WEBVTT 1 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:10.880 It's October twenty third, twenty twenty three. It's a Monday, 2 00:00:11.640 --> 00:00:16.440 and Dora Rodriguez is in the tiny town of Sasabe, Mexico. 3 00:00:17.079 --> 00:00:21.079 It's just across the US border with Arizona, and today 4 00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:25.800 it's sunny and a little bit dusty. 5 00:00:25.960 --> 00:00:30.320 We were building a beautiful library for the community because 6 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:32.000 they never had a public library. 7 00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:36.919 Dora is an advocate, she's an activist for migrant rights, 8 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:38.360 and she's based in Tucson. 9 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:42.839 Excited that this beautiful library is coming up, that murals 10 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:45.400 are done. It is very welcoming. 11 00:00:46.200 --> 00:00:49.680 The reason why Dora is in Sasabe, Mexico, is because 12 00:00:50.080 --> 00:00:53.080 she's been running a shelter for migrants there and she's 13 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:57.000 also been getting involved in improving this town as a whole. 14 00:00:57.760 --> 00:01:01.280 Dora might be petite by but she's not small in 15 00:01:01.360 --> 00:01:03.840 terms of the impact that she has in this area 16 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:07.840 of the border. And this morning at the library, something 17 00:01:08.160 --> 00:01:09.679 feels off. 18 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:13.679 But I could sense it was a different vife. It 19 00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:16.760 really was a different vibe that the locals were telling 20 00:01:16.800 --> 00:01:21.600 me something's happening. This is scary because there was so 21 00:01:21.800 --> 00:01:27.039 many trocks. Different brain new why big trokes. You could 22 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:31.680 not see who was inside because they were dark, but 23 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:36.920 going fast and driving or slowing down, so it was different. 24 00:01:37.520 --> 00:01:39.520 They were weing seen all this time. 25 00:01:44.680 --> 00:01:47.440 At the end of the day, Dora drives back across 26 00:01:47.480 --> 00:01:50.560 the small port of entry back into the US and 27 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:52.160 she drives home to Tucson. 28 00:01:52.960 --> 00:02:00.080 The next morning, we're lorapar karaging back to Sasaw with brooms, 29 00:02:00.080 --> 00:02:02.080 with things to clean up. 30 00:02:02.600 --> 00:02:05.720 And during the hour and a half drive south to 31 00:02:05.800 --> 00:02:08.760 the border, Dora gets a warning. 32 00:02:09.760 --> 00:02:11.480 I get a phone call for one of the women 33 00:02:11.560 --> 00:02:14.960 they work at the center. It says, Dorita, don't come. 34 00:02:16.200 --> 00:02:20.320 We are in a war. There is a fight. There's 35 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:25.960 gunshots all over these mountains in town. Some houses are burning. 36 00:02:26.639 --> 00:02:29.160 We don't know what's happening. Police don't come. 37 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:35.560 At the time, Sasa, Mexico was a town of about 38 00:02:35.639 --> 00:02:40.360 one thousand residents. Families had been there for generations. There's 39 00:02:40.639 --> 00:02:43.840 kind of not much here. There are no big stores, 40 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:49.000 no chain restaurants, no banks. Everyone shops at the one 41 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:52.839 outpost where the owner runs the register and knows most 42 00:02:52.880 --> 00:02:57.639 of her customers. There is a small official US port 43 00:02:57.639 --> 00:03:00.679 of entry, and for decades this has been a corridor 44 00:03:00.840 --> 00:03:05.440 for migrants crossing the border. The press has reported that 45 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:08.320 for the last twelve years, the local boss of the 46 00:03:08.320 --> 00:03:14.480 Sinaloa cartel managing Sasabe Mexico basically left the townspeople alone 47 00:03:14.520 --> 00:03:17.720 and allowed them to work. And everyone sort of knew 48 00:03:17.760 --> 00:03:21.040 that the cartel was smuggling people, but they all went 49 00:03:21.080 --> 00:03:30.359 about their business without getting involved until