Thread by @andrewkimmel

I’m in one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico to see the situation on the other side of the border. My contact brought me in as a volunteer. This is my experience...

I’m w/ Mexican officials receiving migrants who were sent back by the US. Some parents report they were sent back w/o their children, while there are also “unaccompanied” children being sent back. My contact said she has reason to believe the kids weren’t unaccompanied prior.

My first task of the day is to pass out oranges. There are tons of women & children here. Every single person said “gracias” for passing them 1/2 an orange. One woman had a black eye, and her young daughter had a bandage on her forehead. She told us it was from an accident.

After everyone received food, it was time to process them. My job: write down names of those turned away & the # of their relative in the US. I then use my phone to call their relative/husband/friend, etc so they can talk. We are only supposed to give them 2 minutes to talk...

Two minutes to tell a loved one, whom they hadn’t spoken to in days (or even up to 2 weeks), where they are. Most had no clue where they were. One woman asked if she was in Mexicali (nearly 10 hrs drive away).

I sat facing each person who made their call. It was incredibly uncomfortable. As soon as I’d pass the phone over, the person would break down in tears. There was nowhere else to look except in their eyes or down @ my lap. I wanted nothing more than to console them, but couldn’t.

One of the women I was processing came from Cuba. Border patrol took her passport & sent her back to Mexico. She called her sister & explained how she had nothing. She is unable to receive money without her passport and has nothing but the clothes on her back. She was hysterical.

I asked my contact how often and why this happens - they didn’t know, but said it happens quite frequently. Can someone please look into this for me? How can this be legal?

We had to tell the woman secretly that we could help her find a place to stay, as the facility doesn’t allow it. So we told her to wait for us outside. Without shelter, she’d be on the streets with no money, no identification, no phone, and not a clue of what to do.

Things unfortunately took a turn for the worse. We left the facility and walked back to the parking garage for our car. The Cuban woman was standing near a bus stop outside and we told her to keep waiting for us. When we pulled out, she was walking w/ a man on his phone.

The man was well-dressed in pressed pants and I’m guessing in his 60’s. We told the woman to get in our car. She told us, “This man says he can find a safe place for me to be. He says he can help me until I find out what to do.” This all took place right in front of the facility.

My contact said we couldn’t get caught taking someone by the facility or we wouldn’t be allowed back to. So we quickly drove around the block to get in front of the Cuban woman again. By the time we made it around, the woman was gone. She was kidnapped right in front of us.

There are two different kinds of groups who prey on the most desperate once they are sent back... coyotes & polleros. I asked my contact how to spell the latter and they requested I not even say the name out loud.

We are now attempting to reach out to her sister who she spoke with earlier. At least to pass on a message of where a safe location would be for her to meet up with us at. It is hard to describe this feeling.

We got in touch with her sister. She told us she did speak with her sister on the man’s phone and that she said she’s ok. This is unfortunately not true. We will call again later tonight, but there isn’t much else we can do at this point...

Sex/human trafficking are nothing new to the city of Juárez. But with an influx of migrants/refugees trying to make their way to the US, and w/ the US turning away more people and implementing Trump’s new “Migrant Protection Protocol”, we are putting more innocent people at risk.

Heading back into Texas now. I am told this cross on the Mexican side has a nail put in it each time a murdered/missing woman is found. Unclear on how often the nails get replaced. Some nails hold the “body tags” of those found.

I wish I had more positive things to report from the day. Honestly, giving kids cold oranges and seeing them slurp them up was it. Everything else was depressing. We failed with our primary mission today - we failed to protect that woman. And this is happening every day.

To wrap the thread: I witnessed kids w/o parents & parents claiming their kids were taken from them AS OF TODAY by the U.S. A woman from Cuba was sobbing that her passport was taken @ the border & she was sent back to Mexico & I saw that same woman get taken outside the facility.

I just extended my stay another day. More reports from Juárez tomorrow. Thank you for reading and sharing this ❤️