Although the number of illegal border crossings between Mexico and the US has been declining for almost twenty years, this trend has reversed in the last two years. However, the largest group of migrants is no longer Mexicans, but people from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, who are fleeing organized crime, violence and poverty. The asylum system is overloaded, detention centres are overcrowded and the conditions there are inhumane. Experts describe the situation as a humanitarian crisis. However, the Trump administration is still tightening conditions for immigrants and asylum seekers and wants to continue building a border wall. American writer Francisco Cantú, who worked in the Border Patrol, points out that the strategy of deterrence and militarization of the border does not lead to fewer attempts at illegal crossing, but to more deaths in the desert. He sees the solution to the situation not only in the reform of migration policy, but above all in changing the language in which we talk about migrants.
This episode was originally released on March 11, 2020.
A line in the sand
The border between the United States and Mexico is over three thousand kilometers long and passes through four American states - California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. In many places it is formed by natural barriers, such as rivers and mountains, in other places by artificial barriers, i.e. border crossings and a wall or fence with barbed wire. However, there are also places where the border runs through a vast desert. You can see what the Arizona border looks like, where Francisco Cantú worked, in a report on the PBS News Hour news program.
From a pile of rocks to a wall of razor wire
A video from the New York Times workshop shows not only how the physical appearance of the border has evolved from 1848 to the present, but also how its meaning has changed.
Další příběhy z hranice
There are a number of great podcasts dedicated to the border situation. This American Life, in an episode called “Let Me Count the Ways” describes the small and big changes the Trump administration has made to curb immigration. In the news podcast The Daily, New York Times reporters explain why asylum seekers are being sent back to Mexico and what the implications are for their safety. And in a podcast, The New Yorker magazine tries to figure out what prompted nearly 5,000 Central Americans to embark on a multi-week, foot-long journey to the United States as part of a so-called caravan.