now. Now you 50 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:33.480 should know that there are two Sasabs split up by 51 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:38.760 the international border boundary. There's Sasabe Mexico and sasave Us 52 00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:42.760 And in the area dividing the two there's about a 53 00:03:42.920 --> 00:03:47.080 twenty miles stretch of border wall. And over the years 54 00:03:47.440 --> 00:03:50.920 that stretch of wall has had more than twenty gaps 55 00:03:51.080 --> 00:03:55.080 or openings, holes in the wall that can be huge 56 00:03:55.480 --> 00:03:58.680 enough to fit a herd of cows, for example, or 57 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:04.640 small enough to fit a person sliding under the wall, 58 00:04:04.640 --> 00:04:09.200 and those have been repaired multiple times, mostly because of 59 00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:13.760 erosion during and after the monsoon seasons when torrential rains 60 00:04:13.800 --> 00:04:18.800 cause damage, and because people crossing cut holes into the fence. 61 00:04:21.640 --> 00:04:25.479 The wall certainly looks impressive, but in parts of Arizona's 62 00:04:25.480 --> 00:04:26.960 border with Mexico. 63 00:04:26.600 --> 00:04:29.760 This new wall is proving to be little more than 64 00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:32.120 a temporary obstacle. 65 00:04:31.760 --> 00:04:35.560 For smugglers to young gentlemen cutting through the wall with 66 00:04:35.839 --> 00:04:38.920 an angle grinder that you could pick up at Walmart or. 67 00:04:40.960 --> 00:04:41.479 See. 68 00:04:41.520 --> 00:04:45.279 That same week that Dora got that warning call, something 69 00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:49.280 happened at the border wall nearby that she says also 70 00:04:49.440 --> 00:04:55.560 contributed to the spark that set things off. There was 71 00:04:55.600 --> 00:04:59.640 this one specific opening in the border wall, not too 72 00:04:59.720 --> 00:05:03.680 far from the sasab Us port of entry, about a 73 00:05:03.800 --> 00:05:09.280 forty foot gap where large groups of migrants refugees, most 74 00:05:09.320 --> 00:05:12.800 of them families, had been crossing, where they'd wait on 75 00:05:12.880 --> 00:05:15.400 the other side of the border wall for the border 76 00:05:15.400 --> 00:05:19.080 patrol to turn themselves in and ask for asylum. 77 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:22.719 That gap was very easy for that group there was 78 00:05:22.839 --> 00:05:25.440 already in that town now. 79 00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:30.120 The cartel group that ran that area, Dora says, had 80 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:33.760 been using this opening because not only was it huge, 81 00:05:34.279 --> 00:05:38.040 it was easier to access than the more rugged mountainous terrain. 82 00:05:38.360 --> 00:05:43.760 Until the construction company doing repairs closed that huge opening 83 00:05:44.120 --> 00:05:48.320 in late October of twenty twenty three. According to Dora 84 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:51.160 and to other people we spoke to, including a Mexican 85 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:55.440 security analyst, this caused the cartel smuggling operation to be 86 00:05:55.520 --> 00:06:01.159 pushed further east into another group's smuggling tears territory. All 87 00:06:01.200 --> 00:06:03.480 of this under control of the Sina Lower cartel. 88 00:06:04.320 --> 00:06:08.039 It's pretty much the same organized crime group. They're just 89 00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:10.800 different Jamitas. 90 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:17.280 When the infighting within the cartel and the closing of 91 00:06:17.320 --> 00:06:21.920 that gap in the wall collided, and Dora says, the 92 00:06:21.920 --> 00:06:28.200 fighting escalated daily within two weeks. At the beginning of November, 93 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:32.680 locals woke up to find several homes set on fire 94 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:36.960 in their town, so they ran to US border officials 95 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:37.839 seeking help. 96 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:43.080 People were trapped. They could not go south to Mexico, 97 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:47.760 to another towns near Mexico because it was already