jiqito, they're momentarily safe 1:12:20.240 --> 1:12:22.799 from rory and assault. For the first time in days. 1:12:22.800 --> 1:12:25.439 They can sleep without worry being attacked or washed away, 1:12:26.040 --> 1:12:27.840 and the rest of their journeys north they'll face set 1:12:27.920 --> 1:12:30.559 threat again, but that's not what's on their mind. When 1:12:30.560 --> 1:12:33.200 they enter town. All they want is a cold drink 1:12:33.240 --> 1:12:35.320 and a warm meal and a chance to rest their 1:12:35.360 --> 1:12:37.840 aching feet. It's the chance that they have thanks to 1:12:37.840 --> 1:12:41.000 the Ambra people who receive them there. And I want 1:12:41.000 --> 1:12:43.320 to end with Buono and his reflection on the suffering 1:12:43.360 --> 1:12:45.719 people endure on their way to eat rice and plantain 1:12:45.880 --> 1:12:50.080 in his little front room cafe. 1:12:53.439 --> 1:12:56.040 Truly, the migrants on this route are not here because 1:12:56.080 --> 1:12:59.600 they want to be. They are here because the economy 1:12:59.600 --> 1:13:04.519 and their countries is terrible or something. Everything is going 1:13:04.520 --> 1:13:08.559 badly on their countries. How can we mistreat them knowing 1:13:08.600 --> 1:13:15.599 that we won't not us never. This is a belief 1:13:15.600 --> 1:13:19.080 that we have. We are all children of God. God 1:13:19.120 --> 1:13:21.679 made the world and humanity, and we are not that different. 1:13:23.000 --> 1:13:52.600 We are all brothers. 1:13:56.680 --> 1:13:59.240 Yeah, the journey is dangerous, but what can we do. 1:14:00.160 --> 1:14:02.400 We can't stay in a country where the economy is 1:14:02.400 --> 1:14:05.960 getting worse and worse. With a salary of three dollars 1:14:06.040 --> 1:14:10.040 a month, you can't survive. Like my friend said, if 1:14:10.040 --> 1:14:12.439 you have a job in other countries, maybe you can 1:14:12.479 --> 1:14:14.680 invest some money. But where are you going to get 1:14:14.760 --> 1:14:17.400 the money to invest? If before you had a salary 1:14:17.400 --> 1:14:19.880 that fed you paid for your car, your house and 1:14:19.920 --> 1:14:22.080 your children to enjoy it all with. And now you 1:14:22.120 --> 1:14:25.720 can't even afford to put gas in the car. So 1:14:25.800 --> 1:14:29.720 it's true. Yeah, the darien is dangerous, but nothing is impossible. 1:14:30.479 --> 1:14:32.800 We walk hand in hand with God and with the 1:14:32.840 --> 1:14:35.400 faith that we will get there. But that doesn't mean 1:14:35.400 --> 1:14:39.280 it isn't difficult. But I'll say it again, it's not impossible. 1:14:39.760 --> 1:14:42.960 You suffer, you cry, you go hungry cold, but thank 1:14:43.080 --> 1:14:44.240 God we made it through. 1:14:52.640 --> 1:14:55.960 Put around the Toquesa River, the jungle rumbles quat as 1:14:56.000 --> 1:14:59.439 you pass by on your boat, insects, frogs, and birds 1:14:59.439 --> 1:15:01.519 all combined to make a sort of deep throbbing that 1:15:01.600 --> 1:15:05.120 emanates from the darkness between the trees. It seems at 1:15:05.120 --> 1:15:07.400 wants to be calling you in and warning you to 1:15:07.400 --> 1:15:10.800 stay away. I've been in the jungle before, in the 1:15:10.880 --> 1:15:14.880 Rwanda Congo borderlands and in Venezuela, but I've never really 1:15:14.880 --> 1:15:16.960 felt the sense of foreboding I did as we rode 1:15:16.960 --> 1:15:19.519 down the river, protected only by our hollow log, looking 1:15:19.560 --> 1:15:22.639 into the triple canopy forest, and knowing that if I walked 1:15:22.640 --> 1:15:25.000 long enough in the shadows, I'd be confronted with the 1:15:25.040 --> 1:15:27.080 remains of people I might have interviewed if it hadn't 1:15:27.120 --> 1:15:29.920 been for a rolled ankle, a slippery rock, or a 1:15:29.960 --> 1:15:33.640 desperate sip of water. To understand what drives people to 1:15:33.760 --> 1:15:36.840 enter the jungle with their children and their dreams, I 1:15:36.840 --> 1:15:38.600 think we also have to understand what drives them to 1:15:38.680 --> 1:15:41.120 leave wherever they're living. And that's what I want to 1:15:41.160 --> 1:15:44.679 talk about today. The story of migrants crossing the Daddy 1:15:44.680 --> 1:15:47.720 and Gap is an American one. It's impossible to disentangle 1:15:47.760 --> 1:15:50.160 the people making this dangerous journey from the history of 1:15:50.160 --> 1:15:54.120 support for dictatorship sanctions, an imperial plunder that ties to 1:15:54.120 --> 1:15:56.439 the United States to its American brothers and sisters in 1:15:56.479 --> 1:15:59.640 the South. Sometimes I play a game with myself at 1:15:59.640 --> 1:16:01.400 the border where I try and meet people from all 1:16:01.400 --> 1:16:03.840 the countries named in Washington bullets in a single day. 1:16:04.439 --> 1:16:07.679 Since Biden bungled the Afghanistan withdrawal, it's become a lot easier, 1:16:07.880 --> 1:16:11.519 but Tibet can be hard. For two hundred years since 1:16:11.560 --> 1:16:13.920 President Monroe gave his State of the Union address in 1:16:14.000 --> 1:16:17.000 December eighteen twenty three, the US has seen the Western 1:16:17.000 --> 1:16:20.200 hemisphere is its sphere of influence. While is opposed old 1:16:20.200 --> 1:16:23.439 fashioned colonialism, it has used less avert methods of control, 1:16:23.640 --> 1:16:26.640 as well as avert military force across the hemisphere. For 1:16:26.800 --> 1:16:29.760 much of the last century, it supported and installed dictators 1:16:29.920 --> 1:16:31.680 who would prevent what it saw as a threat of 1:16:31.720 --> 1:16:34.760 state socialism in its sphere of influence, and allowed them 1:16:34.840 --> 1:16:37.800 to create economic and political climates that were unsurvivable for 1:16:37.840 --> 1:16:42.439 the majority and extremely profitable for US based corporations. The 1:16:42.479 --> 1:16:46.440 direct result of this policy has been economic insecurity, political instability, 1:16:46.600 --> 1:16:50.040 and state violence across South and Central America, resulting in 1:16:50.080 --> 1:16:52.680 people making the very natural humor decision to flee to 1:16:52.720 --> 1:16:56.800 somewhere safer. As in so many other empires, they've made 1:16:56.800 --> 1:17:00.519 the choice to lead a destabilized colonial periphery. Safety and 1:17:00.520 --> 1:17:04.320 stability in the metropol for more than a century. Money 1:17:04.360 --> 1:17:06.160 and good to be able to travel seamlessly up and 1:17:06.200 --> 1:17:09.439 down the continent, but people have not. The bananaread for 1:17:09.479 --> 1:17:11.840 breakfast this morning made the journey in a few days, 1:17:12.640 --> 1:17:15.960 but people take months, if not years, pay thousands of dollars, 1:17:16.320 --> 1:17:19.200 climb mountains, forded rivers, and risk their lives on trains 1:17:19.200 --> 1:17:21.360 and buses that cost a lot more than the flights 1:17:21.400 --> 1:17:24.799 I took to Panama, but offer considerably less comfort and safety. 1:17:25.840 --> 1:17:28.680 As climate change has have greater impacts, more and more 1:17:28.720 --> 1:17:31.000 people are forced to leave their homes of their livelihoods 1:17:31.000 --> 1:17:34.800 become less sustainable. The Guna, the indigenous people of the 1:17:34.840 --> 1:17:38.559 Panamanian coast in an area called Guna Yala, are having 1:17:38.560 --> 1:17:40.639 to withdraw from some of their islands because of sea 1:17:40.680 --> 1:17:44.560 level rise. Right now, agriculture across the world is increasingly 1:17:44.600 --> 1:17:48.120 threatened by extreme weather and rising temperatures, and Orotionans are 1:17:48.160 --> 1:17:50.519 less able to sustain life than they once were due 1:17:50.520 --> 1:17:54.280 to pollution and overfishing, forced to leave their homes as 1:17:54.280 --> 1:17:57.639 people have been for millennia by weather patterns changing people 1:17:57.640 --> 1:17:59.760 head to places that have a want caused much of 1:17:59.760 --> 1:18:03.160 the ear issue, and tried to insulate themselves from its consequences. 1:18:04.400 --> 1:18:08.160 Their American dreams are modest to overcome the crippling low paid. 1:18:08.160 --> 1:18:10.519 They received a home to bring their children up in 1:18:10.560 --> 1:18:12.280 a place where they have a good chance of surviving 1:18:12.280 --> 1:18:15.280 their twenties, to work and get paid enough to get by. 1:18:15.840 --> 1:18:17.479 They want to be able to protest and not get 1:18:17.479 --> 1:18:19.760 a shot, and to look forward to the future, not 1:18:19.880 --> 1:18:23.200 fear it. These aren't guaranteed in the USA, and as 1:18:23.240 --> 1:18:24.800 many of you listening will know, it can be hard 1:18:24.840 --> 1:18:27.400 for us to make ends meet here as well. But 1:18:27.720 --> 1:18:30.599 despite what you see on social and legacy media, things 1:18:30.680 --> 1:18:32.600 are unlikely to become as bad here as they are 1:18:32.640 --> 1:18:37.720 in Venezuela, Cameroon or Iran anytime soon. I've lived in Venezuela, 1:18:38.000 --> 1:18:41.480 specifically in the formerly Javista neighborhood of La Pastora in Caracas, 1:18:41.640 --> 1:18:43.400 and I've seen how hard it is for my friends 1:18:43.439 --> 1:18:46.960 who still live there, even for people with no other disadvantages, 1:18:47.000 --> 1:18:49.880 making rent and feeding your family can be a challenge. 1:18:50.120 --> 1:18:52.720 That's part of why Venezuelan people make up the majority 1:18:52.720 --> 1:18:54.800 of the folks. I met men Daddy in so much 1:18:54.840 --> 1:18:58.520 so that I'd slip back into using Venezuelan slang in Spanish, 1:18:58.720 --> 1:19:00.400 and after a few days of seeing the same people 1:19:00.439 --> 1:19:02.720 engaging in the kind of friendly mockery and banter that 1:19:02.760 --> 1:19:05.920 I remember well from Caracas, mostly the super form of 1:19:05.960 --> 1:19:07.880 asking them why they crossed Daddy and gap in Man 1:19:07.960 --> 1:19:11.320 United shirts or worse yet, in a Chelsea shit. It's 1:19:11.360 --> 1:19:13.759 important to steal moments of humor in these difficult times, 1:19:14.160 --> 1:19:16.320 to laugh a little among all the suffering, and that's 1:19:16.360 --> 1:19:18.400 something people in Venezuela have done very well for a 1:19:18.439 --> 1:19:22.120 very long time. But despite their humor, I could tell 1:19:22.120 --> 1:19:24.040 the journey had a serious impact on the people I 1:19:24.080 --> 1:19:27.960 spoke to. 1:19:28.120 --> 1:19:30.559 You have to go through a lot, a lot of jungle, 1:19:30.760 --> 1:19:33.720 a lot of hills. There are people, there are dead 1:19:33.760 --> 1:19:37.599 people on the road, so it's something you cannot really explain. 1:19:38.200 --> 1:19:40.920 It's complicated because everything can be explained in a fashion, 1:19:40.960 --> 1:19:44.040 but it's not the same as living it. It's insanity 1:19:44.240 --> 1:19:47.800 three four days with that food and nothing. One thing 1:19:47.880 --> 1:19:51.679 is to live it. Explaining it, talking about it. That's different. 1:19:52.000 --> 1:19:53.200 It's hard to put into words. 1:19:54.360 --> 1:19:56.240 This intere is. When I conducted with one group of 1:19:56.280 --> 1:19:59.519 Venezuelan migrants with my voice recorder in the chest pocket 1:19:59.520 --> 1:20:01.680 of my shirt and whatever bags let me carry in 1:20:01.680 --> 1:20:04.519 my hands, we walked it on the last part of 1:20:04.520 --> 1:20:07.439 the trail, discussing what they'd seen. For a while, we 1:20:07.560 --> 1:20:09.640 joked a little. One guy had crossed it at man 1:20:09.720 --> 1:20:11.880 United Ship. I told him about the team and the 1:20:11.920 --> 1:20:14.559 universe was dislike non Menu fans have for Menu fans. 1:20:15.320 --> 1:20:17.200 Then after a while they opened up more about their 1:20:17.200 --> 1:20:21.400 experiences they had. They said, seen deputies and they couldn't 1:20:21.400 --> 1:20:23.920 stop thinking about what happened if they'd fallen, and they 1:20:23.920 --> 1:20:27.240 wanted to know how when if the dead people's family 1:20:27.240 --> 1:20:30.600 would ever find out. 1:20:32.439 --> 1:20:34.599 The family waits for that person to come out to 1:20:34.600 --> 1:20:37.200 hear that they made it, because if not, who's going 1:20:37.280 --> 1:20:40.439 to let you know? There's no signal and nobody's going 1:20:40.520 --> 1:20:42.360 to grab the body, and you're not going to carry 1:20:42.400 --> 1:20:45.760 them out. The person stays there and eventually years and 1:20:45.840 --> 1:20:48.000 years go by and the family won't know where they 1:20:48.040 --> 1:20:50.720 are or how they died. Those are the sort of 1:20:50.760 --> 1:20:53.439 things that one doesn't expect to see and it makes 1:20:53.439 --> 1:20:55.759 you just want to hurry past. Not that you wouldn't 1:20:55.760 --> 1:20:58.040 want to get the documentation from the body and deliver 1:20:58.120 --> 1:21:00.280 it and tell them how this person that passed away? 1:21:00.680 --> 1:21:02.719 But how dare you just go grabbing a dead body. 1:21:04.120 --> 1:21:06.200 Venetuinan elections were held on the twenty eighth of July 1:21:06.280 --> 1:21:09.479 this year. Venezuelan presidents have a six year term and 1:21:09.520 --> 1:21:12.519 the incumbllent de Corlas Maduro has been in office since 1:21:12.560 --> 1:21:15.960 twenty thirty. And let the Venezuelan people I met introduce 1:21:16.000 --> 1:21:19.160 themselves and explain the result of the election. Now there's 1:21:19.160 --> 1:21:20.680 a bit of background noise here, but that's because we 1:21:20.760 --> 1:21:25.519 were walking on the trails. And it's hard to Avoidezuela. 1:21:27.040 --> 1:21:30.120 I am coming from Venezuela, migrating through the jungle for 1:21:30.160 --> 1:21:32.720 a better future for me and my children. I'll tell 1:21:32.760 --> 1:21:36.920 you it's hard, but it's not impossible. No, that was 1:21:36.960 --> 1:21:39.920 electoral fraud. And I tell you what, one day, you 1:21:40.080 --> 1:21:40.920 just have to leave. 1:21:42.600 --> 1:21:46.840 Moduro was opposed by Ajuardo Gonzalez, an obviously candidate who 1:21:46.880 --> 1:21:50.160 represented a wide coalition increating groups on the left and right. 1:21:50.600 --> 1:21:54.040 While Maduro might have support among Western socialists and even communists. 1:21:54.120 --> 1:21:57.680 The actual Venezuelan Communist Party's youth organization formed part of 1:21:57.680 --> 1:22:01.200 the Popular Democratic Front that opposed him. Despite poul watchers 1:22:01.240 --> 1:22:04.559 telling a massive victory for the opposition, Moduro controls the 1:22:04.640 --> 1:22:09.360 National Lecture Council, I proclaimed himself the victor. People protested, 1:22:09.760 --> 1:22:13.760 and Moduro responded with bullets. Gonzales fled to the Dutch 1:22:13.800 --> 1:22:17.000 and then the Spanish embassy, and later claimed asylum in Spain, 1:22:17.040 --> 1:22:20.680 where his family lived. But for regular working class Venezuelan's 1:22:20.840 --> 1:22:23.919 there's no option to hop on a flight to safety. Instead, 1:22:24.320 --> 1:22:27.000 they have to begin the long walk north. As many 1:22:27.080 --> 1:22:29.360 Venezuelans I spoke to told me, in addition to the 1:22:29.360 --> 1:22:33.240 electoral fraud, Venezuela is undergoing an economic collapse. At least 1:22:33.240 --> 1:22:35.760 an the Chavis. They said most people could eat. When 1:22:35.760 --> 1:22:37.599 I lived in La Pastora, I was able to access 1:22:37.640 --> 1:22:41.320 medical care from Cuban doctors. Now they say things have 1:22:41.320 --> 1:22:42.920 become unsurvival. 1:22:44.000 --> 1:23:01.679 Garlindo, So you're Venezuela monte pero. When Jake Venezuela. 1:23:02.800 --> 1:23:06.160 Well, I would say that Venezuela, you know, yeah, you 1:23:06.280 --> 1:23:10.000 can live, but not on a minimum wage. I would 1:23:10.000 --> 1:23:14.000 say that, for example, working independently in an independent business. 1:23:14.080 --> 1:23:17.280 Maybe you can live good, but working and surviving for 1:23:17.320 --> 1:23:21.240 a minimum wage, no, the truth is that it doesn't work, 1:23:21.800 --> 1:23:25.160 and that's serious. Things are still bad with the new 1:23:25.200 --> 1:23:27.400 elections and the new government. Everything is ugly. 1:23:27.520 --> 1:23:27.680 Yeah. 1:23:28.560 --> 1:23:31.120 The streets of Caracas are full of protests. Every day. 1:23:31.479 --> 1:23:34.960 People went out to protest. Sometimes they shoot people. The 1:23:35.040 --> 1:23:37.280 government mistreats people. But if you can live with it, 1:23:37.320 --> 1:23:40.640 and you can live with it it's ugly. Well, that 1:23:40.760 --> 1:23:42.720 is why we left there for a better future, and 1:23:42.800 --> 1:23:44.879 we'll keep moving onward onward. 1:23:47.120 --> 1:23:50.080 This group were young men traveling in advance to their families, 1:23:50.400 --> 1:23:52.720 hoping to end some money, save it up, and send 1:23:52.760 --> 1:23:55.479 it home. They knew what they were getting into when 1:23:55.520 --> 1:23:57.960 they go to the USA. The migrants through to end 1:23:57.960 --> 1:24:00.640 it paid. I might struggle to make ends meet, but 1:24:00.760 --> 1:24:02.840 they still thought it was better than staying home and 1:24:02.920 --> 1:24:04.559 watching your children's future disappear. 1:24:07.000 --> 1:24:09.320 If you don't have papers, you don't have a work permit, 1:24:09.680 --> 1:24:11.320 you have to work for it. They want to pay you, 1:24:11.880 --> 1:24:13.360 not for what you demand or anything. 1:24:14.400 --> 1:24:16.760 I met lots of Venezuelan families with children who had 1:24:16.760 --> 1:24:20.719 different illnesses or disabilities. Things they couldn't obtain or afford 1:24:20.760 --> 1:24:24.000 treatment for In Venezuela, they were traveling to the US 1:24:24.120 --> 1:24:26.120 in the hopes of finding a better future for their kids, 1:24:26.680 --> 1:24:29.120 or any future at all. I met young men who 1:24:29.200 --> 1:24:31.719 left their children behind but carried the children of strangers, 1:24:32.320 --> 1:24:35.360 even those with whom they didn't share a language. Christian, 1:24:35.600 --> 1:24:37.519 who he heard from earlier, showed me how he'd carried 1:24:37.560 --> 1:24:39.880 someone else's child on his shoulders until he fell and 1:24:39.960 --> 1:24:42.519 hurt his knee. We all help. 1:24:42.600 --> 1:24:44.360 I put little children up here on my shoulders to 1:24:44.400 --> 1:24:45.639 carry them, but it isn't easy. 1:24:46.640 --> 1:24:49.080 In the jungle, they'd formed chains using their arms to 1:24:49.120 --> 1:24:52.360 cross rivers and carried little children on those who couldn't swim. 1:24:52.880 --> 1:24:55.880 In Barjiquito, sera group of men from Angola, receiving hugs 1:24:55.880 --> 1:24:58.880 from Venezuela and women they'd helped in the jungle without 1:24:58.880 --> 1:25:01.560 the help of the Angolans, said that children wouldn't have 1:25:01.600 --> 1:25:03.760 made it. One slip or a loss of grip, they 1:25:03.840 --> 1:25:06.320 told me, would be fatal, and the remains of those 1:25:06.360 --> 1:25:09.880 who had done just that served as a grisly reminder. Later, 1:25:10.400 --> 1:25:13.679 little boys maybe eight to ten years old gleefully recounted 1:25:13.760 --> 1:25:15.679 seeing a dead body on which the head had quote 1:25:15.800 --> 1:25:20.040 exploded while their parents winked. In recollection, I wanted to 1:25:20.120 --> 1:25:22.479 understand a bit more of what they were fleeing. That 1:25:22.560 --> 1:25:23.840 made it worth getting through all this. 1:25:25.080 --> 1:25:26.760 You're dan Venezuela. 1:25:28.600 --> 1:25:31.600 Well, I left Venezuela because I worked in fishing. But 1:25:31.840 --> 1:25:34.280 right now, in Venezuela, despite the fact that it is 1:25:34.360 --> 1:25:37.960 a country rich and oil, there's not enough gasoline for 1:25:38.040 --> 1:25:40.720 the fishermen to go fishing. And since I did not 1:25:40.880 --> 1:25:44.040 have the ability to even buy basic things such as food, 1:25:44.520 --> 1:25:47.080 the situation was, well, it was a little complicated. I 1:25:47.200 --> 1:25:49.599 had to immigrate. I had nothing else to do. They 1:25:49.800 --> 1:25:52.600 didn't rob me, well, they were going to rob me 1:25:52.720 --> 1:25:55.559 because I didn't have anything to steal. We passed by 1:25:55.720 --> 1:25:58.360 and the group that was behind us got robbed. They 1:25:58.479 --> 1:25:59.599 raped women in that group. 1:26:02.080 --> 1:26:04.960 Almost every Venezuelan migroan I spect to share a similar story. 1:26:05.520 --> 1:26:08.280 One said he'd installed security cameras, but nobody could afford 1:26:08.320 --> 1:26:11.000 them now, as they had to choose between rent and 1:26:11.080 --> 1:26:13.960 groceries or medical procedures that they needed but couldn't afford. 1:26:14.600 --> 1:26:18.639 Overwhelmingly they said the same thing. No aifulturo, there's no future. 