WEBVTT - Title 42, Pt 3: The Mutual Aid Response 0:00:06.240 --> 0:00:09.280 Try and carpool, try and shove into cars as best 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:11.720 you can, just so that we don't have a mile long. 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:15.080 Line of cars. 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:19.239 We have trash bags, we have gloves, we have things 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:22.600 that we're bringing up there, so what we have cars 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:24.440 that you can get all of that out of. 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:27.240 Once we pull over. 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:29.120 We're also setting up a couple. 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:29.600 Of pop ups. 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:32.800 Hocumba, California, is a tiny town. You've probably never heard 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:35.440 of it. It's actually really charming. There's a hot spring 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.080 and a gorgeous hotel, a few stores selling our drinkets, 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:41.360 that kind of thing. There's a lovely lake fed by 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:43.720 the spring. And on this Sunday morning, there are about 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:47.240 fifty people outside an old petrol station, nervously pounding bottles 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:50.159 of water, applying sunscreen, and getting ready to head out 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:52.360 of the desert to clear up the ad hoc migrant 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:55.040 camp that has held as many as fifteen hundred people 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:57.560 out in the open when Title forty two ended and 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:01.000 Border patrol made no plans to keep them anywhere. It 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:03.440 was a diverse bunch of people hidden beneath sun hats. 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:06.120 There's an Australian film producer who was at a conference 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:08.880 in Orlando and booked a fly over a grad student painter. 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:11.520 The folks who were in the Hookumber Hotel who organize 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:14.560 this whole thing, they're friends from the hospitality industry in 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:17.880 San Diego. There were students and mums and dads and 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:21.479 about the entire population of this tiny desert town. There 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:23.680 were also two form international aid workers who are in 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:25.640 a tower where you can look at the desert, which 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:27.959 is actually a much cooler thing than it sounds. And 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:30.280 there's also a museum of boulders right next to it. 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:32.920 You should probably check them out. During the area. I 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.680 spent the day helping out in Necumber after the refugees, 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:38.560 some of them in handcuffs, had been taken by private 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:42.720 contractors to be processed by CBP's Office of Field Operations. 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:45.559 We met at a petrol station in the middle of town. 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:48.520 The space where the pumps should be was filled with tons, 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:51.400 and I do mean tons of bottled water, masks, hand 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:55.480 sanitized and other necessary supplies. When I'd arrived the night before, 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:59.000 around ten pm, the eerie green and yellow lights reflecting 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:00.760 from the roof had lit up a palace of water 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:03.760 like some kind of giant lava lamp, and driving across 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:07.400 the desert. The town looked like it was glowing. The 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:09.200 town certainly has had a bit of a glow up 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:12.680 in the last few years. Three business partners purchased their 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:15.359 Cumber hot Springs Hotel, a down in the mouth property 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:18.399 that had once been a glamorous desert resort, and they've 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:22.080 been restoring the place for nearly two years. Inadvertently, they 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:24.040 also purchased a lot of land and a few other 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:26.120 rundown buildings in a town that were sold as a 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:28.880 lot with the hotel. It was in one of these buildings, 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:31.720 the old gas station, that they set up a de 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:35.960 facto mutual aid hubbo almost overnight. The hotel's not finished yet, 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:37.880 and they probably didn't make much progress on it during 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:39.600 the week when they were feeding more than a thousand 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:42.880 people in the desert. The town's lake, fed by a 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:46.400 natural spring an old bath house used to be attractions. 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:49.000 Today the bathhouse of roof have fallen off, but it 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:52.120 still makes a pretty cool concert venue, and the whole 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.160 town offers commanding views of the border wall, which sadly 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:57.359 is only a couple of hundred yards from the main street. 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:01.240 When I arrived in Cucumber, every think was close. The 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:03.639 mini Mark was sold out, the hotel was still being 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:06.280 worked on, and the hotel kitchen was churning out food 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:09.960 for volunteers at the clean up effort. I asked Marissa, 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:12.440 one of the volunteers I met that day, about her 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:14.480 first impressions on arriving at the meeting point. 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:18.560 I was incredibly impressed by what the people of hu 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:23.480 Kumba and the hotel group of individuals that have organized this, 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:27.560 Like I couldn't believe seeing their donation depot in that 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:31.240 old car wash, just to how well organized everything was, 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:35.000 and that they provided so much for the volunteers, and 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:41.160 just the level of love and compassion and was. Yeah, 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.160 it was an amazing opportunity to be part of, very humbling. 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.080 I've been there since late the night before after visiting 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:50.400 border crossings in California and Arizona, and Jeff, one of 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:52.560 the co owners a hotel, can you let me pull 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:54.520 up my truck in some desert behind his house. 