controlled 98 00:06:47.800 --> 00:06:52.880 by the new cartel group coming in taking over. And 99 00:06:52.920 --> 00:06:55.360 then they could not come north to the port of 100 00:06:55.640 --> 00:07:01.680 entry because they denied protection to this people over and over. 101 00:07:02.440 --> 00:07:06.760 So I started getting these phone calls, well what we do. 102 00:07:14.240 --> 00:07:18.239 From Futuro Media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm Maria 103 00:07:18.360 --> 00:07:23.000 no Josa today Fernanda Chavarri, senior producer at Vuduro Studios, 104 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:26.160 and I are bringing you the story of what's happening 105 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:29.880 in this remote area of the US Mexico border. 106 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:32.600 We're going to see what the border wall is and 107 00:07:32.880 --> 00:07:36.520 isn't doing, and get past the rhetoric of an election cycle. 108 00:07:36.920 --> 00:07:39.080 We're going to hear from people on both sides of 109 00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:43.480 the wall, from humanitarian volunteers who are beacons of light, 110 00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:46.720 and we're going to ask border patrol how they handle 111 00:07:46.880 --> 00:07:47.480 the every day. 112 00:07:47.840 --> 00:07:50.040 We're going to bring you the realities of a remote 113 00:07:50.080 --> 00:07:53.880 border area that could easily be forgotten or overlooked. But 114 00:07:53.960 --> 00:07:57.040 from what we saw, it's where politics are abstract and 115 00:07:57.160 --> 00:07:58.160 policies are real. 116 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:02.280 This story is part of our life coverage, the Latino factor, 117 00:08:02.720 --> 00:08:13.320 how we vote, Immigration and the border are very much 118 00:08:13.440 --> 00:08:16.240 front of mine. As we get closer to election day, 119 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:20.000 tensions and divisions on border policies are heightened, as a 120 00:08:20.040 --> 00:08:24.560 new Gallup poll shows that significantly more Americans named immigration 121 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:28.080 as the most important problem facing the US. 122 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:32.440 As we enter this all too familiar deja vu moment 123 00:08:32.600 --> 00:08:35.880 with a second Joe Biden Donald Trump face off, and 124 00:08:35.960 --> 00:08:39.400 I want to talk about another topician, the border. I'm 125 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:40.480 ready to solve the problem. 126 00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:43.480 I really am massive changes and I mean it sincerely. 127 00:08:44.040 --> 00:08:46.600 Democrats say, please, don't call them animals. They're humans. 128 00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:49.600 I said, no, they're not yeamans, they're not yemens, they're animals. 129 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:54.559 Immigrants the border all the time. Here's speaker Johnson, I'm 130 00:08:54.559 --> 00:08:56.360 going to tell the President when I'm telling all of you, 131 00:08:56.400 --> 00:09:00.320 and we've told the American people border, border, border. 132 00:09:02.240 --> 00:09:05.640 The border is likely to be all talk for a 133 00:09:05.720 --> 00:09:09.080 lot of people, many who will say that the US 134 00:09:09.400 --> 00:09:14.640 is battling an invasion to describe desperate families asking for 135 00:09:14.840 --> 00:09:20.080 refuge legally for Dora, the humanitarian powerhouse, It's not. 136 00:09:20.920 --> 00:09:24.360 I had not seen an invasion. There is no invasion 137 00:09:24.440 --> 00:09:28.400 in our wall, in our borderlens. It has never been 138 00:09:28.440 --> 00:09:31.120 one in forty years have been around those border lens. 139 00:09:34.559 --> 00:09:39.120 What is new is the unprecedented cartel battle happening in Sassaba, Mexico, 140 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:42.040 a conflict that has given birth to a new group 141 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:45.079 of asylum seekers, the locals who had lived their whole 142 00:09:45.080 --> 00:09:47.760 lives in the shadow of the wall without intentions to 143 00:09:47.800 --> 00:09:51.040 ever come north. And here's the thing, and this is 144 00:09:51.080 --> 00:09:54.960 really important. Yes, there are millions and millions of dollars 145 00:09:55.040 --> 00:09:57.480 to be made in the drug smuggling business. There has 146 00:09:57.520 --> 00:10:00.640 been for decades. But there are now also millions and 147 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:04.120 millions more to be made in the people smuggling business. 