1:26:19.200 --> 1:26:21.040 One group said to me that they couldn't wait for 1:26:21.080 --> 1:26:23.639 their country to become like Cuba, as decades of embargos 1:26:23.640 --> 1:26:26.560 took their toll on the population. But others reminded me 1:26:26.640 --> 1:26:29.840 in them that Lisa Cubans seemed to have doctors. Venezuela 1:26:29.880 --> 1:26:32.880 has an eighty percent poverty right now. Though it sits 1:26:32.920 --> 1:26:34.920 on one of the largest oil reserves of any country 1:26:35.000 --> 1:26:37.479 on Earth. It's been plagued by planmmeting oil prices in 1:26:37.520 --> 1:26:40.120 the years of hyperinflation, which got so bad at one 1:26:40.160 --> 1:26:42.439 point the shots stopped putting price tags on things and 1:26:42.520 --> 1:26:45.920 relied on staff to give up to the minute prices. Today, 1:26:46.120 --> 1:26:49.439 alongside a regime that lacks legitimacy, a state that readily 1:26:49.520 --> 1:26:52.439 uses horrific violence against his people, an election that was 1:26:52.560 --> 1:26:56.960 essentially ignored, Venezuelans must also deal with shortages of basic goods, poverty, 1:26:57.160 --> 1:27:00.800 and malnutrition. And like Cubans who have a relatively good 1:27:00.800 --> 1:27:03.840 political lobby in the USA, Venezuelan's coming to the USA 1:27:03.920 --> 1:27:06.960 do not benefit from special laws. Cubans under the Cuban 1:27:07.000 --> 1:27:09.400 Adjustment Act have a part of the citizenship and permanence 1:27:09.439 --> 1:27:12.120 once they set foot on US soil. Venezuelans do not. 1:27:12.920 --> 1:27:16.000 They're covered by something called a temporary protected status, but 1:27:16.120 --> 1:27:18.120 this does not afford them much in the way of stability, 1:27:18.280 --> 1:27:23.799 protection or a secure future. Erekapinhidro of Valatolado, an incredible organization, 1:27:23.880 --> 1:27:27.679 does valuable work with migrant legal aid advocacy and humanitarian relief, 1:27:28.160 --> 1:27:30.439 explaining just how temporary a TPS is. 1:27:30.880 --> 1:27:35.920 So temporary protected status is it's basically a form of 1:27:36.040 --> 1:27:39.760 protecting individuals who are already in the United States when 1:27:39.800 --> 1:27:45.080 their countries have experienced a natural disaster, they are in war, 1:27:45.439 --> 1:27:48.680 there's some kind of situation going on that makes it 1:27:48.960 --> 1:27:53.960 difficult for them to return, and so temporary protected status 1:27:54.120 --> 1:27:58.440 was first created in nineteen ninety and the first individuals 1:27:58.520 --> 1:28:03.080 who receive the status we're from El Salvador. And since then, 1:28:03.160 --> 1:28:04.960 I think there's been a few dozen countries that have 1:28:05.040 --> 1:28:08.720 been designated. But basically the way it works is they 1:28:08.880 --> 1:28:12.040 designate a country and so if you were in the 1:28:12.160 --> 1:28:15.960 United States before that designation date, you can apply for 1:28:16.040 --> 1:28:20.679 temporary protected status within you know, a designated time period, 1:28:21.360 --> 1:28:25.160 and you get a work permit. It's valid for six, 1:28:25.280 --> 1:28:29.280 twelve or eighteen months, and then two months before it expires. 1:28:29.920 --> 1:28:33.960 The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security has to 1:28:34.040 --> 1:28:37.880 say whether or not they're going to reauthorize GPS. So 1:28:38.120 --> 1:28:41.240 there's like eight hundred and sixty thousand people in the 1:28:41.400 --> 1:28:46.920 US who have temporary protected status and it's not a 1:28:47.000 --> 1:28:50.439 path of citizenship. So basically people are just in limbo 1:28:50.600 --> 1:28:53.559 sometimes for decades, you know. They just have to reapply 1:28:53.760 --> 1:28:58.080 for this permit every eighteen months. So I have quite 1:28:58.080 --> 1:29:01.519 a few salvador and friends who in the United States 1:29:01.560 --> 1:29:04.479 since the nineties. They have kids, some of them acquirrent 1:29:04.520 --> 1:29:08.599 kids who are US citizen and they can't become permanent 1:29:08.680 --> 1:29:11.280 residents or have a pass of citizenship didn't. Most they 1:29:11.360 --> 1:29:14.120 leave the country and either come back with another type 1:29:14.120 --> 1:29:17.840 of parole or apply through a consulate, which many of 1:29:17.880 --> 1:29:19.479 them are just not willing to take that risk. 1:29:20.200 --> 1:29:23.080 What makes things even more complicated for the Venezuelans is 1:29:23.160 --> 1:29:26.320 that many of them are traveling without documents. It costs 1:29:26.320 --> 1:29:28.240 three hundred bucks to get a passport, they told me, 1:29:28.439 --> 1:29:31.759 and the weight's considerable. This makes their journeys even harder 1:29:32.000 --> 1:29:34.000 as every country the enter has to approve them to 1:29:34.240 --> 1:29:37.439 or without a passport, getting a visa, they said, would 1:29:37.439 --> 1:29:39.760 be nearly impossible, and just trying might result in the 1:29:39.800 --> 1:29:43.719 government coming after them. Such things, they said, are reserved 1:29:43.760 --> 1:29:47.360 for the wealthier citizens, people like Gonzales, who's asylum claim 1:29:47.439 --> 1:29:49.880 and stays at the Dutch and Spanish embassies, and who's 1:29:49.920 --> 1:29:52.439 right to join his family in exile, are all luxuries 1:29:52.479 --> 1:29:55.160 that most of his country people can't expect. It's dead. 1:29:55.360 --> 1:29:58.680 Most Venezualians must ride basses through Columbia, then walk north 1:29:58.720 --> 1:30:02.559 through the jungle buses, stir away on trains, or walk 1:30:02.600 --> 1:30:05.360 again all the way to the border. They all lamented 1:30:05.400 --> 1:30:08.679 to Dadian crossing, and so they wouldn't advise it without 1:30:08.720 --> 1:30:20.639 other options. They all made it anyway. Community. See, they don't. 1:30:24.560 --> 1:30:28.320 Because unfortunately we don't have much in our country. You 1:30:28.400 --> 1:30:30.360 don't have another option when you're dying of hunger and 1:30:30.400 --> 1:30:34.559 you don't have a future. You can't even study. So yeah, 1:30:34.840 --> 1:30:35.400 it's worth it. 1:30:37.360 --> 1:30:40.760 The economic situation is dire in Venezuela. Many families can't 1:30:40.800 --> 1:30:43.400 make ends me their currency is almost worth us, and 1:30:43.479 --> 1:30:45.880 the majorid government seems to have successfully installed itself for 1:30:45.960 --> 1:30:49.200 the foreseeable future. This will mean a continuation of embargoes 1:30:49.240 --> 1:30:52.880 and sanctions, which will harm the people more than the regime. Sadly, 1:30:52.960 --> 1:30:55.960 though economic hardships not a criteria for which one could 1:30:55.960 --> 1:30:57.479 be granted asylum in the USA. 1:30:58.080 --> 1:31:03.320 His Erica again, so severe economic deprivation can be persecution 1:31:03.680 --> 1:31:06.799 if it's linked to one of the other protected grounds, 1:31:06.840 --> 1:31:11.000 so race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a 1:31:11.080 --> 1:31:12.160 particular social group. 1:31:12.280 --> 1:31:14.040 So, for example, if. 1:31:14.040 --> 1:31:21.000 Someone participated in anti Moduro political activity and then we're 1:31:21.080 --> 1:31:25.200 blocked from getting a job or just denied economic opportunities 1:31:25.240 --> 1:31:30.000 to the point where they're starving, economic deprivation could count 1:31:30.040 --> 1:31:33.760 as persecution, but it's a very difficult case to make 1:31:33.920 --> 1:31:38.679 in the United States. In Mexico, you can get protection 1:31:39.160 --> 1:31:43.479 based on generalized conditions in your country, and so you know, 1:31:43.640 --> 1:31:49.880 Venezuelans tweeing economic collapse or even Central Americans fleeing extreme 1:31:50.040 --> 1:31:53.639 violence have a much easier time beating protection in Mexico 1:31:54.360 --> 1:31:56.880 than they would in the United States because of that 1:31:57.400 --> 1:32:01.040 kind of extra category of protection in Mexico. The issue 1:32:01.080 --> 1:32:03.720 with Mexico is just the very limited capacity of this 1:32:03.760 --> 1:32:07.280 asylum system overall, and the very dangerous conditions in which 1:32:07.320 --> 1:32:10.000 people are forced to wait while their cases are adjudicated. 1:32:10.600 --> 1:32:14.000 Going forward from the Dadian, they'll face an enormously difficult journey. 1:32:14.520 --> 1:32:17.160 The US does have a program for Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians, 1:32:17.160 --> 1:32:20.040 and Nicaraguans, then in theory allows them to apply, be 1:32:20.200 --> 1:32:23.920 pre approved and fly straight to the USA, but it's 1:32:23.960 --> 1:32:26.000 so delayed and broken. It's just not an option for 1:32:26.080 --> 1:32:28.320 people who barely have enough money for food, let learn 1:32:28.320 --> 1:32:29.760 a plane ticket there. 1:32:30.320 --> 1:32:37.000 HMV program is for cubanations, nick Garaguins, Venezuelans who have 1:32:37.200 --> 1:32:40.880 not crossed into Panama or Mexico in the past few years. 1:32:41.080 --> 1:32:43.760 You do not qualify who've done that or have not 1:32:43.840 --> 1:32:47.519 been interdeed at see if they're Haitian or Cuban. You 1:32:47.680 --> 1:32:49.519 have to have a sponsor in the United States who 1:32:49.560 --> 1:32:52.720 have some kind of legal status. You have to be 1:32:52.760 --> 1:32:55.320 able to pay for the flight, you have to have 1:32:56.000 --> 1:32:58.680 a passport, and you have to be able to wait 1:32:58.760 --> 1:33:01.839 forever long it takes for your application to be approved. 1:33:02.360 --> 1:33:06.080 And the Department of Homeland Security just announced that they 1:33:06.360 --> 1:33:09.680 are not renewing parole for people who are already in 1:33:09.720 --> 1:33:13.200 the United States. So people from those four countries who 1:33:13.400 --> 1:33:15.439 were in the US had up to two years of 1:33:15.560 --> 1:33:18.679 humanitarian parole which is not being renewed, so they either 1:33:18.720 --> 1:33:22.040 would need to apply for something else, or go back 1:33:22.040 --> 1:33:24.200 to their country, or just, I guess, stay in the 1:33:24.640 --> 1:34:10.400 United States undocumented until their cody. 1:33:59.360 --> 1:34:02.360 Had the same orly hundreds of times that week, sometimes 1:34:02.400 --> 1:34:05.760 off mike and sometimes on mike, sometimes holding my voice 1:34:05.800 --> 1:34:08.880 recorder and notebook, sometimes just sitting on the ground or 1:34:08.920 --> 1:34:11.479 walking on the trail or enjoying a bottle of cold 1:34:11.560 --> 1:34:16.000 water in Bahjigito, Crippling poverty and bad governance in their 1:34:16.040 --> 1:34:19.120 country made it difficult to see a future there. They 1:34:19.200 --> 1:34:21.759 wanted better for their children, so they brought them across 1:34:21.800 --> 1:34:23.800 the mountains and risked their lives in the jungle to 1:34:23.880 --> 1:34:26.599 give them a chance in life. I prepared a lot 1:34:26.640 --> 1:34:29.000 for this trip, and I tried to search for everything 1:34:29.080 --> 1:34:31.439 had my experience on the internet. But one thing I 1:34:31.479 --> 1:34:33.360 really didn't expect to learn in the jungle is just 1:34:33.479 --> 1:34:35.760 how much it's possible for parents to love their kids. 1:34:36.760 --> 1:34:39.599 I watched exhausted mothers hoist their babies onto their shoulders 1:34:39.640 --> 1:34:42.160 to keep walking, and somehow come up with a story 1:34:42.200 --> 1:34:44.240 that made the whole thing an adventure, not a tragedy, 1:34:45.280 --> 1:34:47.360 then did the same thing again the next day without 1:34:47.439 --> 1:34:51.320 sleeping or eating. I watched fathers carefully lay out their 1:34:51.360 --> 1:34:53.960 sleeping mac so the children could rest while they tried 1:34:54.000 --> 1:34:56.040 to do the same on the dirt or hardwood floors 1:34:56.880 --> 1:34:59.280 every day as their savings grew lower and they outlooked 1:34:59.280 --> 1:35:01.840 more bleak, watch parents try to smile for their kids. 1:35:02.600 --> 1:35:05.320 The sacrifices I saw them make, starving for days to 1:35:05.360 --> 1:35:07.760 give their kids something to eat, or spending their last 1:35:07.800 --> 1:35:10.080 remaining dollar on clean clothes for their kids while they 1:35:10.080 --> 1:35:13.360 walked barefoo and couldn't afford shoes really brought home for 1:35:13.479 --> 1:35:16.000 me the desire these families had for better future and 1:35:16.120 --> 1:35:20.320 the sacrifices they're willing to make for one. Another week later, 1:35:20.720 --> 1:35:22.519 it's still hard for me to accept that I'm home 1:35:22.600 --> 1:35:25.360 safely and they're still in as much danger, if not more. 1:35:28.800 --> 1:35:32.479 Our walk lasted five days. Thank god I was always 1:35:32.479 --> 1:35:34.719 strong enough and able to get back up when I fell, 1:35:34.840 --> 1:35:37.720 because if I fell and my children had to see 1:35:37.800 --> 1:35:40.040 me fall and not get up, imagine how bad that 1:35:40.080 --> 1:35:42.920 would be. My children want more in the future, but 1:35:43.360 --> 1:35:46.400 they despaired in the jungle. They said, tell me, mommy, 1:35:46.600 --> 1:35:49.240 when are we going to get there? Mommy? What could 1:35:49.280 --> 1:35:51.720 I say to them? My dear, We have to have 1:35:51.880 --> 1:35:55.000 patience because we have to make the crossing. We have 1:35:55.120 --> 1:35:59.320 to move forward. If not, we can't get out of here. 1:36:00.240 --> 1:36:03.519 Even among such difficult times, the Venezuelans always greeted me 1:36:03.560 --> 1:36:05.920 with a laugh and a smile, especially after a few 1:36:05.960 --> 1:36:08.560 days of running into each other. When I used venezuhaleen 1:36:08.640 --> 1:36:11.000 slang or my accents slowly reverted to the Spanish and 1:36:11.000 --> 1:36:13.720 I learned in Karrakas nearly two decades ago, they'd laugh 1:36:13.760 --> 1:36:16.800 at me, as they noted at that time, Karrakas had 1:36:16.800 --> 1:36:19.559 attracted plenty of migrants to his own. Some of them, 1:36:19.840 --> 1:36:22.559 like me, didn't stay, but we came to We wanted 1:36:22.560 --> 1:36:25.000 to see a revolution in the flesh, and they welcomed us. 1:36:25.880 --> 1:36:27.800 For a while in Caracas, I lived in a social 1:36:27.880 --> 1:36:30.360 center in La Pastora. I didn't pay rent, but there 1:36:30.400 --> 1:36:32.120 was a small, empty room and no one seemed to mind. 1:36:32.720 --> 1:36:35.240 Every day I talked to strangers, big friends, and try 1:36:35.280 --> 1:36:38.479 and learn something new. The situation there wasn't ideal. For 1:36:38.560 --> 1:36:40.880 one thing, we didn't really have showers, and also I 1:36:40.880 --> 1:36:43.360 got robbed at gunpoint. So for most of my time 1:36:43.400 --> 1:36:45.680 in the country, I stayed with the Chilean family i'd met. 1:36:46.280 --> 1:36:49.000 They welcomed me a more or less total stranger, into 1:36:49.040 --> 1:36:52.000 their homes and lives. In the evenings, we spent hours 1:36:52.040 --> 1:36:54.599 talking and they'd tell me stories about how they'd suffered 1:36:54.680 --> 1:36:58.320 under Pinochet, the hopes they'd had for their country, and 1:36:58.439 --> 1:37:00.920 how they'd had to flee to Krakas tens of thousands 1:37:00.920 --> 1:37:03.880 of their fellow Chileans. They introduced me to Victor Hara 1:37:04.280 --> 1:37:07.479 and Joy Pan. I introduced them to chumber Wamba, and 1:37:07.560 --> 1:37:10.200 we shared an affection for George Orwell. The song you 1:37:10.280 --> 1:37:12.680 heard after the adverts was not in fact Chumberwamba, but 1:37:12.840 --> 1:37:16.320 Chilean left his folk musician, Victor Haa. He's playing Eldreto 1:37:16.400 --> 1:37:19.200 de vi videnpaz the right to live in Peace in English, 1:37:19.880 --> 1:37:22.400 and it's one of his most famous songs. It confronts 1:37:22.439 --> 1:37:25.920 the US War in Vietnam. Later, after haw I was 1:37:25.960 --> 1:37:28.559 tortured and murdered by the Pinochet regime, it became an 1:37:28.600 --> 1:37:31.920 anthem of protest in the country. Parah and his friend 1:37:31.960 --> 1:37:34.519 Pabu and No Ruda were both symbols of the cultural 1:37:34.600 --> 1:37:36.920 power of the Chilean people and the brutality of the 1:37:36.960 --> 1:37:39.479 Pinochet regime, who broke the hands he used to play 1:37:39.520 --> 1:37:42.559 his guitar before they killed him. Haah and the Rudah 1:37:42.840 --> 1:37:45.720 both moved in the same revolutionary artistic circles as my 1:37:45.840 --> 1:37:49.040 Chilean host in Venezuela. At night, they tell me stories 1:37:49.040 --> 1:37:51.679 about the time they spent together. We'd have to speak loudly, 1:37:52.080 --> 1:37:53.479 as a man who adopted me as a sort of 1:37:53.520 --> 1:37:56.400 surrogate grandson had permanent hearing damage from the torture he'd 1:37:56.439 --> 1:37:59.720 endured under the same regime. Luckily, he'd been able to 1:37:59.760 --> 1:38:02.599 flee with his wife to Venezuela, where they were welcomed. 1:38:03.200 --> 1:38:05.400 They never returned to Chile and happily lived out the 1:38:05.439 --> 1:38:07.599 rest of their lives listening to their Victor Hara records 1:38:07.600 --> 1:38:11.160 in Caracas and living the ideals that have seen them persecuted. 1:38:12.280 --> 1:38:14.760 Their kindness to me, a nineteen year old stranger with 1:38:14.880 --> 1:38:17.560 terrible Spanish and nowhere to sleep at night, reflected the 1:38:17.640 --> 1:38:20.040 kindness they'd received, and I've tried to reflect it in 1:38:20.120 --> 1:38:20.800 turn ever since. 1:38:25.520 --> 1:38:28.760 Oh A life. 1:38:28.960 --> 1:38:37.400 Oh. I never once heard any children crying in Las 1:38:37.479 --> 1:38:41.080 Blancas or Barjiquito. Well note, until the deportations took their 1:38:41.120 --> 1:38:43.400 parents away on my last day there. Most of the 1:38:43.479 --> 1:38:47.160 time the kids entertained themselves. One day in Las Blancas 1:38:47.360 --> 1:38:49.840 where migrants can wait and spend weeks or months they 1:38:49.880 --> 1:38:51.840 don't have the funds to move forward with their journey. 1:38:52.520 --> 1:38:54.560 I left my ficture while she made a call and 1:38:54.600 --> 1:38:56.800 bumped into some little children playing a game where they 1:38:56.920 --> 1:38:59.280 throw water bottle caps into half a breeze block from 1:38:59.320 --> 1:39:02.880 various distance, each of them counting how many they could land. 1:39:04.080 --> 1:39:06.360 I sat down next to them, put maricorder on the 1:39:06.400 --> 1:39:13.559 ground and asked nicely if I could join them. That's 1:39:19.560 --> 1:39:21.679 like a tiny pit buss. One of the kids bought 1:39:21.720 --> 1:39:23.800 me a pile of bottle tops, and I chatted with 1:39:23.880 --> 1:39:25.519 them as we threw a bottle cap to the broken 1:39:25.520 --> 1:39:29.000 piece of concrete. What was it like in America? They asked. 1:39:29.920 --> 1:39:32.479 They's had a lot of questions about Africa, having probably 1:39:32.479 --> 1:39:34.760 met African kids in the casita just across the way. 1:39:35.800 --> 1:39:38.519 Do they have big buildings in Africa? Does it rain there? 1:39:39.160 --> 1:39:40.599 How long does it take to get there in a bus? 1:39:41.600 --> 1:39:44.479 Then they tested by venezuela and legitimacy by drawing me 1:39:44.520 --> 1:39:46.360 in a ripper in my notebook, and I'm asking him 1:39:46.400 --> 1:39:48.880 if I knew what it was, what I passed a test? 1:39:49.520 --> 1:39:51.120 They asked me how to say some things in English, 1:39:51.600 --> 1:39:53.120 and they showed me the toys they bought with them, 1:39:53.120 --> 1:39:55.840 which were very few. One of them had a small 1:39:55.840 --> 1:39:59.639 plastic cow of which he was very proud on avoca. 1:40:05.920 --> 1:40:08.280 After a while, they asked what I was doing, and 1:40:08.320 --> 1:40:11.000 I showed them how I record interviews, at which point 1:40:11.200 --> 1:40:14.160 they began recording themselves and each other, wildly stabbing at 1:40:14.160 --> 1:40:16.360 the buttons on my recorder, which I will admit scared 1:40:16.439 --> 1:40:19.040 the crap out of me, but I didn't have the 1:40:19.120 --> 1:40:22.000 heart to take it off. Then they stroked the fluffy 1:40:22.040 --> 1:40:24.479 WIMD protector I use on my microphone. It told me 1:40:24.520 --> 1:40:27.360 it was like a tiny teddy bear. Eventually I was 1:40:27.439 --> 1:40:29.839 able to trade my recorder for several small wooden animals 1:40:29.880 --> 1:40:32.000 I'd brought with me as gifts, which seemed to be 1:40:32.080 --> 1:40:33.720 a deal. The left all of us feelings that we 1:40:33.800 --> 1:40:36.519 come out ahead. They seemed to unbothered by the suffering 1:40:36.560 --> 1:40:39.320 around them. But Las Blancas is no place for children. 1:40:40.000 --> 1:40:42.360 They should be in school, learning the English phrases they 1:40:42.439 --> 1:40:44.800 kept repeating to me every time I saw them. But 1:40:45.360 --> 1:40:47.519 for a chance to use their English, they first had 1:40:47.520 --> 1:40:56.120 to endure month more danger and deprivation. I guess, as 1:40:56.160 --> 1:40:59.120 son some slightly hold A. Children made the journey alone 1:40:59.880 --> 1:41:04.200 or almost alone. They were accompanied by a spaniel called Channel. 1:41:05.400 --> 1:41:07.200 I saw a future while as people are characters them 1:41:07.240 --> 1:41:09.040 through the Darien Gap. But to my ANALYSI this is 1:41:09.080 --> 1:41:11.440 the first spaniel that has made the treacherous crossing. 1:41:13.479 --> 1:41:14.120 Inezuela. 1:41:21.960 --> 1:41:24.840 Like everyone else, they had terrible memories from the jungle. 1:41:27.600 --> 1:41:29.400 The truth is you have to fight a lot to 1:41:29.479 --> 1:41:32.000 be able to get out of there, because not everyone 1:41:32.080 --> 1:41:34.919 gets out of that jungle, and it's even more difficult 1:41:34.960 --> 1:41:37.960 with small children. There are times when one goes without 1:41:38.040 --> 1:41:42.040 food and it's very stressful because all around us all 1:41:42.160 --> 1:41:44.800 we saw was the jungle, and we never saw the 1:41:44.880 --> 1:41:48.560 way out. But it is complicated. The truth is that 1:41:48.680 --> 1:41:52.320 it is very hard the jungle. Well, I would really 1:41:52.400 --> 1:41:53.600 recommend that people. 1:41:53.439 --> 1:41:54.040 Never go there. 1:41:54.560 --> 1:41:57.599 All our feet are hurting, we can't walk properly. Our 1:41:57.640 --> 1:42:00.280 whole body is hurt. We went days without eating. 1:42:01.479 --> 1:42:03.920 They were traveling. They said to join their parents, and 1:42:04.000 --> 1:42:06.960 because in Venezuela they told me they were always hungry. 1:42:07.560 --> 1:42:09.639 They saw people sleeping on the streets, right, that would 1:42:09.640 --> 1:42:11.280 be their only option. One day they didn't leave. 1:42:14.479 --> 1:42:16.439 I want to see mom. I haven't seen her in 1:42:16.560 --> 1:42:19.320 three years, and I want to have my American dream to. 1:42:20.920 --> 1:42:23.160 I want to see my dad, my aunt, and my uncle. 1:42:23.600 --> 1:42:25.320 I haven't seen them for three years either. 1:42:26.280 --> 1:42:28.519 Despite the heart yet, they didn't blame their parents for leaving. 1:42:30.320 --> 1:42:32.639 We know that we made it because of them. They're 1:42:32.720 --> 1:42:34.760 the ones who sent us money for the things we need. 1:42:35.120 --> 1:42:37.240 We were able to get a few things, not everything 1:42:37.280 --> 1:42:39.120 we needed, but it's all thanks to them. 1:42:40.160 --> 1:42:41.880 The end of their interview, as I always do, I 1:42:41.880 --> 1:42:43.920 asked them if there's anything else that they wanted to share. 