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:55.680 Now. 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:57.720 I'm a person who enjoys sleeping outside, and I do 0:03:57.760 --> 0:03:59.640 it as often as I can. I try and camp 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:03.320 police once a month. But that night I was cold, 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:06.320 even underneath my down blanket, and I couldn't help but 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:08.440 think of how desperate it must have been to spend 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:10.440 nearly a week out there with nothing but in my 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:14.000 last base blanket and some thorny bushes to keep you warm. 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:16.280 It's certainly not the welcome that one would expect from 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:19.239 the richest nation on earth, which had three years to repair. 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.000 For the day, Title forty two ended to get a 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.120 bit of background out of town. I spoke to Natalie. 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:28.839 So the previous owner bought it at an auction, and 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.080 I don't think that the previous owner didn't realize how 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:34.640 much she was getting, and he kind of just like 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:37.040 neglected a bunch of it, you know. And then he 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:39.800 was older, and so he finally sold off the hotel. 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:41.480 He thought he was just buying the hotel, but he 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:44.320 buying all the land as well. So they when they 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:46.960 bought the hotel, they acquired all the land and they're 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.440 actually putting money into it and fixing everything up, which 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:50.560 is really wonderful. 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:53.159 The hotel in Lake and hot Spring really are wonderful. 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:54.640 But the scene that had played out there on the 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.520 eleventh of May, with anything but within a short period 0:04:57.560 --> 0:04:59.800 of time, more than a thousand people of all ages 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:02.920 nationalities will be held in the open desert and left 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:06.040 defend Lardi for themselves. I let Natalie describe the space 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:06.479 there in. 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:11.920 There's lots of cactuses everywhere, so there's environmental like a 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:13.000 watch out where you're. 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:17.120 Walking that it's hot. It's hot in the day and 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:19.360 really cold at nights. It's the high desert. 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.440 There can be gusts of wind that can just take over, 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:28.040 get dust in your eyes, your hair, everything is just 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:28.880 you're just filthy. 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:30.640 And don't lack of food. 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:33.000 I mean there's no resources. You're in the middle of nowhere. 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:35.280 I talked to a lot of the volunteers, many of 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:37.000 whom have been in the desert for me at week. 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:40.239 It'd first been made aware of the impending humanitarian crisis 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:42.839 late on Thursday night, but one of the people working 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:44.640 on the renovation of the Hot Springs Hotel got a 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.440 call about it. Within a few hours, the hotel zonners 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:50.000 and all this stuff running what became very nearly the 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:52.279 only source of food, shelter, and water for more than 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:55.919 a thousand people trapped and held in the desert by CBP. 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.919 I spoke to Sam, another volunteer, to get sensor response. 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:01.800 Now. 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:04.560 Sam is a kind of guy who just looks like 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:07.440 he's a home in the desert. His wie brim hat, boots, 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:09.400 and long cleaved shirt and pants told me he spent 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:12.159 plenty of days under the baking sun out here, and 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:16.000 his readiness with an isoproble alcohol spray disinfect people's boots 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.120 after walking in an area that was likely covered in 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:20.840 human shit told me he'd been around one or two 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:22.440 situations like this in the past. 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:25.120 I spent a great deal of my life as his 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:29.880 second career, working for in developmental relief logistics in Southeast Asia, 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:35.200 mainly working with large ege organizations, for example World Food Program, 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:39.120 Doctors without Borders show units many many differ from their 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:39.960 place things. 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:42.000 In the context of that kind of experience, it's easy 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:45.040 to understand why people come to the United States, But 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:48.320 I asked Sam to put the situation here into perspective 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.280 for me. It's understandable that folks came to the US, 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.360 but why to a tiny desert town of five hundred people. 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:57.200 These people were radically unprepared for what they were going 0:06:57.279 --> 0:06:59.240 to go through because they were sold to bill of 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.560 goods by coyotes on the other side about what was 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:05.480 going to happen to them, you understand so they had 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:07.880 really no idea what they were getting into at all, 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:13.720 and so there was not anything in the way of 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:17.560 life threatening situations for any of those people in any 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:20.680 meaningful way, a great deal of discomfort. It could have 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.920 turned very badly if these people here had not stepped up, 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:29.880 because the border patrol was completely overwhelmed, and so there 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:32.920 was never that bad of a situation here compared to 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:35.160 what I have seen in other places in the past. 