148 00:10:04.840 --> 00:10:08.240 And the people being smuggled, they're the ones living the 149 00:10:08.280 --> 00:10:12.199 consequences of shifts in this business and in US policies. 150 00:10:14.800 --> 00:10:18.560 It's by fifty one in the morning. It's still pretty 151 00:10:18.600 --> 00:10:19.840 much pitch black out there. 152 00:10:20.280 --> 00:10:22.000 There's forty seven degrees, only. 153 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:24.080 Forty seven degrees, but it's rain forty six. 154 00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:27.720 It's a cold and rainy March morning in the desert. 155 00:10:27.960 --> 00:10:30.439 We've been driving for about an hour from Tucson south 156 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:34.080 to the border near the town of Sasabe, Arizona. Bob Key, 157 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:36.520 a soft spoken retiree, is at the wheel. 158 00:10:37.040 --> 00:10:42.000 My name is Bob Key. I live in Tucson, Arizona. 159 00:10:42.120 --> 00:10:44.640 And what do you do. I'm a member of the 160 00:10:44.679 --> 00:10:47.319 Tucson Samaritans and Green Valley Samaritans. 161 00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:49.439 And back here we have. 162 00:10:50.800 --> 00:10:54.079 I'm Debbie McCullough. I also a member of the Green 163 00:10:54.160 --> 00:10:57.080 Valley and the Tucson Samaritans, and I live in Green Valley. 164 00:10:57.120 --> 00:11:00.240 I live in We are on the US side of 165 00:11:00.280 --> 00:11:04.080 the border, and we're driving parallel to the wall. We're 166 00:11:04.120 --> 00:11:07.880 heading east now past that forty foot opening that we 167 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:10.600 mentioned at the top of this episode, the one that 168 00:11:10.640 --> 00:11:13.640 construction workers had closed up this past fall. 169 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:17.959 We're on our way to another opening, many many miles away, 170 00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:22.240 where the wall just ends. We wanted to see where 171 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:25.400 people have been pushed to cross, so. 172 00:11:25.240 --> 00:11:28.080 We know that that people have been out here overnight, 173 00:11:29.920 --> 00:11:32.280 children as well. There was a family where the baby 174 00:11:32.400 --> 00:11:35.960 one month old. They're cold and the rain that semen. 175 00:11:36.040 --> 00:11:38.840 Bob and Debbie have been volunteering with migrant rights groups 176 00:11:38.840 --> 00:11:43.400 for twenty years. They've seen migration trends shift, the demographics evolved, 177 00:11:43.760 --> 00:11:45.840 but the need and their role remain. 178 00:11:46.160 --> 00:11:46.360 You know. 179 00:11:46.400 --> 00:11:50.120 Once I made that connection with people, it just it 180 00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:54.400 really became my calling. I found what I was meant 181 00:11:54.400 --> 00:11:54.960 to be here for. 182 00:11:55.679 --> 00:11:58.719 It's hard to describe just how intense this terrain we're 183 00:11:58.800 --> 00:12:01.400 driving through right now is. It's a four wheel drive 184 00:12:01.440 --> 00:12:03.800 type of road with the border fence to our right. 185 00:12:04.520 --> 00:12:07.080 The hills go up and down so steep that when 186 00:12:07.160 --> 00:12:10.400 Bob approaches the top we can't even really see what's below. 187 00:12:11.040 --> 00:12:13.960 To rain that migrants have walked in the dark and 188 00:12:14.160 --> 00:12:17.880 under extreme weather conditions. Oof, this is a steep drop. 189 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:25.000 I don't like it. Talking about the wall as in 190 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:29.720 Capital T Capitol W, has become synonymous with border security, 191 00:12:29.760 --> 00:12:34.319 illegal immigration, and anti immigrant rhetoric, even though the wall itself, 192 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:37.839 as border patrol agents has said, is just a tool 193 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:41.160 in the larger picture. A slow down mechanism, but not 194 00:12:41.240 --> 00:12:44.680 a stop to border crossings. And if you haven't looked closely, 195 00:12:44.880 --> 00:12:47.480 the wall is really more of a fence. There are 196 00:12:47.559 --> 00:12:50.800 six inch steel ballards four inches apart. 