1:42:45.600 --> 1:42:46.799 I don't know, but our parents. 1:42:47.080 --> 1:42:49.040 We love them a lot and hope we can see 1:42:49.040 --> 1:42:49.439 them soon. 1:43:01.520 --> 1:43:04.120 Like many of the Valezuela's I spoke to, their American 1:43:04.200 --> 1:43:07.479 dreams were pretty modest for most of them, though they'll 1:43:07.520 --> 1:43:10.559 be unachievable in the current immigration system. They'll end up 1:43:10.560 --> 1:43:13.400 stuck in Mexico, in Mexico City, perhaps so further south 1:43:14.200 --> 1:43:17.160 in Tijuana or Juara's working across the border. They're lucky, 1:43:17.960 --> 1:43:20.360 but if they cried across between ports of entry, we'll 1:43:20.360 --> 1:43:23.439 get caught traveling without red string. In Mexico, there was 1:43:23.560 --> 1:43:25.799 being deported or relocated back to southern Mexico. 1:43:26.640 --> 1:43:30.120 His explaining that process, the Mexican National Guard has been 1:43:30.800 --> 1:43:34.519 detaining people who are trying across the US medical border, 1:43:34.600 --> 1:43:38.040 and they had been sending them south to Mexico City 1:43:38.560 --> 1:43:43.200 and Chiapas to Tapachula. Now there's been this huge effort 1:43:43.320 --> 1:43:46.280 to stop people from weaving, not only at the US 1:43:46.360 --> 1:43:50.040 Mexico border, but even in Mexco City. So we're seeing 1:43:50.800 --> 1:43:55.280 Mexican Immigration and National Guard doing sweeps of migrant camps, 1:43:55.479 --> 1:43:58.400 of apartment buildings, doesn't matter if the person has a 1:43:58.439 --> 1:44:02.920 CBP one appointment. Sometimes they'll just send themselves to either 1:44:03.080 --> 1:44:06.720 Chiapa's an increasingly to Basco so Viere. Mossau, which is 1:44:06.760 --> 1:44:11.280 where people are arriving in Tabasco has one shelter and 1:44:11.400 --> 1:44:14.080 I think the capacity is around two hundred and fifty 1:44:14.080 --> 1:44:17.719 three hundred people, and earlier this year they were sending 1:44:18.040 --> 1:44:21.880 twenty thousand migrants a month there and then they posted 1:44:21.920 --> 1:44:23.840 the military yips so that people can't leave. 1:44:24.640 --> 1:44:25.880 And it's very dangerous there. 1:44:25.880 --> 1:44:28.680 It's a drug tracking area, so it's you know, not 1:44:28.840 --> 1:44:30.920 only are people sleeping in the streets, but they're sleeping 1:44:31.240 --> 1:44:33.040 on the streets of some of the most dangerous cities 1:44:33.080 --> 1:44:35.920 in Mexaco. Win very few services there to help them 1:44:36.400 --> 1:44:37.400 even get their next meal. 1:44:37.840 --> 1:44:39.960 This, of course, didn't happen without the imfluence of the 1:44:40.040 --> 1:44:43.280 United States. In many ways, Joe Biden has done exactly 1:44:43.320 --> 1:44:45.519 what Donald Trump promised to do. Not only has he 1:44:45.600 --> 1:44:48.840 built more wool, he's also forced Mexico to pay for 1:44:48.840 --> 1:44:51.880 a significant amount of the US IS immigration enforcement. But 1:44:52.240 --> 1:44:54.599 when people are sent back to south of Mexico, they'll 1:44:54.640 --> 1:44:56.880 just make their way north again, only this time with 1:44:57.000 --> 1:45:00.640 fewer resources and even greater risk. They're all proud of 1:45:00.640 --> 1:45:02.960 where they're from. About half the groups I saw had 1:45:03.080 --> 1:45:06.320 Venezuelan flags and the cats or backpacks, but they're also 1:45:06.479 --> 1:45:08.600 very aware of the betrayal they get as Venezuelans and 1:45:08.640 --> 1:45:10.960 the US media and many of them made the very 1:45:11.040 --> 1:45:14.080 valid point if American is afraid of Venezuela gangs, they 1:45:14.120 --> 1:45:15.840 ought to consider how much more afraid people are in 1:45:15.880 --> 1:45:24.799 a country where they actually exist. N Solana, I'm thirteen. 1:45:25.560 --> 1:45:28.840 Please don't believe that because one person from Venezuela does crime, 1:45:29.280 --> 1:45:30.880 that all Venezuelans do crime. 1:45:31.680 --> 1:45:34.000 But at least they get it portrayed in the US media. 1:45:34.360 --> 1:45:37.240 Many African migrants don't even get that. Of course, it 1:45:37.479 --> 1:45:40.559 doesn't mean they don't know about the USA his powers 1:45:40.600 --> 1:45:44.080 in her anglophone Cameroonian group again talking about their impressions 1:45:44.120 --> 1:45:46.800 of America where they'd like to live when they arrive here. 1:45:47.479 --> 1:45:50.519 We know America is a very beautiful country, and America 1:45:50.600 --> 1:45:51.439 has human right. 1:45:51.920 --> 1:45:54.000 They care about the citizens. 1:45:54.400 --> 1:45:57.439 In fact, they care about humanity. See, I don't want 1:45:57.520 --> 1:46:00.240 to have a friend that I'm gonna stay with for 1:46:00.360 --> 1:46:01.000 the meantime. 1:46:01.120 --> 1:46:05.200 Then it gets that's great, Yeah, that helps her lot. Yeah. 1:46:05.360 --> 1:46:07.639 Do you know which city your friend lives in? She's 1:46:07.680 --> 1:46:09.160 in merry Land, Oh, Maryland? 1:46:09.240 --> 1:46:12.240 Okay, yeah, So if I may asks, if you don't 1:46:12.280 --> 1:46:16.080 mind me asking, of course, what do Americans? How do 1:46:16.200 --> 1:46:19.360 they treat or how do they see immigrants? 1:46:20.080 --> 1:46:23.960 Oh, my friend, it's changing a lot. African bagaants in particular, 1:46:24.000 --> 1:46:26.600 will struggle with a lack of resources. The absence of 1:46:26.680 --> 1:46:30.880 solidarity structures an obvious anti blackness along the journey. Along 1:46:30.920 --> 1:46:32.800 with this, people they meet along the way simply lack 1:46:32.880 --> 1:46:35.960 context of their journeys, why they're leaving, what they're fleeing. 1:46:36.520 --> 1:46:39.479 Language barriers may exclude many of them from using CBP one, 1:46:39.720 --> 1:46:43.439 which is only offered English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. Less 1:46:43.439 --> 1:46:46.040 than fifteen percent of asylum cases are conducted in English, 1:46:46.520 --> 1:46:48.839 but the app ignores huge toasts of the world outside 1:46:48.880 --> 1:46:52.760 the Western hemisphere. But Jikito, I use French to speak 1:46:52.760 --> 1:46:55.800 to min who students speak English, and began to notice 1:46:55.840 --> 1:46:58.080 the complete absence of signage, and I think other as 1:46:58.120 --> 1:47:02.200 Spanish and sometimes English Creole. This is likely an issue 1:47:02.240 --> 1:47:05.560 throughout that long journeys. Here's one migrant from Angola and 1:47:05.600 --> 1:47:07.880 I should probably at this point that Angolan people tend 1:47:07.920 --> 1:47:10.880 to speak Portuguese, it's a national language, but French with 1:47:10.920 --> 1:47:12.400 the language I shared with some of them, as I 1:47:12.439 --> 1:47:13.400 don't speak Portuguese. 1:47:18.439 --> 1:47:22.320 It was too much, very complicated. Like me, I did 1:47:22.360 --> 1:47:26.160 a week in Brazil at Brazil and for Peru, Peru 1:47:26.280 --> 1:47:30.280 to nicol Klee. Then here I did. We did four days, 1:47:30.400 --> 1:47:35.200 four days walking. There are many mountains, many risks, there 1:47:35.240 --> 1:47:37.439 are many animals along the route. You have to follow 1:47:37.479 --> 1:47:41.479 the path for four days and there's no food. But 1:47:41.600 --> 1:47:44.439 we are glad to arrive today. This is the first group. 1:47:45.479 --> 1:47:48.280 There's the second, third, fourth, fifth group. They're still on 1:47:48.400 --> 1:47:51.120 the road. I'm very proud of the fact that we 1:47:51.240 --> 1:47:54.640 made it despite the suffering. But God was with us 1:47:55.000 --> 1:47:56.080 that is what is important. 1:47:57.800 --> 1:48:00.479 There are numerous instances a French speaking micro trying to 1:48:00.560 --> 1:48:02.920 approach the border near me in Santy Ses and being 1:48:02.960 --> 1:48:05.360 turned away for not having an appointment on that that's 1:48:05.400 --> 1:48:08.400 not available in the language they can understand. These language 1:48:08.400 --> 1:48:11.120 barriers might stop the migrants getting information, but they don't 1:48:11.120 --> 1:48:14.400 stop them helping one another. His powers group describing the 1:48:14.479 --> 1:48:18.120 isolation they felt, but also the kindness they experienced. Do 1:48:18.240 --> 1:48:21.919 you think people on the trip treat African people differently? 1:48:22.360 --> 1:48:27.439 Yeah, they do differently differently. They're not being communicated, They're 1:48:27.600 --> 1:48:31.439 just by themselves. They don't associate. They look at us differently. 1:48:32.360 --> 1:48:32.960 Yeah I. 1:48:34.720 --> 1:48:37.040 Had, I had someone who supported me. 1:48:37.600 --> 1:48:41.320 Yeah, yeah, I saw. I saw how kind of person 1:48:41.600 --> 1:48:45.160 was because of their obvious foreignness and perceived an ability 1:48:45.200 --> 1:48:48.960 to communicate. African migrants are often targeted for crime in Mexico. 1:48:49.560 --> 1:48:54.680 Since leaving Panama, have heard from migrants who are raped, kidnapped, ransomed, 1:48:54.960 --> 1:48:57.679 and I even heard about one who was killed. Because 1:48:57.680 --> 1:49:00.800 of their difficulties accessing this CVP one app many face 1:49:00.920 --> 1:49:03.720 longer way to Mexico, which may in turn leave them 1:49:03.800 --> 1:49:06.400 open to extortion or see them decide to cross the 1:49:06.439 --> 1:49:10.240 border between ports of entry. I've met hundreds of migrants, 1:49:10.720 --> 1:49:14.000 mainly Mauritanians and Guineans, who have made this difficult choice 1:49:14.120 --> 1:49:17.280 since bidons of Silent Bank came into force. Due to 1:49:17.320 --> 1:49:20.360 the distance, African migrants also face a longer, more expensive, 1:49:20.479 --> 1:49:24.280 and more dangerous journey. His premier from Zimbabwe, describing her 1:49:24.360 --> 1:49:26.000 journey just to get to Bao Jiquito. 1:49:26.680 --> 1:49:30.800 The situation for me, it was tough. I just ran 1:49:30.880 --> 1:49:34.240 away to South Africa. In South Africa was not safe 1:49:34.760 --> 1:49:42.519 solofobia and they almost secure me and my boyfriend. Oh no, 1:49:43.000 --> 1:49:49.599 and even my big father was abusive too much because 1:49:49.680 --> 1:49:55.160 of the politics. I'm opposition part. 1:49:55.360 --> 1:49:55.920 So it was. 1:49:58.160 --> 1:50:01.200 Now even in South Africa, I was not safe at all. 1:50:01.600 --> 1:50:04.160 It was those people. They were like following me and 1:50:04.360 --> 1:50:07.720 my daughter. So I spent three months on the road 1:50:07.840 --> 1:50:11.600 coming here. I leave South Africa, I think fourth of 1:50:11.720 --> 1:50:17.040 July till now I'm in Panama. I'm still working using bases. 1:50:18.000 --> 1:50:21.920 Jesus, How you get away from Africa to America? Did 1:50:21.960 --> 1:50:23.000 you fly or take a boat? 1:50:23.840 --> 1:50:28.360 The thing is I fly from Joannespec to Brazil. Then 1:50:28.560 --> 1:50:32.639 I seek asylum in Brazil. Then I wanted to stay 1:50:32.680 --> 1:50:37.960 in Brazil, so people said no, yeah, in Brazil, you 1:50:38.120 --> 1:50:43.200 can't because of language, Yeah, Portuguese. So I start also 1:50:43.360 --> 1:50:46.240 using people's groups like you list take this pass from 1:50:46.680 --> 1:50:49.040 point A to point base. So we take a bus 1:50:49.160 --> 1:50:53.719 from Brazil to Bolivia, then from Bolivia to Peru, Peru 1:50:54.400 --> 1:50:58.840 to Equador, Colombia. Then you start working using Darien cap two. 1:50:58.920 --> 1:51:02.200 I'm here in African migrants will end up in different 1:51:02.280 --> 1:51:05.519 shelters that are more remote or have less connectivity, again 1:51:05.640 --> 1:51:10.200 making their asylum process harder. Unlike migrants from the Western Hemisphere, 1:51:10.320 --> 1:51:12.840 they might struggle to find solidarity networks even inside the 1:51:12.960 --> 1:51:16.439 USA without a significant diaspora, and many of the migrants 1:51:16.479 --> 1:51:18.600 I met in the jungle have struggled to find sponsors 1:51:19.200 --> 1:51:21.879 los Just the people I spoke to here, including Primrose 1:51:21.920 --> 1:51:24.320 and her daughter, are still looking for someone to give 1:51:24.360 --> 1:51:26.320 them a helping hand as they start their new life. 1:51:27.040 --> 1:51:28.840 We spoke a lot over the week I is there, 1:51:29.080 --> 1:51:32.840 and we've spoken most days since. It's heartbreaking for me 1:51:33.000 --> 1:51:35.360 to see her daughter going for months without education or 1:51:35.360 --> 1:51:38.040 even a safe place to sleep. I've seen photos of 1:51:38.080 --> 1:51:41.360 them sleeping on the street, They've ridden crowded buses north, 1:51:41.960 --> 1:51:44.120 and I've heard their frustrated attempts to comply with the 1:51:44.240 --> 1:51:46.760 arcane and complicated restrictions on their right to come here 1:51:46.840 --> 1:51:50.000 and ask for help. And it's been really hard since 1:51:50.040 --> 1:51:52.360 I got home to reconcile this with a national discussion 1:51:52.400 --> 1:51:54.200 that seems to see migration as a number that we 1:51:54.280 --> 1:51:57.160 have to decrease. A migrants are something other than people 1:51:57.160 --> 1:51:58.960 who want to come here for all the same reasons, 1:51:58.960 --> 1:52:03.519 iding happily and peaceably as our neighbors. Now that they've 1:52:03.560 --> 1:52:06.360 come this far, magants from outside the Western hemisphere have 1:52:06.479 --> 1:52:08.920 to keep going. They kind of even file their claims 1:52:08.960 --> 1:52:11.920 on CBP one until they make it to Tapatula, which 1:52:11.960 --> 1:52:14.960 is hundreds of dollars and thousands of kilometers from Panama. 1:52:15.640 --> 1:52:17.439 They likely don't have the funds to go back home 1:52:17.479 --> 1:52:19.760 even if they want to, and they are far more 1:52:19.920 --> 1:52:23.040 likely to be robbed or kidnapped along the way. However, 1:52:23.120 --> 1:52:26.080 their story is often not told. Reporting on the board 1:52:26.120 --> 1:52:28.920 is still largely focused on Spanish speaking migrants, with some 1:52:29.040 --> 1:52:32.120 space of Chinese or Haitians, but magots from Africa rarely 1:52:32.160 --> 1:52:34.840 get much care or attention in the media. In part, 1:52:35.400 --> 1:52:38.479 this has helped them avoid the demonization that Venezuelan migrants 1:52:38.479 --> 1:52:41.280 are all too aware of, but in part it also 1:52:41.400 --> 1:52:44.360 leads to a lack of concern for their needs. I 1:52:44.439 --> 1:52:48.200 want to end today with Gabriel from Equatorial Guinea sharing 1:52:48.280 --> 1:52:49.440 his message for Americans. 1:52:50.080 --> 1:52:57.760 Ah Aca not as Yeah, A lot of people get 1:52:57.840 --> 1:53:02.160 this confused. Africa is not a country. A lot of 1:53:02.240 --> 1:53:05.639 them think when they see you and you're black person, 1:53:05.760 --> 1:53:09.920 they say, are you African? And it's like, there are 1:53:10.040 --> 1:53:15.759 lots of countries in Africa. Kana, Nigeria, you got Guinea, 1:53:16.360 --> 1:53:20.160 you got the more Atinian people. There are loads of countries. 1:53:20.280 --> 1:53:21.439 I wish people would know. 1:53:21.840 --> 1:53:22.560 How do I say this? 1:53:23.320 --> 1:53:27.040 I wish they'd take us into account because really they 1:53:27.120 --> 1:53:30.960 don't consider us when they say Africa is a country. 1:53:31.400 --> 1:53:33.519 They don't care about us the way we care about them. 1:53:34.080 --> 1:53:37.200 And this is the way of seeing things which doesn't 1:53:37.240 --> 1:53:40.360 consider us as human, not the same as them. You 1:53:40.479 --> 1:53:44.640 understand they see us as Africans or animals something like that. 1:54:00.080 --> 1:54:00.360 M h. 1:54:12.560 --> 1:54:26.559 Yeah kid again pretty it's yell of the bat. He said, 1:54:26.600 --> 1:54:26.840 I was. 1:54:29.160 --> 1:54:32.120 A boy, remain I polo people. 1:54:34.160 --> 1:54:36.440 Ermato you know something? 1:54:36.440 --> 1:54:37.640 Don't have people an annouches? 1:54:38.480 --> 1:54:39.000 Can they have me? 1:54:39.080 --> 1:54:39.320 People? 1:54:40.200 --> 1:54:41.000 Only day was an. 1:54:40.960 --> 1:54:47.360 Agent said I'm an a bad man. Again, you're a logic, 1:54:48.120 --> 1:54:57.440 but it isn't. Young and yea, some of you recognize 1:54:57.440 --> 1:54:59.360 the audio that we opened this show with, and then 1:54:59.440 --> 1:55:02.320 if you weren't, it's a sample from the Fourth Declaration 1:55:02.400 --> 1:55:05.000 of the Lacandan Jungle that Manuchow used to open his 1:55:05.080 --> 1:55:08.000 shows with. It's a piece of music that's very emotive 1:55:08.040 --> 1:55:10.520 for me. Obviously, I'm a white leftist guy in my 1:55:10.640 --> 1:55:13.440 thirties who learned Spanish and decided to live in Barcelona. 1:55:13.920 --> 1:55:16.000 So I have a story about running into Manuchow once 1:55:16.040 --> 1:55:18.360 where he was busking, but that's not what I want 1:55:18.400 --> 1:55:21.720 to share today. Because I'm technology challenged, I can't seem 1:55:21.760 --> 1:55:24.320 to get my phone to download songs, but I've managed 1:55:24.360 --> 1:55:26.520 to download the same Manu Chow playlist that I ripped 1:55:26.520 --> 1:55:28.800 off a rewriteable CD when I was in high school 1:55:29.320 --> 1:55:31.680 and put it on the various headphones and garment watches 1:55:31.760 --> 1:55:33.480 that I've had of the last two decades or so. 1:55:34.360 --> 1:55:36.560 When I'm away for work, I like to run whenever 1:55:36.600 --> 1:55:38.960 I can. Obviously I wasn't just going to go for 1:55:39.000 --> 1:55:41.800 a jog straight into the Darien Gap, but once we 1:55:41.880 --> 1:55:44.760 were out of Bajajiqito, it gave me some time to 1:55:44.920 --> 1:55:47.800 run and think and process the things that I've seen, 1:55:48.520 --> 1:55:50.000 And while I do that, I listen to the same 1:55:50.080 --> 1:55:53.080 doz or so MP three files. I was listening to 1:55:53.200 --> 1:55:55.640 this song one day after I got back from Lahas Blancas, 1:55:55.760 --> 1:55:57.760 as I sweated my way up ahead in the rainforest, 1:55:58.360 --> 1:56:01.120 hoping to see a sloth. I didn't see a sloth, 1:56:01.800 --> 1:56:06.160 but it seemed like an appropriate soundtrack. Manuchoo himself as 1:56:06.160 --> 1:56:09.120 a child of refugees from Francoist Spain. He sings in 1:56:09.200 --> 1:56:13.080 French and Spanish, willoff and Galician and Portuguese, among other languages, 1:56:13.600 --> 1:56:16.360 often several of them in the same song, the product 1:56:16.400 --> 1:56:19.840 of growing up among other migrants of diverse backgrounds. I 1:56:20.000 --> 1:56:22.000 like the way he plays with language because it reminds 1:56:22.040 --> 1:56:23.760 me of the way I so often speak to my 1:56:23.880 --> 1:56:27.960 friends Spanglish, for example, or Frannglais. It's the way people 1:56:28.040 --> 1:56:31.480 talk in border regions and refugee camps, languages that don't 1:56:31.520 --> 1:56:34.000 have the support of a state or the academy, but 1:56:34.080 --> 1:56:37.600 nonetheless convey so much meaning for so many people. That song, 1:56:37.720 --> 1:56:40.200 in particular reminds me of my first time reading about 1:56:40.240 --> 1:56:43.000 Zapatismo in a tiny anarchist cafe in the West Midlands. 1:56:43.840 --> 1:56:45.720 I remember being struck as a kid from europ who 1:56:45.760 --> 1:56:48.280 would frequently drive to France or Belgium to race bikes 1:56:48.280 --> 1:56:50.920 and buy cheap beer, that the USA still maintained a 1:56:50.960 --> 1:56:55.560 fortified border with Mexico. People couldn't travel freely, but money could. 1:56:56.720 --> 1:56:59.440 With its realization and the writings in particular of Suquam 1:56:59.560 --> 1:57:02.080 and Temar course, along with my talks in Spain to 1:57:02.120 --> 1:57:05.560 old anarchists, that encouraged me to learn Spanish, which I 1:57:05.680 --> 1:57:08.680 pursued by spending months in Spain and Venezuela and learning 1:57:08.720 --> 1:57:11.320 thanks to the patient to the people around me. It 1:57:11.440 --> 1:57:13.920 was a new anarchism which came from the periphery, not 1:57:14.000 --> 1:57:17.240 only a liberal cores, which gave me my first serious politics. 1:57:18.320 --> 1:57:21.520 I traveled to Venezuela to understand the revolution there. I 1:57:21.600 --> 1:57:24.000 did a PhD to try and understand the revolution in Spain. 1:57:25.040 --> 1:57:27.440 It's all very well understanding things, but I think it's 1:57:27.520 --> 1:57:29.800 much more important to do things, and I tried to 1:57:29.840 --> 1:57:32.720 practice mutual aid as much as I can. Since I 1:57:32.760 --> 1:57:34.600 got back from the daddy En, I've loaded up a 1:57:34.640 --> 1:57:37.480 heavy backpack and carried water into the desert and spent 1:57:37.600 --> 1:57:39.280 hours trying to connect the friends I made in the 1:57:39.360 --> 1:57:42.520 jungle with services along the way. In the face of 1:57:42.600 --> 1:57:45.440 so much cruelty, it feels good to be doing something 1:57:45.520 --> 1:57:47.880 to help and carrying the water is away. I can 1:57:47.920 --> 1:57:50.920 make a material difference in a terrible situation. But in 1:57:50.960 --> 1:57:54.040 all my time reporting, I've really never felt as disempowered 1:57:54.080 --> 1:57:57.880 and helpless as I did in Last Blancas. Here at 1:57:57.920 --> 1:58:00.720 the first official migrant reception center off to Daddi Enne, 1:58:01.160 --> 1:58:05.720 the Panamanian government registers migrants. NGO's offer a few services, 1:58:06.400 --> 1:58:10.600 and the US funded process of deportation for migrants from Colombia, Cuba, 1:58:10.920 --> 1:58:14.520 Venezuela and India begins. Some of those sent to India 1:58:14.600 --> 1:58:17.600 might well be Nepalese who often travel on fake Indian passports. 