In July 2022, following the arrival of the most recent caravan at Tapachula, México, about 6,000 migrants, the majority from Venezuela, Central America, and Haiti. Members of El Tribuno del Pueblo planned to meet the Caravan at Tapachula and accompany it on their journey to the U.S.-Mexico border.
By the time we were ready to go, the caravan had left and was already on its way to various cities near the border, including Reynosa, Tamaulipas, and Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila. We decided to visit Reynosa, where ElTribuno del Pueblo has longtime friends.
We talked to migrants from Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Venezuela who were staying at Casa Lulu 1/2, and Senda De Vida 1/2.
Reynosa is on the international border. Unfortunately, Reynosa is cartel country where violence is a common occurrence in the fight to secure the “Plaza,” meaning territory. During the migrants’ initial influx to Reynosa, they approached the international bridge to ask for asylum. However, due to Title 42 and MPP, migrants were forced to wait their turn in line at the international bridge or be pushed back into Mexico to await “approval.” This led to the creation of an encampment at the Plaza de la Republica near the international bridge.
After the public backlash against Trump’s immigration policies, he made the Mexican government join in enforcing immigration policies on both sides of the border. This resulted in the Mexican government clearing the Plaza encampment in Reynosa. Activists soon mobilized and helped relocate the migrants to shelters.
Many groups and activists work to lessen the suffering in the migrant community. These groups implement community-driven initiatives in crisis areas. Many of these warrior-activists have extensive experience working on crisis migration along the border and are often in harm’s way.
Muchísimas gracias to the following warrior-activists without whose aid we wouldn’t have been able to get the migrants’ stories to amplify their voices and move the people of the United States to join the fight for human rights and the path for legalization for all.
Jennifer K. Harbury: She is a human rights activist, author, and lawyer from the United States. She also is a member of the Angry Tías and Abuelas, a loosely affiliated group that was created to help the migrants stuck at the border awaiting asylum. Harbury gives legal support to shelters in Reynosa, Senda 1/2, and Casa Lulu and garners funds with the Angry Tías and Abuelas to keep the shelters running.
Brendan Tucker/ General Response Management: Tucker is a project coordinator for GRM which provided support in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and helped bring GRM to the Reynosa area. GRM provides emergency humanitarian medicine worldwide to vulnerable people displaced by conflict, war, or disaster. In Reynosa, GRM works with Casa Lulu in running Casa Clínica, where they provide medical support to migrants. It also helps provide medical supplies to Senda de Vida 1 and occasionally Senda de Vida 2.
Thelma García: García has 43 years of expertise as an immigration attorney. She helped to simplify policies and procedures of the immigration and asylum process. García also represented Cindy Madrid and her daughter Alisson Ximena. They crossed into the United States without papers in May 2018 after walking for two months from El Salvador. Cindy Madrid said gang violence in El Salvador was inescapable. The story of the mother and daughter is now the plot in a new Lifetime Channel movie that premiered in October 2021.
Eddie Canales: He is a former union organizer and civil rights activist from Falfurrias, Texas. He established the South Texas Human Rights Center. The center places gallons of water in the desert around Brooks County and supports families in finding and returning the remains of those lost in the desert. Eddie is working on dismantling the Medical Examiner system and attempting to build a regional one in South Texas.
José Torres: Torres was born and raised in Weslaco, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. For more than three decades, he worked for Texas Rio Grande Labor Aid advocating for the rights of migrants and farm workers. Torres was also an organizer with the Texas Farmworkers Union led by Antonio Orendain during the late 1970s and 1980s. Torres is a longtime friend of El Tribuno del Pueblo.
The Angry Tías and Abuelas: This is a loosely affiliated group created during the Trump era to provide food, medicine, hygiene products, and other support to asylum-seeking migrants who were forced to wait in line at the border. They then regularly contributed financially to the construction of Senda de Vida 1 and, eventually Senda de Vida 2, Casa Lulu, la Casa de los Haitianos, Senda 1, and Senda 2. What is more, the Angry Tíasand Abuelas pays for food and medicine for migrant workers in these residences and on the streets.
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thank you to the both of you: Nanzi and Francisco for going out there and bringing this issue to light. this is real journalism!