197 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:55.640 Before Trump's build the Wall chance became a center of 198 00:12:55.679 --> 00:12:59.800 his first presidential campaign in twenty sixteen, there were already 199 00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:03.319 more than six hundred and fifty miles of border barriers 200 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:04.720 along the southern border. 201 00:13:05.640 --> 00:13:09.640 Build that wall, Build that wall. 202 00:13:10.640 --> 00:13:14.960 During his presidency, Trump did build almost fifty miles of 203 00:13:15.040 --> 00:13:18.959 new border wall where there had never been barriers before, 204 00:13:19.040 --> 00:13:22.800 but the majority of his claim to fame was replacing 205 00:13:22.920 --> 00:13:26.280 more than four hundred and fifty miles of smaller, dilapidated 206 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:31.720 sections of the wall with this huge, menacing, thirty foot fence. 207 00:13:32.640 --> 00:13:34.880 Now fast forward to Biden's first day in office. 208 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:39.520 CNN projects Joseph R. Biden Junior is elected the forty 209 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:41.520 sixth president of the United States. 210 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:45.160 He signed an executive order saying that his administration would 211 00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:49.120 not build one more inch of new border wall, but 212 00:13:49.160 --> 00:13:51.800 that didn't stop the work to repair damage sections of 213 00:13:51.880 --> 00:13:55.000 the old wall. Biden has said that his administration was 214 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:58.679 forced to continue spending the money that Congress had allocated 215 00:13:58.800 --> 00:13:59.640 for these repairs. 216 00:14:00.080 --> 00:14:03.320 I tried to get them reappropriate to redirect that money. 217 00:14:03.960 --> 00:14:04.480 They didn't. 218 00:14:04.520 --> 00:14:05.079 They wouldn't. 219 00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:06.520 I can't stop that, do you. 220 00:14:08.440 --> 00:14:08.640 No. 221 00:14:09.960 --> 00:14:12.760 So in the last four years, the construction company has 222 00:14:12.800 --> 00:14:15.679 continued to close gaps and welded shut some of the 223 00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:18.640 open parts without building new sections of the wall. 224 00:14:20.640 --> 00:14:22.960 How do you process what we're seeing here, which is 225 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:26.000 the wall is here and now it's I'm confused. Yeah, 226 00:14:26.120 --> 00:14:28.320 it's supposed to be a border wall, but you're saying 227 00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:30.360 there's ten miles of no border wall. 228 00:14:30.440 --> 00:14:34.800 Yeah, because well they just haven't they stopped. 229 00:14:34.800 --> 00:14:36.840 So here's here's an indicator. 230 00:14:42.560 --> 00:14:45.480 They always date when they put the last ballard in 231 00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:49.000 for the day. This last this ballard was one thirteen, 232 00:14:49.520 --> 00:14:53.760 twenty twenty one week before inauguration, and that was the 233 00:14:53.840 --> 00:14:55.120 last of the wall building. 234 00:14:58.720 --> 00:15:02.760 After the stomach turning drive up and down the roller 235 00:15:02.800 --> 00:15:05.920 coaster of the muddy Hills at the border, we arrive 236 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:09.760 at a camp that volunteers have built on the US side. 237 00:15:09.920 --> 00:15:13.040 It's literally a stone's throw from the wall. 238 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:17.360 This is the camp that was set up. We're here, Yeah, 239 00:15:17.480 --> 00:15:19.800 this is the camp off to the left that's set 240 00:15:19.880 --> 00:15:24.640 up to accommodate people with tents and food and water. 