1:58:18.560 --> 1:58:22.640 The little cluster of cheap tents, shipping container offices, un shelters, 1:58:22.680 --> 1:58:24.720 and barbed wire offences is where the rubber meets a 1:58:24.800 --> 1:58:28.080 road for the USA's border and migration policy, and it's 1:58:28.120 --> 1:58:32.040 heartbreaking to witness. As migrants were called out to the 1:58:32.120 --> 1:58:35.520 security office to begin the deportation process. I tried to 1:58:35.600 --> 1:58:38.560 narrate the scene into my voice recorder, but I struggled, 1:58:38.960 --> 1:58:41.520 in part because their family members asked me questions, hoping 1:58:41.560 --> 1:58:51.240 I can help. Yeah, planings on the side, But in 1:58:51.280 --> 1:58:53.840 a larger part, this was also difficult because I couldn't help, 1:58:54.200 --> 1:58:56.880 and I deeply wanted to. The best I could offer 1:58:56.960 --> 1:58:59.360 was an arm around someone's shoulder and the promise to 1:58:59.400 --> 1:59:01.320 email any one who I could think of, and asked 1:59:01.360 --> 1:59:07.400 what was going on? This guy's just sobbing. Yeah, that's 1:59:07.440 --> 1:59:18.640 really tough. Some people's parents, some people's partners, some who 1:59:24.800 --> 1:59:26.960 I'll explain exactly what was happening in a moment, but 1:59:27.040 --> 1:59:29.560 first I want to explain how I got here. On 1:59:29.640 --> 1:59:31.800 the day we left Maraganti, we set off at the 1:59:31.840 --> 1:59:33.920 same time some migrants who are making their own journey 1:59:33.960 --> 1:59:37.680 to last Blankets. PA. Is carrying only myself and my 1:59:37.760 --> 1:59:40.840 fixed daddy and a pe aguero, so we're moving a 1:59:40.880 --> 1:59:43.520 lot faster than the boats full of migrants. On the 1:59:43.600 --> 1:59:47.000 way north. We passed them, they smiled and waves as 1:59:47.040 --> 1:59:49.120 we rode by. Many of them had met me the 1:59:49.200 --> 1:59:52.240 day before. All of them were ecstatic to have survived 1:59:52.280 --> 1:59:56.640 the daddy enn and be heading north. Yeah, it's a 1:59:56.680 --> 1:59:59.240 pretty busy stretcher ray that it's party three or four 1:59:59.280 --> 2:00:04.320 pedaguas full of migrant Hello. There are kids shogging at me. 2:00:04.440 --> 2:00:07.640 And taught them some English words yesterday and they're shouting 2:00:07.680 --> 2:00:09.280 them back to me today, which is nice. 2:00:10.680 --> 2:00:11.080 You got it. 2:00:15.680 --> 2:00:23.720 Family from Panama. They might be Enngio people or something. 2:00:23.760 --> 2:00:27.520 They lived a bill shocked to the whole scene. Here 2:00:27.560 --> 2:00:32.600 we are passing another bit agua. Now they're all waving 2:00:32.640 --> 2:00:39.680 at me. It's got to be uncomfortable. Pack that denity 2:00:39.720 --> 2:00:47.920 into a bi agua one, two, three, four, five, three, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, 2:00:47.960 --> 2:00:53.560 forty fifty sixteen people. Yeah, once the boat arrived, they 2:00:53.600 --> 2:00:56.120 did embark in LaaS Blancas the next day. I was 2:00:56.160 --> 2:00:59.040 there to meet them. We're just walking into Lahas Blancas. 2:01:00.120 --> 2:01:03.520 Hectic here so it's a new shop here, and outside 2:01:03.600 --> 2:01:08.080 the shop they've made like a line of outlets to 2:01:08.240 --> 2:01:11.400 charge people. It's a dollar an hour to charge your telephone. 2:01:11.960 --> 2:01:13.680 As we go in, there are a row of like 2:01:14.320 --> 2:01:17.320 kind of sheds which represent shops. And then further in, 2:01:17.720 --> 2:01:20.920 every ngo has its own little kind of shed. They're 2:01:20.960 --> 2:01:25.240 all covered in tarps. They're like canvas and tarp tents 2:01:26.560 --> 2:01:32.520 actually here so see unief, I see, oh I am yeah, 2:01:32.520 --> 2:01:34.760 they have that sort of little tent office here. I 2:01:34.840 --> 2:01:39.840 guess see here as for example, has information psychological support, 2:01:39.920 --> 2:01:47.440 safe space for women, Wonnief has some workshops for children, 2:01:47.600 --> 2:01:51.440 and then you know they're hours. I guess, nice little 2:01:51.520 --> 2:01:59.640 chairs in there and yeah, see you can't take photographs 2:01:59.640 --> 2:02:02.880 in there, which is good. Yeah, and then it's just 2:02:03.080 --> 2:02:09.200 a crowd of people coming out. And there's also more 2:02:11.200 --> 2:02:14.960 little Mormon situation. See oh yeah, I guess see. Oh 2:02:15.000 --> 2:02:17.440 I am are supported by Church of Jesus Christ on 2:02:17.520 --> 2:02:20.240 bat Today Saints. Then the Red Cross has got a 2:02:20.240 --> 2:02:26.680 shipping container. I've been hoping last blank Cuts would be 2:02:26.680 --> 2:02:29.360 a better scene than baj Jugito, with more organized sleeping 2:02:29.440 --> 2:02:32.960 arrangements and hopefully basic necessities like clean water, food and 2:02:33.080 --> 2:02:36.160 Wi Fi provided by their numerous NGOs who work there. 2:02:36.920 --> 2:02:40.400 But if anythink it was worse in Baja Jigito. In Bajuquito, 2:02:40.520 --> 2:02:43.360 migrants were exhausted, but also ecstatic to be at the jungle. 2:02:43.960 --> 2:02:46.400 They knew they'd be moving forward the next day and 2:02:46.480 --> 2:02:48.160 for a few bucks. Again, I don't think they needed. 2:02:48.240 --> 2:02:50.720 In the village, the locals told me that if kids 2:02:50.720 --> 2:02:52.640 didn't have the money to eat, they fed them for free. 2:02:53.200 --> 2:02:55.440 I didn't see this, but normally seen that they're having 2:02:55.480 --> 2:02:57.120 a very hard time, and any of the days of 2:02:57.240 --> 2:03:00.680 vice to the village at least not for fine actual reasons. 2:03:01.600 --> 2:03:03.400 Magots can get as far as Bahol Jiguito on a 2:03:03.480 --> 2:03:06.680 few hundred dollars in their tenasty. They pay Columbian guides 2:03:06.680 --> 2:03:08.520 a few hundred bucks to bring them across the ocean 2:03:08.560 --> 2:03:11.680 from Necople and to walk them from the border, and 2:03:11.760 --> 2:03:14.360 they parry them bar Perraguero's twenty five bucks for the 2:03:14.400 --> 2:03:17.520 ride up the river. But once they get to last Blankerts. 2:03:17.800 --> 2:03:20.400 For a good number of migrants, their journey grinds to 2:03:20.440 --> 2:03:23.080 a halt. Many of them told me they've been stuck 2:03:23.120 --> 2:03:25.240 in the camp for weeks or even months because they 2:03:25.280 --> 2:03:27.320 couldn't get that sixty dollars that they needed to pay 2:03:27.400 --> 2:03:30.440 for their travel north. There's no Western Union in the camp, 2:03:30.720 --> 2:03:32.800 and the only way to transfer money is very local 2:03:32.840 --> 2:03:36.000 intermediary who charges between twenty and twenty five percent of 2:03:36.040 --> 2:03:39.560 the sum being transferred as a fee. In the morning, 2:03:39.880 --> 2:03:42.880 migrants arrive on their peraguas just as we did. I 2:03:43.000 --> 2:03:44.800 drop down the boat ramp when I saw them to 2:03:44.880 --> 2:03:48.000 help with their bags and ask about their journey from 2:03:48.080 --> 2:03:50.960 there they formed two lines, one for men and one 2:03:51.000 --> 2:03:53.320 for women and children. They have their bag search and 2:03:53.320 --> 2:03:56.360 their passport checked. They've given a welcome kit for the 2:03:56.440 --> 2:04:00.520 Red Cross with some basic necessities toilet paper, two to brush, 2:04:00.800 --> 2:04:04.280 some soap, stuff like that, or some of them get 2:04:04.320 --> 2:04:06.840 a kid. When the kids ran out, it was long 2:04:06.920 --> 2:04:09.080 before the line of people did. By the time the 2:04:09.160 --> 2:04:11.400 men were finished, they were given little more than a 2:04:11.440 --> 2:04:14.200 shrug and good wishes by the Red Cross volunteers and 2:04:14.280 --> 2:04:16.720 allowed to head off into the camp. Within the camp, 2:04:17.040 --> 2:04:19.000 there are a few rows of small casitas that are 2:04:19.000 --> 2:04:22.680 allocated to u accompany children and families. They're a little 2:04:22.720 --> 2:04:24.720 more than four walls in a roof, but they offer 2:04:24.760 --> 2:04:28.160 a bit of privacy for most migrants, though there isn't 2:04:28.200 --> 2:04:30.200 space and they have to search for a spot of 2:04:30.240 --> 2:04:32.400 empty ground in the crowded camp where they can pitch 2:04:32.480 --> 2:04:35.240 the same tents they bought a necko cley. The Wi 2:04:35.320 --> 2:04:37.960 Fi which a Red Cross usually provides, wasn't working when 2:04:38.000 --> 2:04:39.920 I arrived, so I had to let people hot spot 2:04:39.920 --> 2:04:42.600 off my phone all day. At least the promised food 2:04:42.720 --> 2:04:44.880 really was free, but the migrants told me it was 2:04:44.920 --> 2:04:47.760 far from good. Still, this is supposed to be a 2:04:47.840 --> 2:04:51.840 temporary camp. People register here, get any medical attention they need, 2:04:52.240 --> 2:04:55.680 and then move forward to Costa Rica. That's the theory anyway. 2:04:56.520 --> 2:04:58.320 In practice, if you can't get the sixty bucks, you 2:04:58.400 --> 2:05:00.600 need to move forward, or so one stole it for 2:05:00.680 --> 2:05:02.920 me in the jungle, or you are forced to walk 2:05:02.960 --> 2:05:04.840 to the camp because you didn't have twenty five bucks 2:05:04.880 --> 2:05:11.320 for the boat and then someone rubbed you. Then you're stucks. 2:05:12.200 --> 2:05:14.880 We have been here a month. You have people who've 2:05:14.920 --> 2:05:18.160 been here a month and a half. I've been twenty 2:05:18.200 --> 2:05:21.840 seven days here. Well, I thank god because we have 2:05:22.000 --> 2:05:24.960 three meals a day. We have water, but it still 2:05:25.080 --> 2:05:28.000 hurts the girls. The food and water always make me 2:05:28.120 --> 2:05:28.960 sick with diarrhea. 2:05:29.120 --> 2:05:29.920 It bothers me. 2:05:30.720 --> 2:05:34.120 I vomit and the heat is so desperate. But we 2:05:34.240 --> 2:05:36.680 have to hold on because even though we don't have 2:05:36.760 --> 2:05:39.360 the resources, like we don't have enough to pay for 2:05:39.440 --> 2:05:42.160 a ticket, we have to hold on here a little longer. 2:05:42.720 --> 2:05:45.400 We don't have any family members that can give us support. 2:05:45.480 --> 2:05:49.040 Either. What's keeping the migrants here is money, or rather 2:05:49.080 --> 2:05:51.440 a lack of it. It They need sixty bucks to leave. 2:05:52.280 --> 2:05:55.280 Buses used to take five free passengers per bus, but 2:05:55.520 --> 2:05:58.839 under Panama's new regime, it seems like they don't. Instead, 2:05:59.080 --> 2:06:01.880 migrants just graduate mass in growing number of tents that 2:06:01.960 --> 2:06:05.200 populate the grassy areas of Las Blankets. They might try 2:06:05.240 --> 2:06:07.560 and do some informal work. I saw one guy who 2:06:07.640 --> 2:06:10.280 was cutting hair for a dollar time, but I couldn't 2:06:10.320 --> 2:06:13.120 really get a satisfactory response to what they're expected to do. 2:06:13.280 --> 2:06:15.640 If they don't have the money and can't get someone 2:06:15.680 --> 2:06:17.720 to send us seventy five dollars, they'd need to cover 2:06:17.800 --> 2:06:19.920 their travel costs and the twenty five percent transfer. 2:06:20.000 --> 2:06:24.840 Feel if you're short ten dollars, they don't put you 2:06:24.960 --> 2:06:28.480 on the bus or anything. So things are terrible here. 2:06:29.200 --> 2:06:31.600 There should at least be support for migrants who at 2:06:31.680 --> 2:06:35.480 least come with few resources. They don't have money or anything. 2:06:36.040 --> 2:06:37.920 They can search your bag so they can see that 2:06:38.000 --> 2:06:41.800 you're not lying that you don't have money. Because nobody 2:06:41.920 --> 2:06:44.760 wants to be stuck here, you have to move forward, 2:06:44.800 --> 2:06:48.040 because nobody wants to be stuck here in Panama. The 2:06:48.160 --> 2:06:51.720 idea is to move forward to get further ahead. We 2:06:51.840 --> 2:06:54.320 brought our children to look for a future, not to 2:06:54.400 --> 2:06:57.200 be locked up here in Panama. As if we've been 2:06:57.280 --> 2:06:57.839 in prisoned. 2:06:58.720 --> 2:07:01.200 The group even tried to leave on foot, hoping to 2:07:01.280 --> 2:07:03.480 begin walking north. And so it's for better future and 2:07:03.560 --> 2:07:05.920 a way to make money on their way. But they 2:07:05.960 --> 2:07:08.480 were caught, they say, and returned to the campra. 2:07:11.640 --> 2:07:12.720 And they beat me hard. 2:07:13.280 --> 2:07:15.440 I gave myself up because they had caught her, a 2:07:15.520 --> 2:07:20.240 grandmother with my other daughter. I returned myself voluntarily, and 2:07:20.520 --> 2:07:23.640 they beat me up anyway. And from there we've lost 2:07:23.720 --> 2:07:25.200 the desire to walk back there. 2:07:25.760 --> 2:07:26.320 What can we do? 2:07:27.720 --> 2:07:28.040 Rights? 2:07:28.560 --> 2:07:29.600 They don't care about them. 2:07:30.240 --> 2:07:33.120 We are human beings, but we don't have rights here 2:07:33.200 --> 2:07:35.000 in Panama, they. 2:07:34.920 --> 2:07:37.000 Do have the money. Margarets could take a bus to 2:07:37.040 --> 2:07:40.120 the Costa Rican border. When the buses first arrived, I 2:07:40.200 --> 2:07:42.680 tried to describe the scene as migrants rushed to buy food, 2:07:42.760 --> 2:07:44.960 not only for this journey, but also for their journey 2:07:45.000 --> 2:07:47.600 through Costa Rica, where food and other basics are much 2:07:47.640 --> 2:07:50.920 more expensive. I'm here in Lahablancas when the first buses 2:07:50.960 --> 2:07:54.800 have arrived. It's about noon. The first bus is going 2:07:54.840 --> 2:07:56.560 to be full of people who had been waiting in 2:07:56.640 --> 2:07:59.280 line for hours already, so they're kind of lining up 2:07:59.320 --> 2:08:02.920 by the bus. And then the next bus is people 2:08:02.920 --> 2:08:04.760 seem to be kind of rushing to get to them. 2:08:05.040 --> 2:08:06.840 They're rushing to my food. I could see the sky 2:08:07.000 --> 2:08:09.680 has like an entire carrier bag full of pink wave 2:08:09.760 --> 2:08:13.760 for biscuits and coke bottles. That that's going to be 2:08:13.840 --> 2:08:17.000 his food for the next eleven hours. I guess other 2:08:17.040 --> 2:08:19.400 guys to see with bags of bread, rolls and stuff, 2:08:19.520 --> 2:08:22.160 and they're the first people are getting on the bus. Now, 2:08:23.800 --> 2:08:27.200 these buses aren't entirely safe. In twenty twenty three, forty 2:08:27.280 --> 2:08:31.000 two people died in a bus crash. This year, seventeen 2:08:31.040 --> 2:08:34.360 were intured in a crash in August. Now, migration offices 2:08:34.440 --> 2:08:36.200 ride in each bus with the migrants to check on 2:08:36.280 --> 2:08:38.960 safety protocols and make sure they don't get off anywhere 2:08:39.000 --> 2:08:42.040 else in the country, just like everywhere else on their journey. 2:08:42.400 --> 2:08:45.960 People make money off the migrants in last blankets. A 2:08:46.040 --> 2:08:48.879 bus costs sixty dollars ahead and has fifty five passages 2:08:49.400 --> 2:08:52.120 three three hundred dollars a bus. More than a dozen 2:08:52.160 --> 2:08:55.320 buses leave every day. They even half of the thousand 2:08:55.440 --> 2:08:57.760 or so people who arrived us a transfer service to 2:08:57.800 --> 2:09:01.280 get their bus fare. That's five hundred dollars in transfer 2:09:01.360 --> 2:09:04.160 fees alone. Of course, not everyone in the community is 2:09:04.160 --> 2:09:07.160 making thousands of dollars off the migrants. I interviewed local 2:09:07.200 --> 2:09:09.960 shopkeeper who still sits just outside the camp gates, and 2:09:10.040 --> 2:09:12.800 I asked him to explain his stock, which included the 2:09:12.840 --> 2:09:15.880 oddly popular I backed the blue thin blue Lion T shirt. 2:09:15.960 --> 2:09:18.080 So I've seen several people across the daddy and gap it. 2:09:25.640 --> 2:09:27.560 Okaymo only fucking money. 2:09:30.800 --> 2:09:32.600 I asked him what was the most common shopping list 2:09:32.680 --> 2:09:33.640 for migrants. 2:09:33.320 --> 2:09:36.680 See Gussie Man. 2:09:36.880 --> 2:09:39.480 Yes, almost all of them coming by sets for ten, fifteen, 2:09:39.640 --> 2:09:42.960 twenty dollars. It depends. There are many who don't have them. 2:09:43.160 --> 2:09:45.720 I have children sets for five dollars. I have sets 2:09:45.760 --> 2:09:48.520 for five dollars that are pants and sweaters, which is 2:09:48.600 --> 2:09:50.920 what they're looking for the most those that are socks 2:09:50.960 --> 2:09:54.640 without underwear. Backpacks for fifteen dollars because the backpack is 2:09:54.720 --> 2:09:56.560 so worn out and they need it so much that 2:09:56.680 --> 2:10:00.280 it carries their belongings. Look, it's not really ever who 2:10:00.280 --> 2:10:02.440 can buy. There are certain people who buy, of course, 2:10:02.680 --> 2:10:04.960 if everyone bought, but there are very few who can 2:10:05.040 --> 2:10:08.920 buy something to leave here. Almost seventy percent leave dirty 2:10:09.000 --> 2:10:11.600 because they don't have anywhere to get money, and the 2:10:11.680 --> 2:10:14.160 little they can get often comes from selling their phones, 2:10:14.240 --> 2:10:16.640 their watch, a cap, or their sneakers to be able 2:10:16.640 --> 2:10:18.880 to get money to pay for their fare to keep going. 2:10:20.200 --> 2:10:22.640 I asked him how the migration had impacted the community 2:10:23.080 --> 2:10:25.200 with people making a lot of money, I asked, were 2:10:25.200 --> 2:10:27.240 they mad about the trash and the pollution of the river. 2:10:27.880 --> 2:10:30.440 These are legitimate concerns, even if they're used in bad 2:10:30.480 --> 2:10:31.560 faith against the migrants. 2:10:31.640 --> 2:10:32.640 Now it's a more effect. 2:10:32.680 --> 2:10:36.720 Though nobody is perfect, but I can tell you one thing. Honestly, 2:10:36.920 --> 2:10:38.960 the migrants suffer a lot to be able to carry 2:10:38.960 --> 2:10:41.480 out this journey. And there are many times when I've 2:10:41.520 --> 2:10:43.640 even had to give them clothes, some because they don't 2:10:43.640 --> 2:10:45.720 have any. And well, when a father and family with 2:10:45.880 --> 2:10:48.839 children comes, what can I say, Look, I have a family. 2:10:49.080 --> 2:10:49.680 I have to do this. 2:10:49.920 --> 2:10:50.120 Yeah. 2:10:51.240 --> 2:10:53.240 I asked him what he felt the solution was to 2:10:53.320 --> 2:10:56.640 the suffering here, the damage done both to people and planet. 2:10:57.360 --> 2:11:02.280 Hekay, I say that oppressing people so that they don't 2:11:02.280 --> 2:11:04.720 go through the dairy and it's not the solution because 2:11:04.760 --> 2:11:06.400 if you put it to the point, even if they 2:11:06.440 --> 2:11:09.240 don't know an exact percentage, the immigrant gives the economy 2:11:09.240 --> 2:11:12.720 of the United States a balance because the people born 2:11:12.800 --> 2:11:16.160 there not to criticize them. People born there want a 2:11:16.160 --> 2:11:19.240 stable job, and he doesn't want to feel like he's very, 2:11:19.360 --> 2:11:22.760 very low. However, the immigrant is there and he's picking fruit, 2:11:22.960 --> 2:11:25.200 going to the fruit trees, going to the vegetable fields, 2:11:25.360 --> 2:11:28.000 going to the garbage dumps, going picking up things that 2:11:28.120 --> 2:11:32.080 many Americans who live there don't do, of course, and 2:11:32.200 --> 2:11:33.880 so they need them to say that they don't go. 2:11:34.200 --> 2:11:36.120 They need the support of the immigrant people to have 2:11:36.240 --> 2:11:37.720 the balance that they have today. 2:11:41.120 --> 2:11:43.520 Like a lot of Panamanians I met, he was broadly 2:11:43.600 --> 2:11:46.480 in solidarity with the migrants. I didn't really encounter anti 2:11:46.520 --> 2:11:49.120 migrants sentiment atall in my time at Panama. In the 2:11:49.200 --> 2:11:52.200 capital city, which locals just called Panama but we can 2:11:52.280 --> 2:11:56.560 call Panama City, migrants are not really physically present, nor 2:11:56.600 --> 2:12:00.120 are they present in conversation. I found the transition the 2:12:00.240 --> 2:12:03.120 jungle and the refugee camps back to the bustling city 2:12:03.160 --> 2:12:06.560 pretty challenging a lot of ways. I find I'm oddly 2:12:06.600 --> 2:12:08.960 comfortable amidst the chale and trauma of a refugee camp. 2:12:09.800 --> 2:12:11.640 It's a familiar environment for me, and I know how 2:12:11.640 --> 2:12:14.600 to conduct myself. I feel safe with the migrants, and 2:12:14.680 --> 2:12:16.920 I tend to find them very open and welcoming to me. 2:12:17.800 --> 2:12:19.920 I can talk to anyone and they can talk to me. 2:12:20.560 --> 2:12:23.040 I bring toys for children and try to bring resources 2:12:23.080 --> 2:12:25.040 for adults, and sometimes I bring my harmonica if I 2:12:25.120 --> 2:12:28.560 being really cliche in a weird way. Refue camps are 2:12:28.600 --> 2:12:30.920 a little safe space for me, and even though I 2:12:31.000 --> 2:12:33.640 know it's bad, I can console myself that I'm helping 2:12:33.680 --> 2:12:36.120 a little or at least giving people some hope and 2:12:36.240 --> 2:12:39.560 some information. That made me feel a bit better. But 2:12:39.680 --> 2:12:41.720 in the city I found it hard, knowing that people 2:12:41.760 --> 2:12:44.440 were in a terrible situation and that nobody here seemed 2:12:44.480 --> 2:12:46.840 to care. I went for a run in the jungle 2:12:46.880 --> 2:12:49.240 near the city, trying to get some perspective and clear 2:12:49.320 --> 2:12:52.080 my head, but I just ended up screaming and the 2:12:52.160 --> 2:12:55.080 inconsiderate driver I was angry at them for nearly hitting me. 2:12:55.240 --> 2:12:57.720 That I was just angry at everyone all over the 2:12:57.920 --> 2:13:00.640 US and even here in Panama City, for their indifference. 