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:37.560 A sound pointed out the migrants were now gone, but 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.560 we were still surrounded by times of supplies. But at 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.080 the time there was no way of knowing the scope 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:46.119 or scale of the need. People reacted as best they could. 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.280 Actually it was overkilled, but you had no way of 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:52.600 knowing right at the time. There's just no way to know. 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:54.400 How do you know ahead of time? You always ask 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:56.800 for as much as you can get, because why would 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:59.520 you not. I mean, you never know. You don't know 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:01.120 how many of them with babies that are on the 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:03.280 other side of the wall right now might be zero, 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:05.720 might be five hundred. You have no idea, you. 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:08.600 Know, before anyone knew how if this was going to end, 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:11.360 or really what even was going on, dozens of people 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:15.200 across the county decided to help. One of them was Katie. 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:18.200 Here she is describing some of the volunteers she worked alongside. 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:22.680 There was a hard hodgepodge of people and as volunteers 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:29.240 and leading it were some of the owners of a 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.560 hotel out there, and that was. 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:33.920 The main organizers. 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:38.439 But who showed up were people from the town, people 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:42.880 that I knew and recognized. There were some really devout, 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.560 like they're twenty four hours a day, and then there 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:50.040 was some coming in and out. But I met people 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:56.040 from all over the county, and most of them answered 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:59.560 the car through instagram of the hotel. 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.320 All those volunteers called their friends, who called their friends, 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:07.280 who gradually coordinated response. Natalie first became aware of this, 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.600 as many volunteers did, through an Instagram post by Melissa, 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:12.680 another of the three co owners of the Combo Hotel, 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.000 on Thursday night, just as title forty two was ending. 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:18.920 Natalie saw the post and decided to help. At first, 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.000 she wanted to leave right then at one am as 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:23.880 soon as she'd seen the post, but after consulting her family, 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:26.560 she decided to make her own post, asking for people 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:29.960 to bring supplies that were needed. Soon she was overwhelmed 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:30.640 by the response. 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:33.920 Yeah, I mean immediately, even at one in the morning, 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.240 I was getting messages because I posted it. That's when 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:41.800 I posted the story, I immediately got messages from front 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:46.880 say I'll bring a blanket over. What's your address. Yeah, 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.520 everyone just kind of rallied and started bringing supplies over, 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:53.800 collecting money as well. Some friends started collecting money and 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:58.320 then bought stuff and brought loads of food and things 0:09:58.360 --> 0:09:59.400 to my house. 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:02.480 Her husband and ferried the supplies to Komba, where they 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.000 were joined by donations from all over the county in 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:08.760 the old petrol station. Like Natalie, Katie also saw a 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.960 post and immediately felt compelled to help. She called a 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:14.880 friend and some members of her family and seid about 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:16.400 raising funds and buying supplies. 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:20.520 So I met my friend at a cafe and in 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:24.120 that in the meantime, and I don't know how much 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:28.600 of this is really important. So in the meantime, I 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:33.000 text my mother and my two sisters who live on 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:35.839 the East coast, and just it was late at night 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:40.040 for them, and I just said, I would love for 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:46.000 you to send prayers, because. 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:52.760 That's something that I believe in. 0:10:53.120 --> 0:11:02.000 I believe in prayer or intention and thought reality. And 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:07.320 some of it was just because I felt so touched, 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:15.839 like praying for the community that I love too. And 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:19.160 the next thing, I know, like my venmo was blowing 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:21.560 up and there was one thousand dollars in my venmo 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:26.800 sent from my family members. And so by the time 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:30.079 my friend arrived, we were like, let's go and we. 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:32.319 Filled our car. 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:39.720 With Amazingly, we found like organic, there's grocery outlet, right, 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:43.880 so we found organic soup for you know, dollars something 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:49.240 a can, and we spent a few hundred dollars. And 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:53.480 the next morning we met early and we stopped in 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:55.720 El Cone on the way and we spent all the 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.720 rest on We went to three or four thrift stores 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:03.480 and bought every blanket and hat and baby carrier. Because 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:11.719 we have both focused on motherhood in our careers. 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:14.000 I asked people I spoke to about a week later 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:15.560 how the experience had impacted them. 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:22.360 It was overwhelming, just the the way the community really 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:23.679 came around. 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:24.760 And supported. 