241 00:15:25.280 --> 00:15:28.920 This makeshift resting camp was set up in December of 242 00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:32.360 twenty twenty three, about a month after the cartel war 243 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:36.560 took over Sasabe, Mexico, and when the forty foot gap 244 00:15:36.600 --> 00:15:40.840 that was more easily accessible was closed. It was built 245 00:15:40.880 --> 00:15:44.560 in response to the grave need for humanitarian aid for 246 00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:48.760 asylum seekers who were pushed to cross further away into 247 00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:53.200 the mountainous desert area and therefore have to wait for 248 00:15:53.280 --> 00:15:55.960 the border patrol to come and get them. 249 00:15:56.240 --> 00:15:57.440 I got really cold. 250 00:15:57.520 --> 00:15:58.360 It's so cold. 251 00:15:58.400 --> 00:15:59.720 Oh my gosh, I get sew my breast. 252 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:00.520 Yeah, you can. 253 00:16:00.600 --> 00:16:01.440 Oh jeez. 254 00:16:01.520 --> 00:16:03.560 Now, if you haven't lived in the desert, you may 255 00:16:03.560 --> 00:16:06.600 not realize just how extreme the weather is down here. 256 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:10.240 The summers reach over one hundred and ten degrees, but 257 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:12.640 in the early months of the year the temperatures can 258 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:15.600 drop in the low thirties at night. And yes, it 259 00:16:15.800 --> 00:16:19.040 has snow down here. Next to the fire where we're standing, 260 00:16:19.080 --> 00:16:23.360 we're standing over the sort of leftover smoke from a fire. 261 00:16:23.480 --> 00:16:28.280 There are about four milk crates and a little like 262 00:16:28.400 --> 00:16:30.960 little mermaid towel on top of one of them. 263 00:16:31.520 --> 00:16:33.080 Maybe some long underwear. 264 00:16:32.920 --> 00:16:35.880 Long underwear. Yeah, there's also there there's a jacket hanging 265 00:16:35.880 --> 00:16:38.040 from a tree. I mean I would say this is 266 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:40.680 probably one, two, three, four, five, six seventy. 267 00:16:40.920 --> 00:16:41.720 I kind of love it. 268 00:16:41.840 --> 00:16:46.040 Twelve maybe about fifteen tents, and by tents we mean 269 00:16:46.280 --> 00:16:51.000 tarp that's been hung up on trees, not Arii style tents. 270 00:16:52.120 --> 00:16:54.480 In the middle of the camp, there's a large canopy 271 00:16:54.600 --> 00:16:58.280 with supplies, lots and lots of water, coffee. 272 00:16:58.720 --> 00:17:02.800 There is a campstone so that people can come and 273 00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:07.520 make the hot coffee or ramen and refried beans, lots 274 00:17:07.560 --> 00:17:10.280 of refried beans. So that's kind of just our go 275 00:17:10.320 --> 00:17:11.399 to meals. 276 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:16.119 And as Debbie shows us around, suddenly a tiny creature approaches. 277 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:19.480 Oh, this is the camp catt. 278 00:17:19.640 --> 00:17:21.760 Yeah, yeah, this cat is. 279 00:17:22.359 --> 00:17:23.320 What's the kitty's name? 280 00:17:23.480 --> 00:17:26.359 We don't know campcat. I guess c K. 281 00:17:26.760 --> 00:17:32.480 Right, Camp cat. Clearly CEK stands for Camp Kitty, not campcat. 282 00:17:32.840 --> 00:17:35.000 But fun fact, Camp Kitty used to live at the 283 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:38.159 Border Patrol station in Sasaba, Arizona with the Border Patrol 284 00:17:38.200 --> 00:17:40.719 agents until one day it's not into one of their 285 00:17:40.800 --> 00:17:43.080 vans headed for the camp and never went back. 286 00:17:46.520 --> 00:17:49.720 As we move further into the camp, we see this 287 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:53.520 decked out sprinter van and that's where we meet Andy 288 00:17:53.560 --> 00:17:55.560 Winter and the campgrown host. 289 00:17:56.600 --> 00:17:59.280 Andy and his little dog Grapha are usually the only 290 00:17:59.320 --> 00:18:07.120 ones who stay the camp after sunset. 291 00:18:04.359 --> 00:18:06.600 And I must talk about. 292 00:18:09.119 --> 00:18:12.240 He's often the first face that migrants see when they 293 00:18:12.359 --> 00:18:15.159 arrive at the camp and he speaks to them in Spanish, 294 00:18:15.400 --> 00:18:18.480 talks about how the camp works, offers them hot coffee. 295 00:18:18.920 --> 00:18:22.639 And Andy is a retired educator from Vermont. He's a 296 00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:26.520 former tennis pro. He's probably more than six feet tall. 297 00:18:26.560 --> 00:18:31.520 He is very all American, and his van is next level. 