2:13:00.680 --> 2:13:58.000 It's so much human suffering, the lack of concern about 2:13:58.040 --> 2:14:00.560 migrants in Panama City. What is so next? At last, 2:14:00.600 --> 2:14:04.920 blancs even more surprising an announcement of the loudspeakers called 2:14:05.000 --> 2:14:08.560 several Colombian passport holders to the migration office. At first, 2:14:08.640 --> 2:14:10.000 it seemed like they were just going to a little 2:14:10.000 --> 2:14:12.120 wooden shed with a couple of CENA Front officers in 2:14:12.200 --> 2:14:16.560 it to return their documents. I'd already noticed that some migrants, 2:14:16.720 --> 2:14:19.760 and seemingly most of the African migrants, were being called 2:14:19.760 --> 2:14:23.000 to a different shed to do biometric scans. I wondered 2:14:23.000 --> 2:14:25.919 if this was part of the same process. But shortly thereafter, 2:14:26.520 --> 2:14:28.800 a truck rolled up and several of the Colombians were 2:14:28.840 --> 2:14:32.600 loaded in. Apparently neither they nor their partners knew what 2:14:32.760 --> 2:14:35.200 was going on. They're taking some of the Columbian guys 2:14:35.240 --> 2:14:36.840 away to report them. You can hear a little kid 2:14:36.920 --> 2:14:55.840 crying for his dad. Okay this, then they've taken his 2:14:56.000 --> 2:15:00.640 brother and his brother's wife, taken some other his husband, 2:15:02.400 --> 2:15:05.400 some of the little kid's dads and making them sit 2:15:05.480 --> 2:15:12.960 on the floor. I don't know why. Yeah, I don't 2:15:12.960 --> 2:15:13.520 know what they're. 2:15:13.360 --> 2:15:13.640 Going to do. 2:15:13.760 --> 2:15:22.000 Now she's trying to give her husband the money and 2:15:22.080 --> 2:15:28.000 a SIM card so he can call her. Are you 2:15:28.080 --> 2:15:30.200 going to go get some more food? Other morgents approached 2:15:30.200 --> 2:15:32.800 me to us if I knew, which I didn't. But 2:15:32.920 --> 2:15:34.560 one lady who'd been there for weeks. Told me that 2:15:34.600 --> 2:15:37.160 people who leave this way never come back and they 2:15:37.240 --> 2:15:41.800 end up being deported, so we assume that's what's happening here. Yeah, 2:15:41.840 --> 2:15:45.680 this really sucks. Now they're taking the deportation bus. There's 2:15:45.920 --> 2:15:49.480 men crying because their wives are on their women crying, 2:15:49.640 --> 2:15:52.440 their husbands are on their kids are crying because their 2:15:52.480 --> 2:15:56.440 parents are on there, and they've just done this crossing 2:15:56.480 --> 2:16:00.320 and now they're going to send them back. By the 2:16:00.360 --> 2:16:02.080 time I got back to the city, I was getting 2:16:02.120 --> 2:16:05.240 texts from migrants with photos of them and handcuffs. More 2:16:05.280 --> 2:16:07.960 and more of them were being deported, particularly the Colombians. 2:16:08.760 --> 2:16:11.440 One of them, texting me after being returned to Columbia 2:16:11.520 --> 2:16:14.240 on a flight, gave the following account of detention. 2:16:15.040 --> 2:16:18.880 They treated us very badly, verbally and psychologically. We all 2:16:18.960 --> 2:16:21.080 had to do our business in the same cell, and 2:16:21.160 --> 2:16:23.320 they threw food on the floor for us to eat 2:16:23.360 --> 2:16:26.040 as we were all in handcuffs. They told us that 2:16:26.120 --> 2:16:29.040 of Venezuelan had burned down the migrant detention center in 2:16:29.120 --> 2:16:31.680 San Vincente and that we would all pay for it, 2:16:31.960 --> 2:16:34.279 and that the Colombians didn't need to leave the country 2:16:34.360 --> 2:16:36.640 because the president there said it was doing well, and 2:16:36.720 --> 2:16:39.280 there's plenty of work. None of that is true. 2:16:40.320 --> 2:16:43.440 The Mican facility in Sambacinity was burned out, and the 2:16:43.480 --> 2:16:45.840 people working there told me it was a Venezuelan migrant 2:16:45.879 --> 2:16:48.280 who did that. But none of that excuses any of this. 2:16:49.080 --> 2:16:51.600 We weren't able to access that facility. As a people 2:16:51.600 --> 2:16:54.440 who had detained there can't really consent meaningfully to an interview. 2:16:54.959 --> 2:16:58.160 That's a fair enough for the action. But the migrant 2:16:58.200 --> 2:17:01.520 who was deported also alleged that they received no hearings 2:17:01.600 --> 2:17:04.240 or a chance to appeal their deportation. Instead, they were 2:17:04.280 --> 2:17:07.800 detained for eight days, spent their last US dollars, and 2:17:07.840 --> 2:17:10.400 were then kicked out of the country. They were not 2:17:10.520 --> 2:17:13.520 detained or arrested upon reaching Columbia, which makes it a 2:17:13.520 --> 2:17:15.880 little more difficult for me to believe the claim that 2:17:16.040 --> 2:17:18.960 only people without standing warrants in Columbia were being deported. 2:17:19.520 --> 2:17:22.680 These weren't the only allegations of mistreatment I heard. Magrants 2:17:22.720 --> 2:17:24.520 came to me and whispered about the abuse of black 2:17:24.600 --> 2:17:26.960 migrants who were forced to walk to Lahas Blancos because 2:17:26.959 --> 2:17:29.480 they couldn't afford the boat ride. I should note that 2:17:29.520 --> 2:17:31.640 it wasn't the migrants who had been robbed or abuse 2:17:31.680 --> 2:17:34.480 that came to me. It was other migrants. It was 2:17:34.520 --> 2:17:36.160 a group of guys had given a water filter too. 2:17:36.200 --> 2:17:38.640 While they were leaving to walk from Lahas Blancas, I 2:17:38.720 --> 2:17:41.840 hadn't been able to join them, but when they got there, 2:17:42.120 --> 2:17:44.440 we ran into each other again, and they came up 2:17:44.480 --> 2:17:46.680 to me to share their concerns for the black men 2:17:46.720 --> 2:17:49.760 who had walked with them. In one instance, one migrant 2:17:49.879 --> 2:17:51.960 told me he was robbed by what he called quote 2:17:52.120 --> 2:17:55.920 police dressed as thieves. The deportations, which seemed to be 2:17:55.959 --> 2:17:59.720 increasingly commonplace, are being funded by US taxpayer dollars. The 2:17:59.800 --> 2:18:03.120 same day that Molino took office in July, Homeland Security 2:18:03.240 --> 2:18:07.960 Secretary Alejandro Majorcas, himself the child of migrants, visited Panama. 2:18:08.640 --> 2:18:11.080 Panama's a relatively young country and one which the US 2:18:11.160 --> 2:18:13.640 occupied part of for much of the last century, but 2:18:13.840 --> 2:18:17.640 despite a real struggle for independence, the Panamanian government didn't 2:18:17.640 --> 2:18:20.480 seem concerned that the U. S. Secretary of Homeland Security 2:18:20.680 --> 2:18:23.240 was present at the inauguration of a president in a 2:18:23.280 --> 2:18:26.200 country that is decidedly not the U. S. Homeland. The 2:18:26.280 --> 2:18:29.480 official DHS readout of his trip notes that the US 2:18:29.560 --> 2:18:32.560 has enjoyed a flourishing strategic relationship with Panama for over 2:18:32.640 --> 2:18:35.320 one hundred years, which is certainly one way to sell 2:18:35.400 --> 2:18:38.160 up decades of occupation, violence, and profit from the Panama 2:18:38.280 --> 2:18:41.000 Canal and one of the more brutal dictatorships in the 2:18:41.040 --> 2:18:44.160 long list of authoritarian regimes that the US preferred to 2:18:44.200 --> 2:18:47.520 communist or even socialist governments in the Western Hemisphere. They 2:18:47.560 --> 2:18:50.360 also announced that the US government would quote help the 2:18:50.400 --> 2:18:53.240 Panamanian government to remove foreign nationals who do not have 2:18:53.360 --> 2:18:56.880 a legal basis to remain in Panama. Obviously act to 2:18:57.000 --> 2:18:59.120 take this moment to note that under the United Nations, 2:18:59.200 --> 2:19:01.959 refugee can vente and refugees do have a legal right 2:19:02.080 --> 2:19:04.360 to travel through a country on route to another. His 2:19:04.600 --> 2:19:05.800 Erica describing that right. 2:19:06.080 --> 2:19:09.119 The refuge you can mention is complex that does afford 2:19:09.440 --> 2:19:11.280 a lot of rights to people who have fled their 2:19:11.320 --> 2:19:14.560 countries based on persecution. You know, you're supposed to be 2:19:14.600 --> 2:19:16.840 able to pass through whichever country you want, go to, 2:19:16.959 --> 2:19:20.760 whichever country you want, not be criminally prosecuted for crossing 2:19:20.800 --> 2:19:23.040 the border between ports of entry, and not be turned 2:19:23.120 --> 2:19:24.760 back to a country where you face harm. 2:19:25.360 --> 2:19:28.000 The US allocated six million dollars for a six month 2:19:28.080 --> 2:19:32.480 pilot program of repatriations. If the program meets the USA's goals, 2:19:32.680 --> 2:19:34.960 they might consider expanding it to other countries along the 2:19:35.040 --> 2:19:39.400 migrant route. According to reporting in Enruters, as of early October, 2:19:39.520 --> 2:19:42.520 they've deported five hundred and thirty people to Colombia. That's 2:19:42.560 --> 2:19:44.600 half the people I saw arriving in a single day 2:19:44.640 --> 2:19:49.320 in Bahjojigito. Because Panama's government and Venezuela's government have ceased 2:19:49.360 --> 2:19:53.000 relations after the election, Panamara is now struggling to deport 2:19:53.080 --> 2:19:55.840 Venezuelan's back to Venezuela, and it's actively searching for a 2:19:55.959 --> 2:19:58.960 third country into which to deport them. But even if 2:19:59.000 --> 2:20:02.080 the program resulted one planeloaded day, which it hasn't yet, 2:20:02.360 --> 2:20:04.200 that would be roughly ten percent of the total dadly 2:20:04.280 --> 2:20:07.760 in traffic and far fewer planes are traveling. What it 2:20:07.840 --> 2:20:11.280 will do, like so many other DHS policies, is play 2:20:11.280 --> 2:20:14.560 into the hands of smugglers. Already, new ocean roots are 2:20:14.600 --> 2:20:17.440 being used, which see migrants, many of whom cannot swim, 2:20:17.560 --> 2:20:20.960 taking lung journeys around Panama on ill equipped boats. This 2:20:21.080 --> 2:20:24.440 doesn't help anyone apart from the DHS contractors and staff, 2:20:24.480 --> 2:20:28.320 equipping and training Panamanian personnel, and the human traffickers making 2:20:28.400 --> 2:20:31.520 more and more money from migration. I also shopkeeper his 2:20:31.640 --> 2:20:32.240 opinion on this. 2:20:34.280 --> 2:20:38.360 To look. 2:20:38.360 --> 2:20:40.120 I'll tell you I think that instead of giving them 2:20:40.200 --> 2:20:43.360 a reward for deportation, they should give them support, a 2:20:43.440 --> 2:20:46.400 lot of support, because it is a huge sacrifice to 2:20:46.480 --> 2:20:49.320 leave your country where you were born, your children, your family, 2:20:50.000 --> 2:20:52.040 leave it to be able to have a future, and 2:20:52.160 --> 2:20:54.160 you go with your mentality that your future is the 2:20:54.280 --> 2:20:57.119 United States that will give you an opportunity to get 2:20:57.120 --> 2:21:01.440 ahead and give well being to your children. Now, ten 2:21:01.480 --> 2:21:03.440 percent of those who go are going to destroy the 2:21:03.480 --> 2:21:06.280 good name of the migrants, But what people really want 2:21:06.360 --> 2:21:10.920 to do is help their family, and this balance unbalances 2:21:11.080 --> 2:21:13.280 everything that is being done by good people, because there 2:21:13.320 --> 2:21:16.400 are many good people who want to get ahead, and 2:21:16.520 --> 2:21:19.600 I think that the United States should support give support 2:21:19.680 --> 2:21:21.720 to people who really want to fight and move forward. 2:21:21.800 --> 2:21:24.480 As I just told you, they give a lot of 2:21:24.520 --> 2:21:26.400 benefit they contribute to the country. 2:21:49.560 --> 2:22:01.520 After leaving last blank, I felt pretty down about the 2:22:01.560 --> 2:22:03.240 fact that people were just hitting a wall that they 2:22:03.280 --> 2:22:06.480 couldn't overcome. Since then, I've stayed in touch with many 2:22:06.520 --> 2:22:09.080 of them. For some a friend or family members able 2:22:09.160 --> 2:22:10.880 to send the money, and they made it to costantly 2:22:11.000 --> 2:22:13.879 on the bus. From there, they crossed quickly into Nicaragua 2:22:14.120 --> 2:22:16.960 and Guatemala before arriving in the Mexican border city of 2:22:17.000 --> 2:22:20.200 Tapatula in the state of Chiapas and ironically not so 2:22:20.440 --> 2:22:23.480 very far from whether Zapatistas made their revolution thirty years ago. 2:22:24.280 --> 2:22:26.680 Once they crossed the southern border of Mexico, migrants can 2:22:26.760 --> 2:22:29.680 begin their application for asylum using the CBP one app 2:22:29.720 --> 2:22:31.720 that we've talked about so much on the show before. 2:22:32.440 --> 2:22:34.760 They can use it in Tabasco and Chiapas, the southern 2:22:34.800 --> 2:22:37.400 border states, and then once again when they're north of 2:22:37.480 --> 2:22:40.840 Mexico City. To recap very briefly, the app is terrible 2:22:40.879 --> 2:22:44.240 and almost every way, including its inability to recognize blackfaces. 2:22:44.480 --> 2:22:47.280 It's limited functionality on Android phones, which are a vast 2:22:47.360 --> 2:22:50.840 majority of devices used by migrants, It's constant crashing, and 2:22:50.879 --> 2:22:53.359 an eight to nine month wait time for asylum appointments. 2:22:53.920 --> 2:22:55.880 His Erica explaining some of those problems. 2:22:56.200 --> 2:22:59.840 You have to have a relatively new smartphone, you have 2:23:00.280 --> 2:23:03.480 to have an address, all the people you're traveling with 2:23:03.640 --> 2:23:05.840 have to be with you, right and you have to 2:23:06.200 --> 2:23:10.760 first get through the initial kind of registration phase. 2:23:10.520 --> 2:23:12.920 Which doesn't always work. The program is very glitchy. 2:23:13.680 --> 2:23:17.320 You have to take a live photo and you have 2:23:17.480 --> 2:23:20.160 to wait essentially, so you know, it's kind of random too. 2:23:20.240 --> 2:23:22.560 Some people will get an appointment within three months, but 2:23:22.600 --> 2:23:24.760 I would say most people are waiting nine to twelve. 2:23:25.080 --> 2:23:25.720 At this point. 2:23:26.200 --> 2:23:28.840 You don't have any legal status in Mexico while you're waiting, 2:23:28.959 --> 2:23:33.160 unless you can apply for some other status in Mexico independently. 2:23:34.120 --> 2:23:36.400 Then it is yet very poorly designed. It's also a 2:23:36.480 --> 2:23:40.039 de facto a metering system. Want assign Them's Erica explaining. 2:23:39.640 --> 2:23:43.440 That we've been litigating against the use of CBP one 2:23:43.520 --> 2:23:46.040 for a few years now. My organization out at the 2:23:46.120 --> 2:23:49.680 Level and Patient Bridge Alliance, and the reason why we 2:23:50.640 --> 2:23:54.760 are fighting against the required use of CBP one is 2:23:54.879 --> 2:23:58.840 first because it is an illegal metering system. So we've 2:23:59.000 --> 2:24:02.520 already litigated the fact that there is no number limit 2:24:02.640 --> 2:24:05.840 on the amount of individuals who can seek asylum at 2:24:05.879 --> 2:24:09.080 the US Mexico border, and Customs and Border Protection legally 2:24:09.200 --> 2:24:11.039 does not have the right to turn people. 2:24:10.840 --> 2:24:16.040 Away and CBP one essentially allows them to do that. 2:24:16.240 --> 2:24:19.960 You know, there were physical meterings at ports of entry 2:24:20.040 --> 2:24:24.440 before CBP one was implemented as essentially the only way 2:24:24.520 --> 2:24:26.800 to access the US asylum system at ports of entry, 2:24:27.360 --> 2:24:30.600 and now it's a digital metering list and it's very limited. 2:24:31.240 --> 2:24:34.000 Recently, the Department of Homeland Security lost a court case 2:24:34.040 --> 2:24:36.840 which forced them to release records in there with some 2:24:36.920 --> 2:24:39.840 of the app plugs and data regarding CBP one. I'm 2:24:39.840 --> 2:24:42.360 still in the phase of coming through that asking my friends, 2:24:42.400 --> 2:24:44.640 you know more about technologies than I do, to explain 2:24:44.680 --> 2:24:47.480 exactly what the limitations with the app are. But it 2:24:47.560 --> 2:24:51.080 doesn't really matter. DHS is well aware of the app's floors, 2:24:51.240 --> 2:24:53.000 and it doesn't really seem to see the most flaws 2:24:53.040 --> 2:24:55.119 at all. The goal of the app is to make 2:24:55.160 --> 2:24:58.720 it harder for people, even those with very legitimate asylum claims, 2:24:58.800 --> 2:25:02.080 to obtain asylum in the use. As we heard yesterday, 2:25:02.240 --> 2:25:05.840 the CHNV program is no better a recently Reddit thread 2:25:05.840 --> 2:25:08.280 of applicants who've been waiting nearly two years. What it 2:25:08.320 --> 2:25:11.120 didn't mention yesterday is a parallel program for another group 2:25:11.160 --> 2:25:13.039 of migrants, which I'll let Erica explain. 2:25:13.320 --> 2:25:16.000 I want to mention the fact that there is a 2:25:16.080 --> 2:25:16.960 cap right. 2:25:17.080 --> 2:25:19.520 I think it's thirty thousand a month or something like 2:25:19.600 --> 2:25:22.920 that for those four countries. But it's almost identical to 2:25:22.959 --> 2:25:27.640 the Ukrainian United for a Ukraine program, which doesn't have 2:25:27.720 --> 2:25:30.760 a cap right, so there's no limit to how many 2:25:30.879 --> 2:25:34.680 Ukrainians can get the same benefit. And they are renewing 2:25:34.920 --> 2:25:37.760 the humanitarian prole for Ukrainians, which I believe was just 2:25:37.800 --> 2:25:40.360 announced almost within weeks of them announcing that they're not 2:25:41.080 --> 2:25:44.920 renewing for the other four countries. So it's really a 2:25:45.280 --> 2:25:50.840 very stark demonstration of how the US immigration system, even when. 2:25:50.760 --> 2:25:54.320 It's a relatively nearer benefit, is based on race, is 2:25:54.400 --> 2:25:56.760 based on which country you're from. 2:25:57.360 --> 2:25:59.880 What this means is it in practice the migrants I 2:26:00.040 --> 2:26:02.959 spoke to face a long and dangerous way in Mexico 2:26:03.640 --> 2:26:06.880 while others skip ahead. I've got nothing against the Ukrainians, 2:26:06.879 --> 2:26:09.280 and I don't think many of them do either. I 2:26:09.400 --> 2:26:12.640 tried to go to Ukraine and report, but the Avisas 2:26:12.680 --> 2:26:14.440 ended up taking so long that I missed the flights 2:26:14.480 --> 2:26:17.800 that I'd booked. I have, however, a serious problem with 2:26:17.840 --> 2:26:20.879 a Biden administration which left people who fought alongside its 2:26:20.920 --> 2:26:24.000 own US troops to die in Afghanistan and turned away 2:26:24.120 --> 2:26:26.840 migrants small over the world, but then opened its arms 2:26:26.879 --> 2:26:29.320 to a country that just happened to have the majority 2:26:29.320 --> 2:26:31.520 of its citizens be the same race as the president. 2:26:32.120 --> 2:26:35.320 It's cruel and it's wrong, and it's barely ever even 2:26:35.400 --> 2:26:38.840 mentioned in national media coverage. But there's not fortunate enough 2:26:38.879 --> 2:26:41.520 to be Ukrainian. Here's what waiting in Mexico looks like. 2:26:41.920 --> 2:26:47.200 The incidence of crime directed at migrants is horrifyingly high. 2:26:48.400 --> 2:26:52.160 We had done an electronic survey a few years ago, 2:26:52.280 --> 2:26:54.880 and this was during Title forty two, when people were 2:26:54.920 --> 2:26:58.200 just being expelled to Mexico, and if I remember correctly, 2:26:59.000 --> 2:27:01.400 it was like around twenty five to thirty percent of 2:27:01.440 --> 2:27:07.280 people have been either raged, such traffic, assaulted, hidnapped. 2:27:07.360 --> 2:27:08.600 I mean, the list goes on and on. 2:27:09.480 --> 2:27:12.000 We've seen a lot of people lose their lives just 2:27:12.120 --> 2:27:15.720 due to violence, and the kidnapping rates are through the roof. 2:27:16.480 --> 2:27:18.640 Almost every one you've heard from in this series is 2:27:18.680 --> 2:27:22.520 now stuck in Mexico. Some of them have been kidnapped, paid, 2:27:22.600 --> 2:27:25.560 ransomed and released. Some of them have been sexually assaulted, 2:27:26.280 --> 2:27:28.640 many of them have been robbed. Some of them have 2:27:29.080 --> 2:27:31.560 after surviving one of the most deadly land migration routes 2:27:31.600 --> 2:27:34.360 on Earth been killed while waiting in Mexico for an 2:27:34.360 --> 2:27:37.240 app to stop crashing on their phones. Over a week 2:27:37.280 --> 2:27:39.680 since I got home, I've seen them go gradually more 2:27:39.760 --> 2:27:42.880 desperate and afraid just to get to Mexico. Many of 2:27:42.920 --> 2:27:46.320 them have spent several thousand dollars. Once they're in Capatula, 2:27:46.560 --> 2:27:49.040 they're faced with the astronomical costs for the trip north, 2:27:49.400 --> 2:27:52.760 often several thousand dollars more, and many of them, their 2:27:52.800 --> 2:27:56.119 phones exhausted, have slept on the streets. Those who didn't 2:27:56.120 --> 2:27:59.400 speak Spanish struggled to find refuge. Those who did wanted 2:27:59.400 --> 2:28:02.200 to move quickly, but struggle to find the money. Here 2:28:02.200 --> 2:28:04.360 are the Iranian migrants you heard early in the series, 2:28:04.480 --> 2:28:06.879 explaining what they'd already heard about CBP one. 2:28:07.280 --> 2:28:11.160 It's so tough because the some polices in their way, 2:28:11.480 --> 2:28:17.560 they took our money that we came from Iran. It 2:28:17.760 --> 2:28:23.000 was so difficult for us and resumed the way. So Mexico, 2:28:23.400 --> 2:28:27.880 Mexico is so difficult for us, and something is CPP 2:28:28.160 --> 2:28:34.920 one is not working for our for us, for Iranian people, yeah, 2:28:35.120 --> 2:28:38.480 I know the people who are in Mexico City for 2:28:38.640 --> 2:28:44.640 about three months, for three months, yeah, yeah, because of that, 2:28:45.400 --> 2:28:46.600 Iranian people go to. 2:28:46.680 --> 2:28:47.360 The wall and. 2:28:49.680 --> 2:28:53.480 It's it's it's not our choice, we have to do this. 2:28:54.480 --> 2:28:57.120 We don't want them, but it's we have to do this. Yeah, 2:28:57.240 --> 2:28:59.960 it's good to explain. According to a study can there 2:29:00.040 --> 2:29:02.240 to the University of Texas, wait times are as high 2:29:02.240 --> 2:29:05.440 as eight or nine months on average. Now Mexico announce 2:29:05.480 --> 2:29:07.160 on the thirty first of August that it will provide 2:29:07.200 --> 2:29:09.680 security and food for migrants who have an appointment to 2:29:09.760 --> 2:29:11.920 travel north from the south of the country to the 2:29:11.920 --> 2:29:14.920 place where they have a CVP one appointment. Migrets absolutely 2:29:14.959 --> 2:29:16.880 have been robbed or kidnapped on their way to their 2:29:16.920 --> 2:29:19.200 appointment and missed it as a result, but they are 2:29:19.360 --> 2:29:21.280 just as honorable in the eight or nine months that 2:29:21.360 --> 2:29:24.240 they have to wait for one. Margarets and Tapajula are 2:29:24.280 --> 2:29:26.800 at a very high risk for kidnapping and are often 2:29:26.879 --> 2:29:30.600 held until their families pay ransoms. But without money or 2:29:30.600 --> 2:29:33.880 an appointment, their little means of leaving the city. Some 2:29:34.160 --> 2:29:36.160 choose to travel a little further north and then hop 2:29:36.200 --> 2:29:39.240 on a freight train known as Labstia the Beast, an 2:29:39.320 --> 2:29:42.520 extraordinarily risky endeavor that several of the people I spoke 2:29:42.560 --> 2:29:45.240 to for this series have undertaken. The only place to 2:29:45.320 --> 2:29:48.360 ride on these trains is on top of carriages, exposing 2:29:48.440 --> 2:29:51.560 migrants to freezing temperatures in the desert night. Even on 2:29:51.680 --> 2:29:55.240 the train, they're not safe from kidnapping. Like many migrants, 2:29:55.600 --> 2:29:58.360 the Ranian group will well informed about domestic politics in 2:29:58.400 --> 2:30:01.360 the US, and they say when they made their journey north, 2:30:01.400 --> 2:30:03.280 they wanted to be sure to avoid the state where 2:30:03.320 --> 2:30:06.000 local law enforcement was likely to turn them over for deportation. 