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.960 The people in Hukumba that were finding help. You know, 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:34.120 after we finished cleaning up, when we were back at 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:40.760 the gas station, the Amazon driver was delivering, like I 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:45.120 think he delivered three hundred and fifty boxes, and so 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:47.440 we had to open them up and sort them and 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:52.920 it was there was so much food. I think that 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:57.560 it was insane amount of food, and it was awesome. 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:01.200 It was really cool just to see how people stabbed 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:02.199 up and donated. 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:05.760 I like some of the people I saw in Santa Cedro. Natalie, Katie, 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:08.360 Sam and Marissa are not part of an NGO or 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:11.600 a mutual aid collective. They're just people who wanted to help, 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:15.280 and that describes most of the people in Hucumber, although 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:17.960 some of them did have previous and regular volunteer experience 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:21.079 with excellent groups like Border Kindness. I asked Katie to 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:23.920 reflect on the mutual aid approach and the absence of massive, 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.720 multimillion dollar organizations. Yeah, wasn't there, right. 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:29.040 No, they weren't there. 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:33.120 We were told that the Red Cross couldn't come unless 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.280 Border Patrol called, and Border Patrol told us that they 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:37.920 weren't allowed to call the Red Cross. 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:39.560 That's a pretty standard. 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:42.240 The one institution that did show support to people in 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:44.560 Hucumber was one that you might not expect, given the 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.000 support for this cruel immigration policy by almost all the 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:50.719 Democrats in DC. But things are different when you can 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:52.920 see the results of these policies with your own eyes. 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:55.440 Perhaps that's why I didn't see a single elected official 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:58.760 in my entire week at the border. But one person 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:02.280 I missed, whoever won't mentioned, was a lady who worked 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:06.360 for California Senator Steve Pidia. I won't name her as 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:08.720 I don't have her permission, but hopefully one day soon 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:11.080 we'll be able to interview her. I'll let Katie describe 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:12.040 the role this woman played. 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:16.960 There was someone from Steve Padilla's team, and that's the 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:23.520 woman I rode with, and she was incredible. Her brother 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:27.680 in law is the chef at the hotel, so I think, 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:32.920 I mean, she might have came anyway, but she came 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:39.040 faster and there was true connection, and she stood up 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:42.440 to the border patrol and said, you know, said we're allowed. 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:46.960 We're here on behalf of this senator. So I mean 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:51.920 I saw some like had had like arguments about our 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:56.520 right to be there, and most of us didn't. Weren't 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.560 paying attention to that. We're paying attention to the people 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:03.560 that we were, you know, around and no one that 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:09.280 was out there what didn't believe that we should be 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:13.200 out there, and that more help should be out there. 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:17.560 Sadly, part of that familiarity with the system this woman 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.400 brought to the team also meant a familiarity with the 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:23.560 cruel and arbitrary nature of it. Katie says that they 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:24.880 had to organize for that as well. 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:29.400 So my friend and I we ended up writing in 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:34.800 her truck, so in Steve Padia's Senator Padia's. 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:37.640 Assistant truck. 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:42.120 So we had the opportunity to ask some questions that 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:46.800 probably everyone out there wanted to know, including the migrants, 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:53.160 And it was like, what will happen in what's the 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:56.400 process from here? And how do you know that these 0:15:56.440 --> 0:16:00.560 people are being tended to? And I literally heard her 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:04.800 on the phone getting as many bodies on the ground 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:08.120 to start going to those centers where they're being taken 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:12.360 to make sure that they were but that we would 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:20.080 follow them through the entire process as best possible, monitoring 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:24.520 their well well cared for, that they were well cared for, 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:27.240 as well cared for as possible. 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:32.840 In a system and a process like that. 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:33.840 Yeah. 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:40.840 Yeah, but she literally said they're going to be busted 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:45.800 off and putt in cages, and that they would do 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:49.200 their best to make sure that that no one was 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:57.200 split up and that everyone was fed, showered, and they 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:02.360 weren't allowed to bring anything with them, so a lot 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:07.200 of the cleanup was all of the things that everyone 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:15.040 donated that had to be left behind, including some of 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:16.520 the stuffed animals. 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:18.920 For all the volunteers I spoke to, the chance to 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:23.040 be of service was empowering. Here's Natalie discussing that, Yeah. 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:24.399 I mean, well, like and so many times do you 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:28.160 like feel overwhelmed with like so much suffering in this world, 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:30.160 and like what can one person do? 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:31.239 You know? 