298 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:36.040 This is like the most popular, you know, like RV 299 00:18:36.119 --> 00:18:38.280 in America right now for folks. It's a it's a 300 00:18:38.320 --> 00:18:41.960 Mercedes Sprinter and it's just souped up a little bit. 301 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:44.800 So it's scott It's got four wheel drives, you know, 302 00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:50.639 solar panels across the roof from satellite. It's supermass right now. 303 00:18:50.640 --> 00:18:51.960 But yeah, of course, I mean. 304 00:18:52.040 --> 00:18:55.560 Yeah, Andy's van is the Wi Fi charging van, an 305 00:18:55.560 --> 00:18:59.160 indispensable tool in this remote camp where there is little 306 00:18:59.160 --> 00:19:03.360 to no phone signs, no Wi Fi, no electricity. This 307 00:19:03.520 --> 00:19:05.920 is where people can charge their phones and once they 308 00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:08.480 are connected to Wi Fi, they can call their family 309 00:19:08.520 --> 00:19:11.399 members who haven't heard from them in days. Sometimes weeks 310 00:19:11.760 --> 00:19:13.879 and tell them that they've made it to the US. 311 00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:18.400 There's a group last night, right before border patrol picked 312 00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:20.359 them up, we were waiting. It was like nine thirty 313 00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:23.080 and it's dark, dark, dark, you know, we got a 314 00:19:23.160 --> 00:19:25.760 fire going, and the stars out here in the desert. 315 00:19:25.960 --> 00:19:27.919 It looks like they drop down as the night, you know, 316 00:19:27.960 --> 00:19:30.240 as it gets dark and darker, And we were just 317 00:19:30.280 --> 00:19:32.840 talking about how this isn't this moment is such a 318 00:19:34.359 --> 00:19:37.359 completely unique, like everything's changing for them in this moment, 319 00:19:37.480 --> 00:19:40.399 like this night, waiting for border patrol to pick them up, 320 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:43.159 for this whole new experience that they have no idea 321 00:19:43.240 --> 00:19:44.600 what's going to happen. 322 00:19:52.760 --> 00:19:55.800 And the future looks different for folks. Some people could 323 00:19:55.800 --> 00:19:58.359 go from the camp to a detention center, or they 324 00:19:58.359 --> 00:20:01.280 could be deported quickly and you will petition asylum and 325 00:20:01.320 --> 00:20:03.800 get released into the United States with a chord date 326 00:20:04.080 --> 00:20:07.040 years from now, and others might not even get the 327 00:20:07.119 --> 00:20:10.679 chance to ask for asylum anymore. After President Biden's recent 328 00:20:10.720 --> 00:20:14.480 crackdown at the border, critics like the ACLU just sued 329 00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:18.320 challenging Biden's new order to turn asylum seekers back once 330 00:20:18.359 --> 00:20:19.720 they reach a certain number. 331 00:20:21.119 --> 00:20:24.080 Last fiscal year, there was a sky high number of 332 00:20:24.119 --> 00:20:27.439 what Border Patrol calls encounters with three point two million, 333 00:20:27.840 --> 00:20:30.359 and twenty twenty four is on track to hit an 334 00:20:30.400 --> 00:20:35.800 all time high. We're talking families, little kids, elderly folks 335 00:20:35.920 --> 00:20:40.080 from all over the world, Central and South America, Africa, India, 336 00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:42.320 families from Afghanistan. 337 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:46.600 And that's largely because of something that significantly changed at 338 00:20:46.600 --> 00:20:49.520 the border a year ago. 339 00:20:48.760 --> 00:21:03.720 And that's coming up after the break. Yes, welcome back 340 00:21:03.760 --> 00:21:06.720 to Latino USA. I'm Marien no Josin. 341 00:21:06.600 --> 00:21:07.840 And I'm Fernande Chari. 342 00:21:10.119 --> 00:21:14.200 To understand the rise in large groups of people crossing 343 00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:17.800 the border to turn themselves over to the border patrol 344 00:21:17.880 --> 00:21:20.560 to petition asylum, we have to look at something that 345 00:21:20.640 --> 00:21:23.000 happened a year ago, the. 346 00:21:22.960 --> 00:21:26.560 End of a Trump era border closure policy known as 347 00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:27.640 Title forty two. 348 00:21:28.320 --> 00:21:31.560 The countdown is over and the next phase has begun. 