2:30:07.240 --> 2:30:09.880 In reality, that could be any of the states, but 2:30:09.959 --> 2:30:11.720 they're probably right that their life would be a little 2:30:11.720 --> 2:30:12.720 easier on the West coast. 2:30:13.600 --> 2:30:17.680 I heard it's so difficult and about three months, four months, 2:30:18.280 --> 2:30:21.240 more than seven months, they will arrest us in the US. 2:30:21.720 --> 2:30:27.000 I heard in Mississippi it takes us in the middle. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 2:30:27.240 --> 2:30:31.640 I think just the California is a little little little bit. 2:30:32.040 --> 2:30:32.200 Yeah. 2:30:32.600 --> 2:30:36.600 Surely our money is very excuse me, shits money in 2:30:36.760 --> 2:30:40.240 the world, and we have to pay a lot of 2:30:40.480 --> 2:30:44.800 money for this way because because. 2:30:44.600 --> 2:30:45.520 Our one. 2:30:48.080 --> 2:30:50.199 One dollar is sixty thousand. 2:30:52.440 --> 2:30:55.120 Some of course, which used to cross the border between 2:30:55.200 --> 2:30:58.160 ports ventry as they become desperate to see their families 2:30:58.840 --> 2:31:02.720 or afraid of remaining in Exico. Since President Biden's executive 2:31:02.760 --> 2:31:06.640 audier earlier this summer. Doing this can result expedited removal proceedings, 2:31:07.200 --> 2:31:10.680 and effectively, Biden's new ruling denies asylum by default to 2:31:10.720 --> 2:31:13.879 anyone crossing the border when daily crossings have passed twenty 2:31:14.000 --> 2:31:17.119 five hundred. In fact, this is the continuation of extremely 2:31:17.200 --> 2:31:20.160 punitive and cruel politics that have been in place since 2:31:20.160 --> 2:31:23.200 he was finally forced to stop using Title forty two, which, 2:31:23.200 --> 2:31:25.039 if you're not aware, is a public health law used 2:31:25.080 --> 2:31:28.080 by the Trump administration and embraced by the Biden administration 2:31:28.160 --> 2:31:30.800 as an asylum law. It has already resulted in the 2:31:30.879 --> 2:31:33.800 deportation to people back to places where they have extremely 2:31:33.920 --> 2:31:37.360 credible fears of harm and created a system whereby migrants 2:31:37.400 --> 2:31:39.400 have no idea how they will be treated on any 2:31:39.440 --> 2:31:42.240 given day. Again, it's play into the hands of anyone 2:31:42.280 --> 2:31:44.560 seeking to smoke or migrants into the country and detected, 2:31:45.200 --> 2:31:47.720 while also harming innocent people coming to this country to 2:31:47.800 --> 2:31:51.000 ask for protection. His Erica's short history of Biden's asylum 2:31:51.040 --> 2:31:52.119 policy since last year. 2:31:52.480 --> 2:31:55.560 So when the Biden administration lift at Title forty two, 2:31:56.560 --> 2:32:00.640 they essentially imposed what I call transit van. 2:32:00.840 --> 2:32:04.560 So there's a couple of components to it. One is, 2:32:05.200 --> 2:32:06.680 if you do not enter. 2:32:06.640 --> 2:32:08.640 The United States out of port of entry with a 2:32:08.720 --> 2:32:13.959 CDP one appointment, you are presumed ineligible for asylum unless 2:32:14.040 --> 2:32:17.320 you fall under a few narrow exceptions which are not 2:32:17.600 --> 2:32:20.920 consistently applied. So the exceptions are things like you were 2:32:20.959 --> 2:32:23.959 having a medical emergency, you were running for your life, 2:32:24.240 --> 2:32:26.680 you know, you couldn't access the app for some reason. 2:32:27.200 --> 2:32:32.160 But in practice those exceptions are almost never applied at ports. 2:32:32.360 --> 2:32:37.000 There's been a few kind of alternative programs run by 2:32:37.080 --> 2:32:41.400 shelters or local governments, where people with extreme medical vulnerabilities, 2:32:41.400 --> 2:32:44.720 for example, can be let in without an appointment, but 2:32:45.080 --> 2:32:48.960 we don't know whether the ban applies to them once 2:32:49.000 --> 2:32:52.120 they enter without that appointment, right, So it's like I said, 2:32:52.160 --> 2:32:55.840 inconsistently applied exceptions. If you enter between a port of entry, 2:32:56.280 --> 2:32:59.160 you're presumed and eligible for asylum again unless you meet 2:32:59.280 --> 2:33:03.119 some therew except and what that means is you can still. 2:33:02.959 --> 2:33:05.440 Apply for other types of protection in the United States. 2:33:05.560 --> 2:33:10.280 So there's two principal types of protection. One it's called 2:33:10.320 --> 2:33:13.640 withholding of removal, which is like asylum but with a 2:33:13.680 --> 2:33:16.840 higher standard, and then the other is Convention against Torture 2:33:17.480 --> 2:33:20.040 which you just have to prove it's more likely than 2:33:20.120 --> 2:33:22.600 not that your own government will torture you, which is 2:33:22.760 --> 2:33:26.080 more extreme than persecution, but isn't necessarily based on a 2:33:26.160 --> 2:33:28.600 protected ground, So the torture could be for any reason, 2:33:29.200 --> 2:33:32.600 but it's a high hurdle. But the most important thing 2:33:32.879 --> 2:33:36.760 is those two types of protection are not path to citizenship, 2:33:36.959 --> 2:33:39.720 and they do not allow you to petition for your family. So, 2:33:39.840 --> 2:33:43.000 for example, if you get asylum in the US and 2:33:43.120 --> 2:33:45.039 then you want to ask for your wife and children 2:33:45.080 --> 2:33:47.480 to join you, there is an avenue for that, and 2:33:47.640 --> 2:33:51.240 all of you can eventually become citizens. Withholding of removal 2:33:51.360 --> 2:33:54.520 and convention against torture, you basically get a work permit. 2:33:55.560 --> 2:33:56.320 If conditions in. 2:33:56.320 --> 2:33:59.320 Your country change, they can support you, and you can 2:33:59.400 --> 2:34:02.240 never leave states and you can never reunify with your family, 2:34:02.400 --> 2:34:03.760 and you could ever become a citizen. 2:34:04.680 --> 2:34:08.000 This won't deter people. I speak to people every day 2:34:08.040 --> 2:34:11.320 who cross the Daddy, Yet we're kidnapped, robbed, and sometimes 2:34:11.440 --> 2:34:14.040 raped on their way here. They're going through all of 2:34:14.120 --> 2:34:16.600 that because we refuse to give people a dignified or 2:34:16.640 --> 2:34:19.040 safe way to come here. They know it's a risk, 2:34:19.320 --> 2:34:21.400 and they continue to come because they think it's the 2:34:21.520 --> 2:34:24.400 only option his powers from coming rou and explaining that 2:34:25.040 --> 2:34:25.720 it's deadly. 2:34:26.400 --> 2:34:28.760 How will lie to you. It's fifty to fifty alive 2:34:28.840 --> 2:34:32.120 on it, honestly speaking. But we had to take their 2:34:32.200 --> 2:34:35.000 rigs because I think that was only all shroma we had. 2:34:37.440 --> 2:34:40.360 If you can't imagine taking those risks, it's likely because 2:34:40.360 --> 2:34:42.800 you can't imagine the things these people are leaving behind either. 2:34:43.800 --> 2:34:46.000 As a conflict reporter, I've been able to see a 2:34:46.040 --> 2:34:51.360 small amount of what they're fleeing war, death, poverty, state violence. 2:34:52.080 --> 2:34:53.760 I don't know if i'd be brave or strong enough 2:34:53.800 --> 2:34:55.400 to do the same, but I have a lot of 2:34:55.440 --> 2:34:58.920 respect for people who can. Tomorrow we're going to talk 2:34:58.920 --> 2:35:01.000 about the people who help them along the way and 2:35:01.120 --> 2:35:03.280 what you can do to support them. When the state worked, 2:35:30.959 --> 2:35:31.959 just you. 2:35:32.160 --> 2:35:35.120 Finding yourself there and seeing how the environment looks like 2:35:35.240 --> 2:35:37.360 you feel like you should give up. I cried it 2:35:38.200 --> 2:35:41.560 grace of work for you to actually stand by us, 2:35:41.560 --> 2:35:45.000 say no, I'll keep on struggling. A lot of people 2:35:45.040 --> 2:35:45.920 who give up. 2:35:46.240 --> 2:35:47.000 There a lot of people. 2:35:47.360 --> 2:35:50.720 Someone died, the lady died. People who were crying. Yeah, yes, 2:35:51.080 --> 2:35:53.960 we let people swear crying. They didn't know how they 2:35:54.000 --> 2:35:58.560 could continue. It's not an easy situation. It's not really 2:35:58.600 --> 2:36:02.720 an easy situation. It's just the grace of God for us, 2:36:03.680 --> 2:36:06.119 because I can't say it's by my strength. It's actually 2:36:06.240 --> 2:36:09.160 the grace of God. Because what we actually went through, 2:36:09.400 --> 2:36:12.600 we met people living collapsed. We had to help them. 2:36:12.959 --> 2:36:15.680 You meet your body, you give a lifting hand. It's 2:36:15.840 --> 2:36:18.560 not really an easy thing. It's not something that if 2:36:19.000 --> 2:36:21.880 we are fine tomorrow, can advise any of our family 2:36:21.959 --> 2:36:24.640 members to go through, because it's so deaf. It's risky 2:36:25.000 --> 2:36:27.840 if your family member is in there and it's not out. 2:36:28.400 --> 2:36:30.320 It takes the grace of God for you to even 2:36:30.520 --> 2:36:33.200 lie on your bed and close all your eyes either. 2:36:33.360 --> 2:36:36.160 Once I survived by the grace of God, I almost drowned. 2:36:36.280 --> 2:36:40.039 It's fact I was drowning. By the grace of God. 2:36:40.080 --> 2:36:45.520 I was rescued, yeh, some guys that rescued me. I 2:36:45.640 --> 2:36:46.440 was already drowned. 2:36:46.520 --> 2:36:47.240 I was gone. 2:36:47.440 --> 2:36:48.080 I was gone. 2:36:48.720 --> 2:36:50.160 I was drinking water. 2:36:50.280 --> 2:36:54.040 Very readily all throughout the journey. North Margarets have a 2:36:54.120 --> 2:36:56.000 little choice but to rely on one another and the 2:36:56.080 --> 2:36:59.680 solidarity of strangers. I heard dozens of stories that you've 2:36:59.760 --> 2:37:02.760 just heard. My time in the Dai n total strangers 2:37:02.879 --> 2:37:05.640 who saved each other's lives risk their own in the process. 2:37:06.520 --> 2:37:08.280 For vers, it could only be crossed to People from 2:37:08.320 --> 2:37:11.080 three different continents joined arms to form a human chain 2:37:11.280 --> 2:37:13.440 the children and smaller people could hold on to to 2:37:13.480 --> 2:37:18.040 avoid being swept downstream. Not everyone can help. Just surviving 2:37:18.080 --> 2:37:20.800 the Dadian takes all of what many people have. But 2:37:20.920 --> 2:37:22.920 for the people who are in a position to even 2:37:22.959 --> 2:37:26.720 in desperate times, there's mutual support among the migrants. Very 2:37:26.800 --> 2:37:27.560 few people who. 2:37:27.480 --> 2:37:31.280 Are very help you. They're very few people. Only people 2:37:31.320 --> 2:37:34.119 who are time can actually help. That people will pass 2:37:34.280 --> 2:37:36.680 you by, and that people want If you have lost 2:37:36.760 --> 2:37:39.080 your strength, it's not easy for another person to actually 2:37:39.200 --> 2:37:43.120 help break though, we can really appreciate those who help, because, yeah, 2:37:43.560 --> 2:37:46.360 having your strength is another You must help yourself before 2:37:46.400 --> 2:37:48.959 you can help another past, right, So if you can't 2:37:49.000 --> 2:37:50.880 really have the strength, it will be difficult for need 2:37:50.920 --> 2:37:53.440 to help another. So we don't really condemn them, but 2:37:54.080 --> 2:37:56.640 at least we are praying where we are bleeding on 2:37:56.760 --> 2:37:59.600 our brothers worst still behind that if they meet people, 2:38:00.080 --> 2:38:02.320 if they have the ability to herpe, they should do so. 2:38:02.480 --> 2:38:05.640 Of course, it's not really uneasy something. 2:38:06.879 --> 2:38:14.600 Give sometimes reporting on these places compete them as bleak, unwelcoming, 2:38:15.120 --> 2:38:17.840 or just miserable and certainly very sad. Things happen in 2:38:17.879 --> 2:38:20.960 the jungle and in the camps, in human things, But 2:38:21.200 --> 2:38:24.640 just like war or a natural disaster, sometimes the horrible 2:38:24.680 --> 2:38:27.600 circumstances of the migration trail bring out the best in people. 2:38:28.400 --> 2:38:31.120 As I've said before in this series, I'm comfortable in 2:38:31.160 --> 2:38:33.760 the refugee camps, at least in part because people they 2:38:33.760 --> 2:38:36.640 are looking out for one another. Kids don't stop playing 2:38:36.680 --> 2:38:39.480 the moment they become refugees, not an adults stop laughing. 2:38:39.920 --> 2:38:42.760 In fact, these things become even more important that how 2:38:42.800 --> 2:38:45.800 we keep our humanity in a system that's inherently dehumanizing, 2:38:46.320 --> 2:38:49.119 And people don't stop organizing or caring about one another either. 2:38:50.080 --> 2:38:52.400 It's not just the migrants, of course. One of the 2:38:52.480 --> 2:38:54.560 families who've been stuck in Bao Jiguito for almost a 2:38:54.640 --> 2:38:56.880 month was given some money by a local Sender Front 2:38:56.920 --> 2:38:59.959 member to take a bus. In Mexico, those who don't 2:39:00.040 --> 2:39:02.560 have enough money to take buses, we'll hop onto freight trains, 2:39:03.160 --> 2:39:05.440 and as they speed through towns and rail yards at night, 2:39:05.840 --> 2:39:08.720 local people will throw plastic bags of food, water, and 2:39:08.760 --> 2:39:12.440 clothing to them. In Panama City, I visited a Jesuit 2:39:12.560 --> 2:39:15.439 run shelter for migrants called fate Erga. 2:39:15.959 --> 2:39:24.160 Well number Celias Cordnijo is Coordina or the Promotion Social Accompanimento. 2:39:26.560 --> 2:39:27.000 Panama. 2:39:27.680 --> 2:39:33.440 Alberto went down a Darien recently and we know from 2:39:33.480 --> 2:39:37.520 firsthand experience that the difficulty they have is moving. So 2:39:38.680 --> 2:39:42.440 some don't go through the stations, but they stay, so 2:39:43.160 --> 2:39:47.640 they appear here in the city, and so they arrive 2:39:47.800 --> 2:39:51.040 here and some decide to stay and forego all the 2:39:51.120 --> 2:39:52.520 difficulty of moving forward. 2:39:53.480 --> 2:39:56.360 Despite having been set up as a refuge, recent changes 2:39:56.400 --> 2:39:59.280 to Panamanian law had made that work difficult, and you. 2:39:59.280 --> 2:39:59.959 Don't pretty heard. 2:40:01.400 --> 2:40:03.960 We had to stop that service because the state literally 2:40:04.080 --> 2:40:09.360 prohibited us as agencies from providing shelter and under the 2:40:09.480 --> 2:40:13.400 premise that if we gave them shelter without them asking 2:40:13.520 --> 2:40:17.840 for it, they could consider us as human traffickers. 2:40:18.720 --> 2:40:21.360 So what we do now is we give them. 2:40:21.280 --> 2:40:25.080 Food and if they decide to stay, well, we help 2:40:25.160 --> 2:40:29.959 them with certain processes that we can call humanitarian aid 2:40:30.120 --> 2:40:31.160 for sustainability. 2:40:32.959 --> 2:40:35.040 I've seen a wide variety of faith based aid in 2:40:35.080 --> 2:40:37.640 my time at the border. Much of it has been fantastic, 2:40:38.280 --> 2:40:40.280 but with more than a decade of refugee camps from 2:40:40.280 --> 2:40:42.640 resource pot settings, I've also learned to be a bit 2:40:42.720 --> 2:40:46.640 wary of faith based charity. But something Elias said early 2:40:46.760 --> 2:40:48.800 in our talk gave me a great deal of respect 2:40:48.840 --> 2:40:51.600 for him. It's not justin he said it, but he 2:40:51.680 --> 2:40:53.600 took the time to address his comments to me as 2:40:53.640 --> 2:40:55.920 a journalist because he saw this as a problem in 2:40:56.000 --> 2:40:58.640 part created by the media. For its worth, I think 2:40:58.680 --> 2:41:01.560 he's right. I think that as we try and help 2:41:01.959 --> 2:41:04.640 on a difficult journey, we must always keep in mind. 2:41:05.120 --> 2:41:06.880 He might come from a very different background than my 2:41:06.959 --> 2:41:08.880 mutual Aid group, but we do seem to share the 2:41:08.959 --> 2:41:11.000 same belief in solidarity with the migrants. 2:41:11.920 --> 2:41:12.080 Is a. 2:41:14.440 --> 2:41:18.000 Unfortunately much of the media narrative. What they do is 2:41:18.400 --> 2:41:22.200 they victimize and ridicule people in family groups and turn 2:41:22.280 --> 2:41:26.640 them into pariahs and beggars. Then that is insulting to 2:41:26.760 --> 2:41:30.480 the dignity of the person. So the way they portray 2:41:30.640 --> 2:41:34.240 migration is shameful in some cases, and this is very difficult. 2:41:34.959 --> 2:41:38.480 Well for this, yes, I think that's very important. 2:41:40.280 --> 2:41:42.280 After this, I figured I address the issue head on. 2:41:42.520 --> 2:41:44.640 I'm asking about the many churches and Christians I see 2:41:44.720 --> 2:41:46.880 preaching hate against people coming to the southern border of 2:41:46.920 --> 2:41:47.360 the US. 2:41:51.520 --> 2:41:53.960 There is a sector in the Catholic Church and the 2:41:54.040 --> 2:41:58.600 Evangelical Church that opposes it and is more closely linked. 2:41:59.879 --> 2:42:03.920 And they are in fact they are they're benefactors of 2:42:03.959 --> 2:42:10.600 Trump's campaign. So this one and this one are there, well, well, 2:42:10.640 --> 2:42:14.760 those are like groups that are rejecting, let's say, the 2:42:14.840 --> 2:42:18.040 basic principle of the Church, which is that we must 2:42:18.480 --> 2:42:24.600 welcome migrants and refugees. So they fundamentally reject it. So 2:42:24.720 --> 2:42:29.400 they invent all these narratives that Haitians practice voodoo and 2:42:29.920 --> 2:42:33.440 they eat pets, and this and that or that and 2:42:33.520 --> 2:42:38.480 it's shameful mean, or like the Venezuelans, that the majority 2:42:38.520 --> 2:42:42.440 of them are from Triandegua gang or that they come 2:42:42.480 --> 2:42:46.800 from areas that are what you call problematic or chauvannista, 2:42:47.120 --> 2:42:50.240 and that they are infuriating or that or that. All 2:42:50.320 --> 2:42:54.520 the same narrative that was created when when the Maritos 2:42:54.600 --> 2:42:57.960 left Cuba. And it's not that the Cuban government is 2:42:58.080 --> 2:43:01.080 sending all the prisoners on the Madi l boats to 2:43:01.240 --> 2:43:03.640 invade the United States. It's the same narrative. 2:43:05.080 --> 2:43:07.400 Then they asked what he thought of the government's plans 2:43:07.440 --> 2:43:09.880 to close the day enda if they could even do that. 2:43:13.320 --> 2:43:15.280 People ask me, do you think the Darian gap is 2:43:15.320 --> 2:43:18.400 going to close and that migration is going to disappear? 2:43:18.680 --> 2:43:21.480 And I say, ask the Mexicans and the North Americans 2:43:21.520 --> 2:43:24.600 if the Sonara Desert has stopped being a corridor for 2:43:24.680 --> 2:43:28.240 people after Trump, Because there was a time when all 2:43:28.320 --> 2:43:31.560 the media was focused on the migration that passed through 2:43:31.640 --> 2:43:35.880 the Sonara and everything continues to happen, but then it 2:43:35.920 --> 2:43:40.080 became invisible and ceased to exist for them. But people 2:43:40.200 --> 2:43:44.480 continue to pass through, and people continue to die. So 2:43:44.840 --> 2:43:48.480 as you say this, this is going to continue, maybe 2:43:48.600 --> 2:43:51.320 not a half a million people, but the flow is 2:43:51.360 --> 2:43:52.200 going to continue. 2:43:52.520 --> 2:43:53.480 It's going to continue. 2:43:54.080 --> 2:43:57.120 And then the question we should ask ourselves is what 2:43:57.240 --> 2:43:59.640 are we going to do or how are we going 2:43:59.720 --> 2:44:03.119 to accompany this flow? How are we going to accompanies 2:44:03.200 --> 2:44:06.160 these lives? And in what way can let these people's 2:44:06.240 --> 2:44:08.040 lives impact us. 2:44:09.360 --> 2:44:11.600 But like so many of us who work along the board, 2:44:11.720 --> 2:44:14.760 he says, he's constantly fighting. It's negative messaging that encourages 2:44:14.800 --> 2:44:17.280 people not to follow the natural impulse to help and 2:44:17.360 --> 2:44:18.280 take care of one another. 2:44:21.800 --> 2:44:24.760 So it's not a question of how I always say, 2:44:25.720 --> 2:44:28.440 and sometimes they tell me, oh, that you always speak 2:44:28.520 --> 2:44:32.480 so badly of Panama. But it's not speaking badly of Panama. 2:44:32.520 --> 2:44:34.920 I love my country and I feel that we in general, 2:44:35.200 --> 2:44:39.840 the Panamanian communities are very welcoming and very affectionate with 2:44:39.959 --> 2:44:43.040 the migrants. The problem is the narrative that is created 2:44:43.440 --> 2:44:47.040 and then it generates to stimuli that end up with 2:44:47.360 --> 2:44:52.920 a situation where are not seen so positively. And consequently, 2:44:53.480 --> 2:44:58.320 last week we had a meeting perhaps on National Reality, 2:44:58.800 --> 2:45:01.960 and we touched on on the subject of immigrants, and 2:45:02.400 --> 2:45:05.880 the first reaction was, no, it's not the state that 2:45:06.040 --> 2:45:07.480 pays the fare of the migrants. 