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:35.560 And so it did feel good that to actually see 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:37.960 an immediate impact, like I'm doing this and this is 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:42.199 a result, because sometimes you can just get discouraged, you know, 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.000 like we're just one person. What can we really do 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:48.399 and can we really make an impact? And just seeing 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:52.440 that and being able to see directly how that one 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:55.880 person can impact, you know, can rally. Like just see 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.960 how my friends came together, you know when shopping, bought things, 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:04.359 gathered money, collected money. You know, my really good friend Sam, 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:08.480 she went to her local bar after she collected a 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:11.720 bunch of money, went and dropped stuff supplies off at 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:12.160 my house. 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:15.280 She was just down at her local. 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:18.119 Bar and just chatting with them and like, oh, what 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:20.000 did you do today, And so she told them, oh, 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:23.199 I collected money and I bought supplies, and then the 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:26.040 people She ended up collecting about two hundred more dollars 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:29.439 at the bar from people hearing her story. And so 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:31.480 then the next day she went and bought more supplies 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:33.879 and she actually ended up driving them out herself. She 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:37.920 ended up doing like three trips just from her own 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:40.720 talking to people and collecting. So just like the little 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:43.880 impact that you know, everyone just kind of coming together 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:44.879 and making a difference. 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:12.399 Santa Sedro, a pretty diverse range of San Diegan's came 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:15.199 to help. On the first night, I personally left at 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:17.800 about one in the morning, after spending almost two hours 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:20.520 trying to leave but needing to get charged phones back 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:23.840 to their owners by loudly in Spanish and French, then 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:27.480 English describing the backgrounds on the phone or the color 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:42.959 of their case. It wasn't a great system, and by 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:45.440 the weekend, Caber and others had seen that more help 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.680 an organization was needed, and they decided to plan a response. 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:51.360 Here's Caber describing how they prepared for. 0:19:51.359 --> 0:20:01.320 That are maybe I'll just grabs and you know, I 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:04.200 was paying attention to people I knew who were doing 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:07.520 and what supplies they were saying was needed. The particular 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:11.280 store near me has like a wall of travel size 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:13.679 like these giant times where you can basically just scoop 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:16.960 out one hundred deodorant, hands and to paste and things 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:17.280 like that. 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:19.520 Capan met up with some other members of a local 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:22.520 mutual aid group. I'll make sure to include donation links 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:24.199 for all the groups I've mentioned at the end of 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:26.200 this series, so please make sure to listen right through 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:26.600 to the end. 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:30.200 I met up with him and he had just received 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:34.720 a bunch of donations through through mutually networks, so we 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:37.120 we know even more of a travel size I got 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:42.159 some truth Troo hygiene kits and deodorant and uh and 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:45.320 and a bunch of friends and papers because because the 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:50.280 kids that are between the walls don't really have actually 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:54.480 do unfortunately, so so that those were those weren't really fast, 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:57.320 and so we got a whole bunch of bags of 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:00.280 all those kinds of supplies and then we done in 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:01.040 the way from there. 0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:04.840 By the time they arrived, various organizations had organized areas 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:06.720 along the wall for different kinds of aid to be 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:10.920 passed through. Everything from clothes to food, to medical supplies 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:13.400 and toilet paper was piled up given out. 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:16.640 They renations and you know organized the toilet paper, food, 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:18.800 everything like that, and people just come up to the 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:20.919 wall and if their family needed something, they would just 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:23.800 kind of going to it or ask us if we 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:25.480 were able to you know, if there was a common 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:28.680 language there. So yeah, we just kind of you know, hey, 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:33.240 things as people needed them. I know that I helped 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:35.439 give out some of the prints and tons of paper 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:38.240 and those were those were a big hit. Tons of 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:41.560 kids all came running over from the whole, all the 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:43.280 parts of the camp when they heard that there was 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:47.600 there were toys being given out, So that was it was. 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:51.440 It was heartbreaking, but it was also you know, it 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:53.240 made me smile to see them smile. 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:55.520 And the smile because of the need to use c 0:21:55.680 --> 0:21:57.399 BP one and of course they need to stay in 0:21:57.400 --> 0:22:00.479 touch with families back home. There was a constant, an 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:04.320 overwhelming demand for phone charging. News reporters took phones back 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:07.320 to charge in their cars. Some people bought charge bricks 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:10.639 and power strips, and mutual aid groups wrote names on 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:13.320 the back of the phones using painter's tape and sharpie 0:22:13.400 --> 0:22:16.399 so they wouldn't get separated from their owners. By the 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:18.760