349 00:21:31.720 --> 00:21:34.399 Title forty two is now expired as of an hour ago. 350 00:21:34.840 --> 00:21:38.800 Title forty two is an obscure health law. It was 351 00:21:38.920 --> 00:21:42.679 first invoked by the Trump administration at the height of 352 00:21:42.760 --> 00:21:46.800 the COVID pandemic in twenty twenty. Essentially, it closed the 353 00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:51.960 border by turning people seeking asylum right back around without 354 00:21:52.119 --> 00:21:54.400 giving them a proper asylum screening. 355 00:21:54.800 --> 00:21:56.480 We closed the borders very early. 356 00:21:56.880 --> 00:21:58.000 We made a great decision. 357 00:21:58.040 --> 00:22:00.280 Took a lot of heat over that decision, but it 358 00:22:00.280 --> 00:22:02.200 turned out to be the right decision. 359 00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:05.600 And as the years went on, vaccines became available. Mandated 360 00:22:05.680 --> 00:22:09.960 masking ended in Trump left office. Border agents continued using 361 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.000 it at the direction of now President Joe Biden, even 362 00:22:14.160 --> 00:22:17.239 as he declared an end to the pandemic. Is the 363 00:22:17.240 --> 00:22:22.359 pandemic over? The pandemic is over? President Biden declared the 364 00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:24.040 coronavirus pandemic is over. 365 00:22:24.359 --> 00:22:29.560 President Biden promised to end Title forty two. Instead, he 366 00:22:29.640 --> 00:22:32.760 is now expanding restrictions on asylum seekers. 367 00:22:33.840 --> 00:22:36.399 So much for a temporary policy that was supposed to 368 00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:37.360 be about the pandemic. 369 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:42.160 Huh. 370 00:22:42.720 --> 00:22:46.280 And here's the thing. The whole time this policy was 371 00:22:46.320 --> 00:22:49.560 in place, hundreds of thousands of people from all of 372 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:54.280 the world stayed in Mexican border cities waiting. 373 00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:57.399 So when the policy ends, that's when we start to 374 00:22:57.400 --> 00:23:01.040 see large groups of women, children, families all crossing the 375 00:23:01.080 --> 00:23:03.720 border wanting to turn themselves into the border patrol to 376 00:23:03.800 --> 00:23:06.640 begin the asylum process that had been denied to them 377 00:23:06.680 --> 00:23:07.520 for so many years. 378 00:23:07.920 --> 00:23:11.159 The number of people crossing illegally into America. This past 379 00:23:11.240 --> 00:23:15.080 year has been staggering, ten thousand a day last week. 380 00:23:15.400 --> 00:23:18.679 It has been a record breaking year. And objectively, it 381 00:23:18.760 --> 00:23:21.600 seems clear that the US government has lost any sense 382 00:23:21.640 --> 00:23:23.360 of control in Mexico. 383 00:23:23.520 --> 00:23:26.959 These groups have been managed, you could say, by smugglers 384 00:23:27.000 --> 00:23:30.359 working for Mexican drug cartels and they started pushing large 385 00:23:30.400 --> 00:23:31.600 groups through SASAB. 386 00:23:32.359 --> 00:23:36.320 That's when we started seeing the hundreds and hundreds and 387 00:23:36.400 --> 00:23:40.240 hundreds of people presented in our borders. But this is 388 00:23:40.359 --> 00:23:44.920 people who were already a lot of it in Mexico. 389 00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:47.200 So this is the consequences. 390 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:52.639 That's Dora Rodriguez once again, she's the humanitarian migrant rights 391 00:23:52.720 --> 00:23:54.560 activist from southern Arizona. 392 00:23:55.240 --> 00:23:59.160 It is millions of dollars being made by this bottleneck 393 00:23:59.480 --> 00:24:02.639 they had had happened in Mexico due to the policies 394 00:24:02.840 --> 00:24:06.000 they were created during the last administration. 395 00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:10.399 Davizeo Sto, a security consultant in Mexico and expert in 396 00:24:10.480 --> 00:24:13.760 drug cartels, says that the cartels take advantage of this. 397 00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:19.359 That's political Mia Todias, the Staunidos, Sona Procellas and Balquiers 398 00:24:19.400 --> 00:24:21.919 and Dillo Andicans. 399 00:24:22.119 --> 00:24:25.360 They look at changes to US immigration policy, even if 400 00:24:25.400 --> 00:24:28.919 the migrants themselves are completely unaware of any of it. 401 00:24:30.760 --> 00:24:33.560