2:45:07.920 --> 2:45:10.560 It's not that I mean, they pay their own fare. 2:45:12.000 --> 2:45:14.039 After a week of my interview requests being declined by 2:45:14.160 --> 2:45:17.360 NGOs and government offices, I found my talk with Father 2:45:17.400 --> 2:45:20.120 Alifs refreshing. It's nice to know that you're not the 2:45:20.160 --> 2:45:22.520 only one who sees the system as it is, which 2:45:22.560 --> 2:45:26.360 is fundamentally flawed and entirely propped up by misinformation, hatred 2:45:26.400 --> 2:45:28.800 and ignorance. But I don't want to get bogged down 2:45:28.840 --> 2:45:32.240 on that. Father Alias told me that when he sees migrants, 2:45:32.320 --> 2:45:34.560 he sees God. In them, and that he experiences his 2:45:34.600 --> 2:45:37.760 faith by helping others. My early experienced religion came in 2:45:37.879 --> 2:45:39.879 high school from a priest who was a teacher who'd 2:45:39.879 --> 2:45:42.080 been part of the anti apartheid movement in South Africa. 2:45:42.879 --> 2:45:45.320 I'm not a religious person in myself, but I can 2:45:45.400 --> 2:45:47.240 understand how seeing God and other people is not that 2:45:47.360 --> 2:45:50.120 far from my own politics. Lifit seeing God and know 2:45:50.120 --> 2:45:52.840 other people that impels people stand up against apartheid or 2:45:52.879 --> 2:45:55.280 to dedicate their lives to helping migrants, then I respect that. 2:45:56.120 --> 2:45:58.080 So after we come back, I want to try and 2:45:58.160 --> 2:46:01.160 answer the question that pytheay Alias are ask what can 2:46:01.240 --> 2:46:24.400 you do? Huge humor on us at the prop of 2:46:24.440 --> 2:46:31.200 the hill we ran into them. Yeah. After getting back 2:46:31.200 --> 2:46:33.600 from the Dad end and hearing the migrants share their 2:46:33.600 --> 2:46:36.120 struggles as they waited in Mexico for an outlest designs 2:46:36.120 --> 2:46:38.760 to lay and discourage them, I really struggled to come 2:46:38.800 --> 2:46:41.720 to terms with everything I'd seen and was hearing a 2:46:41.800 --> 2:46:45.280 bit to plenty of dangerous places I've seen war, state violence, 2:46:45.320 --> 2:46:48.720 and terrorism. I know the tragedy of death and violence, 2:46:49.240 --> 2:46:52.080 but the slow, deliberate suffering inflicted on migrants for people 2:46:52.080 --> 2:46:54.240 who lied to us every day on television is particularly 2:46:54.280 --> 2:46:56.680 hard to bear for me. As I mentioned at the 2:46:56.720 --> 2:46:59.400 start of this series, I think the grim reality of 2:46:59.440 --> 2:47:02.760 our migration system. On my first day in Bahajiqito, little 2:47:02.800 --> 2:47:05.680 girl's head hanging limply from a makeshift stretcher a strangers 2:47:05.720 --> 2:47:09.720 carried her into town. It's also cruel, so deliberate, and 2:47:09.879 --> 2:47:14.280 so unnecessary, and it felt so disempowering. But that doesn't 2:47:14.320 --> 2:47:16.720 mean there's nothing you can do. It doesn't mean there's 2:47:16.760 --> 2:47:17.320 nothing I can do. 2:47:19.320 --> 2:47:23.040 All right, So basically what we're gonna be doing is 2:47:23.120 --> 2:47:26.119 we're gonna go this way. I mean, we're gonna start, 2:47:26.120 --> 2:47:28.280 We're gonna go down into this well. We're gonna go 2:47:28.360 --> 2:47:29.960 that way and see where the light break is on 2:47:30.000 --> 2:47:32.880 them of the hill in between those hills running cut up. 2:47:33.760 --> 2:47:34.680 I'm not up in that area. 2:47:35.480 --> 2:47:38.000 That's James card Era of Border Kindness, sitting at the 2:47:38.080 --> 2:47:40.040 roof of a group of five of us set out 2:47:40.160 --> 2:47:42.240 on a water drop in the mountains east of Okumba. 2:47:42.720 --> 2:47:45.320 It's an area called Valley of the Moon, where boulders 2:47:45.360 --> 2:47:48.200 the size of trucks stack up against each other, where 2:47:48.240 --> 2:47:51.480 people have been crossing the border for decades. This is 2:47:51.520 --> 2:47:54.080 a remote area and not unlike the Daddy End. Much 2:47:54.120 --> 2:47:56.080 of it is nearly impossible to access in a car. 2:47:57.080 --> 2:47:59.600 To get water out here, we have to walk. And 2:47:59.640 --> 2:48:01.920 if you out of water or injure yourself so you 2:48:01.959 --> 2:48:04.440 can't walk out of here, it's possible you'll die, just 2:48:04.480 --> 2:48:07.360 like the migaants do in the jungle. People get robbed here, 2:48:07.640 --> 2:48:09.440 just like in the dad Enn And if it wasn't 2:48:09.480 --> 2:48:11.400 for the five of us with our backpacks full of water, 2:48:12.080 --> 2:48:14.360 people could die of thirst here just like they do 2:48:14.600 --> 2:48:17.560 in the jungle. I thought I was packing water bottles 2:48:17.560 --> 2:48:19.920 into my frame pack. I thought about little kids I've 2:48:19.959 --> 2:48:22.959 met in Baho Chiquito. This isn't the place for children either, 2:48:23.560 --> 2:48:25.520 but over the last eighteen months, I've met hundreds of 2:48:25.560 --> 2:48:28.160 them out here. I've given them my jackets and hats, 2:48:28.720 --> 2:48:31.440 warmed up milk for babies in my camping stove, and 2:48:31.560 --> 2:48:33.680 even wrapped the little girl up in a milar blanket 2:48:33.800 --> 2:48:36.480 with me to warm her up last year. Just like 2:48:36.560 --> 2:48:38.880 the Dadienne. The suffering here is out of sight and 2:48:38.959 --> 2:48:41.400 out of mind for most Americans, And in a year 2:48:41.440 --> 2:48:44.400 where we're constantly being told democracies under threat, I think 2:48:44.400 --> 2:48:46.600 a bear is mentioning that migrants are treated as humans 2:48:46.640 --> 2:48:49.560 without rights even when they're inside this country, and that 2:48:49.640 --> 2:48:51.920 their lives are seen as dispensable so long as whoever 2:48:52.040 --> 2:48:55.080 is in office can look quote tough on migration and 2:48:55.200 --> 2:48:58.520 make TV pundits and big money don't as happy. There 2:48:58.560 --> 2:49:00.600 weren't any TV pundits or big money doon is on 2:49:00.640 --> 2:49:03.160 our water drop, just a few of us everyday people. 2:49:03.560 --> 2:49:06.000 Some people come out here because their family members across 2:49:06.120 --> 2:49:09.240 the desert. Some come out because everyone who crosses a 2:49:09.240 --> 2:49:12.320 desert is part of our family. Like Bonnio said, in 2:49:13.480 --> 2:49:16.200 all humans are brothers, and none of us want our 2:49:16.200 --> 2:49:19.000 brothers or sisters to die in their mountains, whatever their 2:49:19.040 --> 2:49:23.840 passport might say. And so nearly every weekend, people all 2:49:23.920 --> 2:49:27.040 along the border load up heavy bags for supplies. On 2:49:27.160 --> 2:49:29.600 this drop. Each of us filled our packs with water, 2:49:30.160 --> 2:49:34.600 cans of tuna, pineapple soup, some warm clothing, and in 2:49:34.680 --> 2:49:41.280 this case an audio recorder recording recording in progress. Rhyme, 2:49:42.800 --> 2:49:44.680 of course, just gave me an opportunity to discuss my 2:49:44.720 --> 2:49:48.320 life's calling. Ensuring the correct fit of backpack harness systems. 2:49:51.800 --> 2:49:54.080 It just doesn't wrap the straps. You'd either have to 2:49:54.160 --> 2:49:57.400 drop the waistbelt or like these have adjustable frames, so 2:49:57.480 --> 2:49:59.360 you can make them fit with those of the days. 2:50:00.080 --> 2:50:05.840 For that, that's really pretty with everyone suitably adjusted and 2:50:05.959 --> 2:50:08.640 ergonomically optimized. We twisted on the audio record as I 2:50:08.680 --> 2:50:10.800 had attached the straps of our packs and set off. 2:50:11.120 --> 2:50:13.520 I just feel bad for you, because a lot of 2:50:13.560 --> 2:50:14.199 dumb ship. 2:50:21.760 --> 2:50:23.360 From the edge of the dirt road. We took our 2:50:23.400 --> 2:50:24.480 first steps into the desert. 2:50:25.280 --> 2:50:32.160 The first part is gonna be a little slippery. You 2:50:32.280 --> 2:50:34.199 eat Shit's okay, don't be embarrassed. It happens. 2:50:39.120 --> 2:50:40.640 This part of the border isn't that far from a 2:50:40.720 --> 2:50:43.000 Cumba where this time last year, James and I spent 2:50:43.080 --> 2:50:45.879 a freezing night trying to keep people alive, running our 2:50:45.920 --> 2:50:48.800 camping stoves on full blast, giving away our own jackets 2:50:49.040 --> 2:50:51.760 who needed them more than us. At that time, I 2:50:51.920 --> 2:50:53.800 just returned from a trip to North and East Syria, 2:50:54.280 --> 2:50:57.680 which was stressful in its own way, and seeing both 2:50:57.760 --> 2:50:59.760 what people are leaving and how we treat them when 2:50:59.800 --> 2:51:03.440 they're here really pissed me off. A year later, with 2:51:03.520 --> 2:51:06.080 bags full of water, JMS and I spoke about things 2:51:06.600 --> 2:51:08.680 and how they got so much worse in the last 2:51:08.720 --> 2:51:12.680 two years, but press coverage and more Importantly, donations have 2:51:12.760 --> 2:51:15.800 been way lower. It's same story up and down the border, 2:51:16.240 --> 2:51:21.320 record deaths, newer and harder migration routes, different migration patterns, 2:51:21.959 --> 2:51:24.320 and the people who cried outside ice detention centers in 2:51:24.360 --> 2:51:29.400 Trump's first term cheering for more walls and bigger DHS budgets. Meanwhile, 2:51:30.040 --> 2:51:32.560 unlike the Trump era, we don't have the support of 2:51:32.680 --> 2:51:36.040 thousands of liberal people in California's big cities. After the 2:51:36.120 --> 2:51:39.240 Democrats cynically use migrant suffering in their twenty twenty campaign, 2:51:39.480 --> 2:51:42.800 they abandoned them upon acquiring power, and their supporters have 2:51:42.879 --> 2:51:45.960 mostly followed them. So that left five of us this 2:51:46.080 --> 2:51:48.680 particular morning to load up bags and do the life 2:51:48.720 --> 2:51:51.680 saving work of dropping water. On top of all the 2:51:51.720 --> 2:51:54.440 state violence, there's been more and more interference with the 2:51:54.520 --> 2:51:56.600 water drops, and as we got further into our route, 2:51:56.800 --> 2:51:59.720 we made the increasingly common discovery that someone had taken 2:51:59.760 --> 2:52:08.400 it up on themselves to destroy our supplies. S man 2:52:08.440 --> 2:52:14.400 of ice, sick. That's probably though. These are slash slash. 2:52:14.160 --> 2:52:16.640 Ye try by the person's trinking a smirnof ice. 2:52:16.800 --> 2:52:21.080 Yeah, here's wrong. Yeah, they are fluns matterfuckers. 2:52:22.240 --> 2:52:23.640 I mean, I'm assuming it's a person who brought the 2:52:23.640 --> 2:52:27.600 smirnoff Ice because it seems like a smirnoff Ice activity Feller. Yeah, 2:52:28.720 --> 2:52:30.640 I don't see a VP agent rolling brew with a 2:52:30.680 --> 2:52:31.360 smirnoff Ies. 2:52:32.879 --> 2:52:35.879 This isn't unique to border kindness. Someone has been shooting 2:52:35.879 --> 2:52:38.600 supplies left by Borderlands Relief Collective half an hour west 2:52:38.640 --> 2:52:42.080 of here recently, up and down the border. The combination 2:52:42.200 --> 2:52:45.200 of total liberal and attention a xenophobic right wing hate 2:52:45.240 --> 2:52:47.959 whipped up by streamers who I won't name, and pseudo 2:52:48.040 --> 2:52:51.720 journalistic grifters who I will name, like Bill Maluganlugan, of course, 2:52:51.840 --> 2:52:54.000 was previously famous for claiming that the cop had a 2:52:54.080 --> 2:52:57.360 tampon dropped in his coffee in twenty twenty. Spoiler alert, 2:52:57.400 --> 2:52:59.959 if you're not familiar, this wasn't true. Belugan now works. 2:53:00.000 --> 2:53:02.680 It's a quote I'm quote Border reporter for Fox News, Danny, 2:53:02.680 --> 2:53:03.240 good morning to you. 2:53:03.320 --> 2:53:05.520 We are in Santa Siegro, a part of San Diego 2:53:05.640 --> 2:53:08.040 right now, where hundreds of illegal immigrants have just been 2:53:08.160 --> 2:53:11.360 massed street released from border patrol custody. This bus you 2:53:11.480 --> 2:53:16.320 see right here is apparently an NGO or Volunteer organization bus. 2:53:16.360 --> 2:53:19.240 They've all just gotten off a border patrol bus. Two 2:53:19.320 --> 2:53:22.360 of them. Actually, they're now waiting to board this bus. 2:53:22.440 --> 2:53:25.960 I've talked to several of them from Peru, from India, 2:53:26.080 --> 2:53:28.400 from Colombia. The group from Peru told me they are 2:53:28.440 --> 2:53:31.640 here to work. They are going to Atlanta and Minneapolis 2:53:31.680 --> 2:53:32.840 to see if we can talk to some of them 2:53:32.879 --> 2:53:38.040 real quick. Old espanon the so Ecuadora, don't US and 2:53:40.560 --> 2:53:41.720 New York going to New York. 2:53:41.800 --> 2:53:44.160 They're do on the so On. They're on the so 2:53:45.120 --> 2:53:49.520 Costa Rica. Don't live US? And lost Atlanta, New Jersey, 2:53:50.000 --> 2:53:52.959 don the New Jersey, New Jersey, dont theyve US? 2:53:53.040 --> 2:53:54.520 In Chicago? 2:53:54.800 --> 2:54:02.840 Chicago, Colombia, Columbia, Kereen, Trabaja, No no asilo yet they 2:54:02.879 --> 2:54:04.520 say they want asylum. They don't want to work. 2:54:05.080 --> 2:54:11.240 They've done their own Well, where are you from? Sag Sanag? 2:54:11.400 --> 2:54:13.720 I think Senegal? From Senegal? We saw a lot of 2:54:13.800 --> 2:54:15.920 Senegalese in Lukeville, Arizona. 2:54:16.400 --> 2:54:17.560 Where in the US do you want to go to? 2:54:17.640 --> 2:54:18.040 What city? 2:54:19.959 --> 2:54:21.080 Francis France? 2:54:21.520 --> 2:54:21.800 France? 2:54:23.640 --> 2:54:27.360 France, France speak France. Oh, he speaks French. I obviously 2:54:27.440 --> 2:54:30.320 do not speak French. The Loogan's lack of language competency 2:54:30.360 --> 2:54:32.560 isn't the only issue here. It's a holy ecosystem of 2:54:32.640 --> 2:54:35.520 media built up of yuristically filming migrants without giving them 2:54:35.520 --> 2:54:38.160 a chance to humanize themselves. And it's not just a 2:54:38.280 --> 2:54:39.000 right wing issue. 2:54:39.120 --> 2:54:41.640 This week, each day has been marked by new daily 2:54:41.720 --> 2:54:44.959 records of migrants, both crossing the southern border and landing 2:54:45.120 --> 2:54:47.680 in custody. The federal government is struggling to keep up. 2:54:47.800 --> 2:54:51.120 Three Homeland security official say Customs and Border Protection is 2:54:51.200 --> 2:54:54.880 holding about twenty seven thousand migrants and processing facilities as 2:54:54.959 --> 2:54:58.200 of yesterday. President Biden spoke with Mexico's president about the 2:54:58.280 --> 2:55:02.160 issue earlier today see News Homeland Security Corresponding Julia Ainsley 2:55:02.200 --> 2:55:05.040 joins me now to dig into this trend. So, Julia, first, 2:55:05.200 --> 2:55:08.120 just give us some perspective here. How is Customs and 2:55:08.200 --> 2:55:11.119 Border Protection operating right now? And what are your sources 2:55:11.160 --> 2:55:13.720 saying about this historic rise in migrants at the border. 2:55:14.840 --> 2:55:17.520 Well, in some ways, there's actually a small victory here, 2:55:17.600 --> 2:55:19.400 is in Clay when you look at the fact that 2:55:19.560 --> 2:55:22.480 CBP is seeing a record number of migrants, that they've 2:55:22.480 --> 2:55:24.320 been at a record high now for three days in 2:55:24.400 --> 2:55:27.240 a row. They broke the record of twelve thousand, maintained 2:55:27.360 --> 2:55:30.600 that and There are now almost twenty seven thousand migrants 2:55:30.600 --> 2:55:33.640 in CBP custody. When we got to just about twenty 2:55:33.720 --> 2:55:36.560 thousand and twenty nineteen under the Trump administration, there were 2:55:36.600 --> 2:55:38.960 migrants who were there for weeks and couldn't lie down 2:55:39.360 --> 2:55:41.920 to sleep because they were so overcrowded. Now, because of 2:55:41.959 --> 2:55:44.480 the technology, they're actually able to not even hold people 2:55:44.520 --> 2:55:47.360 past seventy two hours and very quickly release them. But 2:55:47.840 --> 2:55:49.640 the tragedy comes after that. There are a lot of 2:55:49.760 --> 2:55:52.000 migrants who are being released on the streets without being 2:55:52.080 --> 2:55:54.880 taken to nonprofits, and some of them don't exactly know 2:55:54.879 --> 2:55:57.600 where they're supposed to go, even though CBP does try 2:55:57.640 --> 2:56:00.760 to coordinate with the cities where they are released. That's 2:56:00.800 --> 2:56:04.960 definitely happening in the Tucson, Arizona area and Eagle Pass, Texas. 2:56:05.080 --> 2:56:07.480 Even though they are scrambling as fast as they can 2:56:07.640 --> 2:56:11.160 to release migrants, that are still thousands who remain in 2:56:11.280 --> 2:56:13.440 the field, a lot of them crowded under a bridge 2:56:13.440 --> 2:56:16.560 an Eagle Pass, just waiting for CBP to take them in. 2:56:16.800 --> 2:56:19.800 The reason a lot of people can give you different reasons. One, 2:56:19.920 --> 2:56:22.840 perhaps Mexico is interdicting as many migrants as they were 2:56:22.920 --> 2:56:25.520 earlier in the year. They're now lower on funds because 2:56:25.560 --> 2:56:28.480 of these record highs. Another reason sometimes migrants will say 2:56:28.520 --> 2:56:31.360 that they're worried about a future Republican administration or a 2:56:31.400 --> 2:56:34.160 future Trump administration that might be harder ANDed, so they 2:56:34.200 --> 2:56:35.560 think now is the time to come. 2:56:36.160 --> 2:56:38.720 Two minutes into this report and we haven't actually heard 2:56:38.800 --> 2:56:42.160 from a single migrant. All we hear is numbers. We 2:56:42.240 --> 2:56:44.800 also haven't heard about or detention, which is the time 2:56:44.840 --> 2:56:47.880 this was released with at its peak. Again, it's just 2:56:48.080 --> 2:56:52.040 numbers and CBP statements. I should also point out that 2:56:52.200 --> 2:56:54.000 lots of people are held for more than seventy two 2:56:54.040 --> 2:56:57.440 hours or three days. The Department of Homeland Security office 2:56:57.440 --> 2:57:00.600 who inspected general report published in November twenty twenty three, 2:57:00.920 --> 2:57:03.240 a month before the new segment that you just heard, 2:57:03.720 --> 2:57:05.880 said that fifty six percent of people were held for 2:57:06.000 --> 2:57:08.040 longer than that, for some people being held for more 2:57:08.080 --> 2:57:11.360 than a month. This information is publicly available and even 2:57:11.400 --> 2:57:13.200 had a press release. I found it very quickly and 2:57:13.240 --> 2:57:15.800 I reported on at the time. But NBC chowse not 2:57:15.920 --> 2:57:19.960 to seeing migrants as a quote homeland security issue, not 2:57:20.080 --> 2:57:23.160 as people. It's fundamentally the problem and the way we 2:57:23.280 --> 2:57:27.760 fix that is showing up as people to help. Despite 2:57:27.800 --> 2:57:30.080 the massive media focus on the border in the last year, 2:57:30.520 --> 2:57:32.920 I very rarely see other journalists actually at the border. 2:57:33.400 --> 2:57:35.640 To give him credit. Malgan does sometimes show up, but 2:57:35.720 --> 2:57:38.080 he doesn't stay long, and he doesn't really have the 2:57:38.160 --> 2:57:41.000 capacity to interview migrants, even if you wanted to. The 2:57:41.080 --> 2:57:44.240 border is vast and mostly empty. It's a place I've 2:57:44.280 --> 2:57:45.840 come to know and come to love in my time 2:57:45.959 --> 2:57:50.440 dropping water and recreating and doing other mutilaid projects out here. 2:57:51.240 --> 2:57:53.240 Now they have a better understanding of the journeys people 2:57:53.320 --> 2:57:55.600 go through to get here, even more determined to make 2:57:55.640 --> 2:57:58.600 this small part of their trip less dangerous. And besides, 2:57:58.840 --> 2:58:00.960 I get to see cool rocks. Oh say, with mister 2:58:01.000 --> 2:58:02.840 potato here, it looks like he's dying off. 2:58:03.280 --> 2:58:09.400 Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, God no, I 2:58:09.480 --> 2:58:13.360 see that. Well, now you say it like that, it 2:58:13.400 --> 2:58:15.560 looks very Yeah, the eyes are real close to each other. Yeah, 2:58:17.000 --> 2:58:18.560 it's a very melting potato. 2:58:21.360 --> 2:58:24.480 Among the cool rocks. Last weekend I found a mini 2:58:24.560 --> 2:58:28.000 mouse doll. It reminded me of Miami, the little girl 2:58:28.000 --> 2:58:31.520 I'd met him. Boo. I give my number to hundreds 2:58:31.560 --> 2:58:35.480 of people before leaving Panama and heard from dozens, but 2:58:36.040 --> 2:58:38.160 up until that I hadn't heard from Miami and her mum. 2:58:39.040 --> 2:58:43.039 I heard of people being kidnapped, robbed, raped, and ransomed 2:58:43.760 --> 2:58:46.039 in Mexico. Some of them have been caught by authorities 2:58:46.080 --> 2:58:48.920 and pushed back to Chiapas, and others have been unable 2:58:48.959 --> 2:58:52.600 to leave Tapatula after having all their money stolen. I 2:58:52.760 --> 2:58:55.760 wanted which, if any of these fates had before been Miami, 2:58:55.920 --> 2:58:57.880 and if she was still having a pepper pig adventure. 2:58:58.800 --> 2:59:01.560 Sadly between where I met her or where I found them, 2:59:01.560 --> 2:59:05.280 Mini mouse Doll, There's nothing else I can do. They're 2:59:05.280 --> 2:59:07.560 here in the mountains outside San Diego, where the wind 2:59:07.600 --> 2:59:10.200 blows so strong sometimes you can barely stand up. I 2:59:10.320 --> 2:59:14.920 can do something without the ability to do something, something 2:59:14.959 --> 2:59:18.200 which I know is meaningful. I don't know how I'd 2:59:18.240 --> 2:59:20.800 managed to stay on this beat. It's just too heartbreaking 2:59:20.879 --> 2:59:24.440 to meet good people, share meals and laughter, in deep 2:59:24.520 --> 2:59:26.960 conversations with them, and then see them fed into a 2:59:27.040 --> 2:59:29.600 teeth of a machine that robs, brutalizes, and kills them. 2:59:29.640 --> 2:59:31.520 So that Joe Biden can stand on a podium and 2:59:31.560 --> 2:59:34.600 say that border crossing to down this month they are down, 2:59:34.879 --> 2:59:37.760 and that's allowedly due to enforcement in Mexico. But I 2:59:37.840 --> 2:59:39.640 want to make sure that everyone who does cross the 2:59:39.720 --> 2:59:42.240 border can do so safely and they don't have to 2:59:42.320 --> 2:59:44.920 die on US soil after fighting so hard to make 2:59:44.959 --> 2:59:47.640 it here. This hasn't been the case for everyone this year. 2:59:48.320 --> 2:59:50.280 My friends up and down the border have carried far 2:59:50.400 --> 2:59:54.000 too many little memorial crosses into the mountains. And depending 2:59:54.040 --> 2:59:56.160 on the election results next week, what we're doing might 2:59:56.200 --> 3:00:00.480 be illegal soon, but that'll never make it wrong. Since 3:00:00.520 --> 3:00:02.840 early September, nine people have died in a little part 3:00:02.879 --> 3:00:05.600 of southern California alone. My friends who searched for them 3:00:05.959 --> 3:00:09.240 sometimes found their remains and undertaken the thankless task of 3:00:09.320 --> 3:00:12.920 sharing the bad news with their families, then constructive memorials 3:00:12.959 --> 3:00:15.640 in their memory. This is just one of the many 3:00:15.720 --> 3:00:18.760 dangerous parts of the migration route north, but it's the 3:00:18.840 --> 3:00:21.280 one that I can help with. If you're nearby are 3:00:21.320 --> 3:00:23.560 visiting for a while, there are several organizations dropping water 3:00:23.640 --> 3:00:27.039 on the border. Border Angels, Border Kindness and Borderlands Relief 3:00:27.040 --> 3:00:31.440 Collective here in San Diego, Arho, Samaritans, noms Perthes in Arizona. 3:00:31.959 --> 3:00:35.480 Groups you search and rescue as well. Obviously, not everyone 3:00:35.560 --> 3:00:37.680 lives here at the USA is Southern border, but more 3:00:37.720 --> 3:00:39.640 than half of the population does live within one hundred 3:00:39.680 --> 3:00:41.720 miles of a border. Even if you don't live in 3:00:41.760 --> 3:00:43.760 the USA, or maybe you do but you don't live 3:00:43.760 --> 3:00:46.480 anywhere near the border, I guarantee there are migrants in 3:00:46.520 --> 3:00:49.520 your community. In the last year, I've worked with migrant 3:00:49.560 --> 3:00:52.760 welcome committees in Maryland, church groups in the rural south, 3:00:53.160 --> 3:00:55.720 Sikhs on the West Coast, occurred on the East Coast, 3:00:55.720 --> 3:00:58.160 to name just a few. Without a type of fanfare, 3:00:58.200 --> 3:01:00.480 people all over this country are making space their homes 3:01:00.480 --> 3:01:03.840 and their hearts for strangers, feeding them, housing them, and 3:01:03.920 --> 3:01:06.440 helping them get set up in a new place. For 3:01:06.520 --> 3:01:10.000 the most part, it doesn't get coverage you a democratic administration. 3:01:10.120 --> 3:01:13.000 It doesn't get much public support either, but that doesn't 3:01:13.040 --> 3:01:16.440 mean it isn't necessary. Aside from all the reasons it's important, 3:01:16.800 --> 3:01:18.680 dropping water on the border is also fun for me. 3:01:19.360 --> 3:01:21.320 It's helped me learn more about where I live. I 3:01:21.440 --> 3:01:24.040 appreciate the desert and make new friends who generally share 3:01:24.080 --> 3:01:26.520 my outlook on the world. I love being outdoors, and 3:01:26.560 --> 3:01:29.120 I'd be outdoors anyway, but it's way. My hiker is 3:01:29.120 --> 3:02:00.280 about much more than myself. Yeah yeah. 3:02:01.480 --> 3:02:01.640 Yeah. 3:02:01.680 --> 3:02:03.560 What does that mean when you get somewhere with signal? 3:02:04.760 --> 3:02:06.480 Yeah yeah, please do all of you? Please share it. 3:02:06.840 --> 3:02:09.280 I'd like to follow your journey if that's okay, and 3:02:09.400 --> 3:02:14.880 maybe we can talk again when you're in America. I 3:02:14.959 --> 3:02:17.120 gave my number to hundreds of people in the Daddy Inn, 3:02:17.600 --> 3:02:19.880 as well as some websites they might find useful. Wan 3:02:19.920 --> 3:02:22.880 to NGOs explained the CBP one app are the ones 3:02:22.920 --> 3:02:25.680 that might direct them to resources along their route. Last 3:02:25.720 --> 3:02:28.039 Sunday night, as I was absent by and least thumbing 3:02:28.040 --> 3:02:30.040 through a shotgun reloading manual in my living room as 3:02:30.080 --> 3:02:33.280 I love to do, my phone started buzzing. It's done 3:02:33.320 --> 3:02:36.720 this so many times in the last months. Mostly it's 3:02:36.760 --> 3:02:39.320 a photo of someone I met updating me on their journey, 3:02:40.000 --> 3:02:41.720 or one of the little wooden animals that they give 3:02:41.760 --> 3:02:43.880 to children, which has made its way to Mexico and 3:02:43.959 --> 3:02:46.760 hopefully giving them some comfort along the way. Often it's 3:02:46.840 --> 3:02:49.880 less positive news someone's been robbed or simply run out 3:02:49.879 --> 3:02:52.280 of money and they need help. But I got two 3:02:52.320 --> 3:02:56.160 messages this Sunday which lifted my spirits. No Emi, the 3:02:56.160 --> 3:02:58.040 Little Girl who had an adventure like Pepper Pig in 3:02:58.120 --> 3:03:00.880 the jungle. Why did you know how it's And she 3:03:01.000 --> 3:03:02.840 sent me a photo of the tiny stone bear that 3:03:02.879 --> 3:03:04.960 I'd given her. She also wanted to know if we 3:03:04.959 --> 3:03:06.640 could still go to see Minnie Moles, who she came 3:03:06.680 --> 3:03:09.360 to America, which I assured her we could. I think 3:03:09.360 --> 3:03:10.959 it would be quite apt to visit a place which 3:03:11.000 --> 3:03:13.560 builds itself as the happiest place on Earth, where someone 3:03:13.640 --> 3:03:15.360 I met in one of the most desperate parts of 3:03:15.400 --> 3:03:18.640 the planet. The second message was from one of the 3:03:18.720 --> 3:03:20.959 migrants i'd met in the jungle, telling me she'd made 3:03:20.959 --> 3:03:23.480 it to America, not just to America, but to a 3:03:23.560 --> 3:03:25.440 part of the border where I've been dropping water with 3:03:25.520 --> 3:03:27.600 my friends. Just a few weeks before I left for Panama, 3:03:28.360 --> 3:03:30.000 she sent me a photo of a rock with a 3:03:30.040 --> 3:03:33.040 message on it one way, which I'm very familiar. She 3:03:33.160 --> 3:03:35.720 told me about her walk, one which I've made myself, 3:03:36.120 --> 3:03:38.120 and she taught me how hard it was. I said, 3:03:38.160 --> 3:03:40.400 I knew, but really I don't know, because I wasn't 3:03:40.400 --> 3:03:43.680 carrying months of trauma with me on the mountain. She's 3:03:43.720 --> 3:03:46.080 the only person out of one hundred son I met 3:03:46.320 --> 3:03:49.480 who's made it here. Most of them are in Mexico now, 3:03:49.879 --> 3:03:51.840 and most of them will remain there or maybe get 3:03:51.920 --> 3:03:54.800 sent back home, or maybe they'll make a desperate attempt 3:03:54.800 --> 3:03:56.920 across this week. As you hear this before the election, 3:03:57.920 --> 3:04:00.240 it made me so happy to see someone safely here, 3:04:00.760 --> 3:04:03.320 one person out of hundreds. For so many of the 3:04:03.400 --> 3:04:06.520 migrants I met, America was a dream, and the journey 3:04:06.560 --> 3:04:09.680 with a nightmare. Since the series began airing, I've seen 3:04:09.760 --> 3:04:12.160 videos of people I care about clinging to freight trains 3:04:12.800 --> 3:04:15.720 that bruce bodies after being beaten. I've helped them find 3:04:15.800 --> 3:04:18.080 healthcare after they were sexually assaulted, and tried to find 3:04:18.160 --> 3:04:21.879 room at overcrowded shelters. I've helped trans ladies navigate all 3:04:21.920 --> 3:04:25.880 of this and transphobia and misogyny, and tried to find 3:04:25.920 --> 3:04:29.720 resources in French and English and Portuguese for non Spanish speakers. 3:04:30.680 --> 3:04:32.680 I'd hope that I'd finished this series with a single 3:04:32.720 --> 3:04:36.080 good story, a story of someone who made it, who's 3:04:36.120 --> 3:04:38.680 living the American dream that people died for in the jungle. 3:04:39.480 --> 3:04:41.960 But I can't, because even the people who made it 3:04:42.080 --> 3:04:45.640 here are here temporarily. I'm broadcasting anything about their journey 3:04:45.720 --> 3:04:48.440 would put them at risk whoever wins the election next week. 3:04:49.640 --> 3:04:51.200 So instead I want to end with how you can 3:04:51.240 --> 3:04:53.800 make a difference, and I'll start with a story and 3:04:53.920 --> 3:04:57.840 how little things can make big differences. One day in Baljuquito, 3:04:58.200 --> 3:05:01.119 of sitting around with a few Venezuelan kids, probably four 3:05:01.200 --> 3:05:03.720 to eight years old, ripping pages out of my right 3:05:03.760 --> 3:05:05.840 in the rain note book to make paper aeroplanes. Before 3:05:05.840 --> 3:05:08.680 I interviewed their parents, I asked him about the jungle. 3:05:08.959 --> 3:05:11.120 They said it was scary and they had nightmares. Now, 3:05:12.040 --> 3:05:13.920 I often find kids in these places get scared of 3:05:13.959 --> 3:05:15.720 the dark, and I used to bring these crappy little 3:05:15.720 --> 3:05:18.080 electric lights for them, but they're bulky and they're not 3:05:18.200 --> 3:05:21.240 very good. Recently, I've been carrying the little packets of 3:05:21.280 --> 3:05:24.400 fishing glow sticks instead. They gasped about ten bucks for 3:05:24.440 --> 3:05:26.680 maybe one hundred of the little green lights. So I 3:05:26.760 --> 3:05:29.920 poured out my glove sticks, cut my hands and snapped one. 3:05:30.680 --> 3:05:33.400 The children amaze of the little glowing road. So I 3:05:33.440 --> 3:05:35.560 gave them the rest of the packet. I told them 3:05:35.560 --> 3:05:36.959 they could keep them for any time they were scared 3:05:37.000 --> 3:05:40.000 of the dark. Nearly a month later, I sometimes get 3:05:40.000 --> 3:05:41.640 a message on my phone with a photo of a 3:05:41.680 --> 3:05:44.959 little tiny glow stick on a note of thanks. One 3:05:45.000 --> 3:05:47.760 thing that Father Elia said that really impacted me is 3:05:47.800 --> 3:05:49.879 that when he meets migrants, he asked what he sees 3:05:49.920 --> 3:05:52.040 of God in them, and his work for them is 3:05:52.120 --> 3:05:55.080 where he finds what there is of God and himself. Think. 3:05:55.080 --> 3:05:57.560 I've struggled so much with this serious impart because I've 3:05:57.600 --> 3:06:00.200 seen so much of the best of other people, indeed 3:06:00.240 --> 3:06:03.520 the best of myself, into such hard places. I always 3:06:03.520 --> 3:06:05.920 struggle a little to readjust after trips like this, but 3:06:06.040 --> 3:06:09.240 this one's been particularly hard. In the jungle, I saw 3:06:09.280 --> 3:06:11.880 people helping, and in a sense, we were all in 3:06:11.959 --> 3:06:14.960 it together. When it rained, we all got wet, and 3:06:15.040 --> 3:06:17.120 when it got hot, we all huddled together in the shade. 3:06:18.080 --> 3:06:20.760 We shared bottles of water, We sat at the same 3:06:20.840 --> 3:06:24.240 tables and ate together. I can't really begin to experience 3:06:24.280 --> 3:06:26.760 a full, varily inexperience because I've been lucky enough never 3:06:26.840 --> 3:06:29.480 to have anything that bad to run away from. Better, 3:06:29.560 --> 3:06:32.240 have experienced incredible solidarity and kindness for the people who 3:06:32.280 --> 3:06:35.560 went through it. I've also experienced the incredible indifference of 3:06:35.600 --> 3:06:38.400 people at home, and indeed of the states and governments 3:06:38.440 --> 3:06:41.960 of the world. The Colombian friends I met Las Blancas 3:06:41.959 --> 3:06:45.480 and Barjigito, who are handcuffed and deported and ripped from 3:06:45.480 --> 3:06:48.360 their families, have already invited me to come and stay 3:06:48.400 --> 3:06:51.320 in their homes in Colombia, but if their families make 3:06:51.360 --> 3:06:54.520 it here, they won't encounter that kind of hospitality. Just 3:06:54.680 --> 3:06:56.960 last week, I helped to translate for a Venezuelan family 3:06:57.000 --> 3:06:59.400 living on the street in San Diego. Some of my 3:06:59.480 --> 3:07:02.320 friends do sponsor migrants, and that's something anyone can do 3:07:02.840 --> 3:07:05.000 if you're able to. It's an incredible thing you can 3:07:05.040 --> 3:07:06.920 do to change someone's life, and I can't encourage you 3:07:07.000 --> 3:07:09.680 enough to do so. I really do see the best 3:07:09.720 --> 3:07:12.000 of myself, of my friends, and of humanity, and I 3:07:12.120 --> 3:07:14.600 work to help migrants. I would say that on reflector. 3:07:14.640 --> 3:07:17.560 And I wasn't really an anarchist until twenty eighteen, when 3:07:17.560 --> 3:07:19.520 I watched a state to the world abandoned thousands of 3:07:19.600 --> 3:07:22.560 migros in Tijuana and climbed a fence with my friends 3:07:22.640 --> 3:07:25.240 to take care of them, and specifically to distribute three 3:07:25.400 --> 3:07:27.800 huge backpacks full of waffles and another friend had sent 3:07:27.920 --> 3:07:31.640 from his waffle factory. I'd stopped believing in the benevolence 3:07:31.680 --> 3:07:34.080 of the state a long time before, but it wasn't 3:07:34.120 --> 3:07:36.200 really until then that I really understood the power of 3:07:36.240 --> 3:07:40.000 people organizing horizontally to provide each other with dignity. Ever 3:07:40.120 --> 3:07:42.280 since then, I've drawn a lot of hope for humanity 3:07:42.360 --> 3:07:44.640 in the same place as I despare for people. Maybe 3:07:44.680 --> 3:07:47.640 that's why I keep going back. Since then, at the border, 3:07:47.680 --> 3:07:51.119 I've seen people die. I've held crying babies and crying parents. 3:07:51.760 --> 3:07:54.000 They've also shared meals with people from around the world, 3:07:54.320 --> 3:07:57.320 made friends for life, and learned curdish disco songs about 3:07:57.360 --> 3:08:00.160 killing people. I've danced around campfires with Pep. But I 3:08:00.200 --> 3:08:02.920 couldn't imagined meeting when I first made my own journey here. 3:08:03.959 --> 3:08:06.080 Last Christmas, when i'd normally be at the bar with 3:08:06.160 --> 3:08:09.039 my friends, I stand the rock in the desert, eating 3:08:09.120 --> 3:08:11.760 a cold vegan m Marie with an Ecuadorian family and 3:08:11.840 --> 3:08:14.840 some of my friends. And all the Christmases I can remember, 3:08:15.240 --> 3:08:16.800 I never felt so much like I was in the 3:08:16.879 --> 3:08:20.000 right place, doing the right thing, with the right people. 3:08:21.080 --> 3:08:21.120 What. 3:08:21.200 --> 3:08:22.879 I've seen a lot of terrible things at the border 3:08:22.959 --> 3:08:26.400 in the jungle, and I'll never forget those. More importantly, 3:08:26.760 --> 3:08:29.400 I've seen that together we can do incredible things, and 3:08:29.520 --> 3:08:32.279 we can make the state irrelevant, especially in the places 3:08:32.320 --> 3:08:35.240 it's chosen to be absent. I don't think we should 3:08:35.280 --> 3:08:37.600 make demands of a state anymore. It's simply not in 3:08:37.640 --> 3:08:40.040 its nature to care. But I do think we should 3:08:40.040 --> 3:08:42.840 make demands of ourselves. I don't believe in God, and 3:08:42.840 --> 3:08:45.240 I've written a whole dissertation about people who burn churches. 3:08:45.879 --> 3:08:47.960 But I think I see something that's just as special 3:08:48.000 --> 3:08:50.560 to me in the experience of mutual aid, and in 3:08:50.680 --> 3:08:53.040 a way it fulfills not only people's material needs but 3:08:53.120 --> 3:08:56.280 also our human desire for dignity and mutual respect. When 3:08:56.320 --> 3:08:58.840 I drop water at the border or carry someone's bags 3:08:58.840 --> 3:09:01.640 in the jungle, I see myself in them, and I 3:09:01.720 --> 3:09:04.520 hope they see themselves a little bit of me. But 3:09:04.640 --> 3:09:07.360 right now, asylum system is so broken the very few 3:09:07.360 --> 3:09:09.160 people even make it far enough to drink the water 3:09:09.240 --> 3:09:11.760 I leave at the border, And despite the border featuring 3:09:11.800 --> 3:09:14.120 heavily in this year's election, there seems to be no 3:09:14.320 --> 3:09:17.119 national concern about the way our tax dollars brutalize people 3:09:17.120 --> 3:09:19.680 across the continent. So I want to end by asking 3:09:19.760 --> 3:09:22.080 you what you can do. It might be coming to 3:09:22.200 --> 3:09:24.760 unhere to drop water. It might be sending some money 3:09:24.840 --> 3:09:27.480 to one of the links I include the description. It 3:09:27.560 --> 3:09:30.240 might be offering to translate for asylum seekers. It might 3:09:30.280 --> 3:09:32.760 just be talking to people and helping to change the narrative. 3:09:33.800 --> 3:09:36.400 You can vote or not next week, but there isn't 3:09:36.400 --> 3:09:37.920 a box you can take that will change the things 3:09:37.920 --> 3:09:41.160 I saw in the jungle. Trump wanted to deport millions 3:09:41.240 --> 3:09:43.959 more people. Harris wanted to pass a bill that will 3:09:44.040 --> 3:09:46.920 kill more people. You can't pass your commitments off to 3:09:47.000 --> 3:09:49.440 someone whose box you take every four years. You have 3:09:49.560 --> 3:09:52.000 to take them on for yourself. The way we change 3:09:52.040 --> 3:09:54.360 things is in a way we do things every day, 3:09:54.920 --> 3:09:59.160 every week. No one's every four years. I want to 3:09:59.240 --> 3:10:01.920 end with noise and have a message to the American people. 3:10:02.760 --> 3:10:04.120 I also want to ask if anyone of those how 3:10:04.120 --> 3:10:06.200 to get cheap tickets to Disneyland, because I have just 3:10:06.280 --> 3:10:08.280 looked that up and I cannot stress enough ho but 3:10:08.360 --> 3:10:09.080 I am to afford it. 3:10:15.000 --> 3:10:17.480 Please excuse us because we know that we are knocking 3:10:17.560 --> 3:10:19.360 on that door. There are a lot of us, but 3:10:20.280 --> 3:10:23.160 we are desperate because complaining about the president we have 3:10:23.560 --> 3:10:27.880 is not helping us. No, he's doing almost nothing. So 3:10:27.959 --> 3:10:31.160 our children have no future, and our country won't support us. 3:10:32.480 --> 3:10:36.040 It's not easy to leave our parents, our friends, our relatives, 3:10:36.160 --> 3:10:39.119 our grandparents, and we do not know if we will 3:10:39.160 --> 3:10:41.360 ever return or if we will ever see them again. 3:10:42.080 --> 3:10:44.400 It is not easy. But we also think about a 3:10:44.440 --> 3:10:46.520 future for our children. And I do not know what 3:10:46.640 --> 3:10:50.000 has happened, but we feel like living in a dictatorship. 3:10:50.280 --> 3:10:53.200 We are living something very unpleasant and we do not 3:10:53.280 --> 3:10:56.800 get any help. But those who help us, we want 3:10:56.840 --> 3:10:59.680 to say thank you. They opened that door for us. 3:11:00.080 --> 3:11:03.480 They've opened many doors for many Venezuelans, and well we 3:11:03.640 --> 3:11:05.960 hope in faith that they will open them for us. 3:11:13.800 --> 3:11:15.720 I want to take this opportunity to thank a few 3:11:15.720 --> 3:11:18.879 people who made this possible. Firstly, Daddy and a Brusse 3:11:19.160 --> 3:11:22.440 I fix her. She was incredible. Secondly, I want to 3:11:22.480 --> 3:11:26.200 thank iHeart for paying for this. Like I said, it's 3:11:26.320 --> 3:11:28.960 been nearly a decade that I've been asking to do 3:11:29.040 --> 3:11:31.680 this story and I'm just really happy that they trusted 3:11:31.720 --> 3:11:34.640 me to do it. Thirdly, I want to thank everyone 3:11:34.840 --> 3:11:38.320 who trusted me with their stories, everybody who stayed in 3:11:38.440 --> 3:11:41.800 touch as they've come north. I want to thank Border 3:11:41.879 --> 3:11:44.480 Kindness and Borderland Relief Collective who have both welcomed me 3:11:44.560 --> 3:11:46.520 on their drops, and it's not always easy to be 3:11:46.560 --> 3:11:49.320 around a journalist. It's not easy to let someone record 3:11:49.440 --> 3:11:51.960 everything you're doing out there and their inherent risks to that, 3:11:52.120 --> 3:11:55.120 and I really appreciate them trusting me. I want to 3:11:55.160 --> 3:11:57.240 thank dutch Ware Hammocks, who rush shipped to me a 3:11:57.320 --> 3:12:00.400 hammock when my old one tore right before I left. 3:12:01.240 --> 3:12:03.600 And I think most of all, I want to thank 3:12:03.600 --> 3:12:06.520 all of you for listening, taking the time, and all 3:12:06.560 --> 3:12:08.800 the listeners who have reached out to say they're listening 3:12:08.840 --> 3:12:10.480 to the series, people who have reached out to ask 3:12:10.560 --> 3:12:13.040 how they can help. I would love to organize a 3:12:13.080 --> 3:12:15.000 way to help the people I've spoken to. I spoke 3:12:15.040 --> 3:12:17.480 to someone just this morning who's still stuck in Tapachula 3:12:17.560 --> 3:12:20.200 because she was robbed and her and her daughter are 3:12:20.200 --> 3:12:23.280 five hundred bucks short for the bus to ride north 3:12:23.320 --> 3:12:26.800 to Tijuana. I don't have the capacity to organize that 3:12:27.080 --> 3:12:29.680 right now, but if someone else does, they should reach 3:12:29.720 --> 3:12:32.240 out to me, because I would really like to help 3:12:32.280 --> 3:12:35.400 these people who have become my friends and who I 3:12:35.480 --> 3:12:38.200 care about, and who are right now stuck in a 3:12:38.320 --> 3:12:42.120 very dangerous place because someone in Washington, d C. Has 3:12:42.160 --> 3:12:45.039 made a choice to treat them with cruelty and not kindness. 3:12:45.480 --> 3:12:47.480 So if that's you, if you're the person who could 3:12:47.480 --> 3:12:50.000 to minister that, please let me know. Thanks, and I 3:12:50.080 --> 3:12:51.000 hope you enjoyed the series. 3:12:53.840 --> 3:12:57.000 Hey, We'll be back Monday with more episodes every week 3:12:57.080 --> 3:12:58.959 from now until the heat death of the Universe. 3:12:59.280 --> 3:13:01.760 It Could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media. 3:13:01.959 --> 3:13:04.959 For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 3:13:05.080 --> 3:13:08.600 coolzonmedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 3:13:08.720 --> 3:13:12.280 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can 3:13:12.360 --> 3:13:14.640 now find sources for It Could Happen Here, listed directly 3:13:14.680 --> 3:13:16.960 in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.