"Oh Mercy" Film and Panel Discussion
University of Virginia
With election day less than a month away, we must not forget the ongoing immigration crisis. Join us October 27th to see a short film, Oh Mercy, by Worldwide Documentaries that follows asylum-seekers battling unsafe conditions at the border due to policies implemented by the current administration. The film will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Lucy Bassett, Professor of Practice at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia and co-founder of Project Adelante, and will feature Academy-award nominated director, Robert Bilheimer; Dr. Susan Bissel, the former Chief of Child Protection at UNICEF; Sister Norma Pimentel, a longstanding advocate for migrants along the border honored as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
Living in a tent camp on the US/Mexico border:
The experience of women and children in Matamoros, Mexico
University of Virginia/Texas A&M University
Recent changes to US immigration policy have resulted in a crisis on the US/Mexico border. In January 2019, the Trump administration launched a new immigration policy. The “Migration Protection Protocols” (MPP)—known as the “Remain in Mexico” program—sends asylum seekers arriving at ports of entry on the US-Mexico border back to Mexico to wait for the duration of their US immigration proceedings. Since then, more than 60,000 asylum seekers have been sent back to Mexico, where they live in poor conditions—many in makeshift tent camps, face violent crime and kidnapping, and depend on support from volunteers.
Bruce Springsteen Spotlights Batten Professor’s Work at the Border
University of Virginia
Lucy Bassett has focused her nonprofit work and recent research on the U.S.-Mexico border crisis, specifically a makeshift refugee camp in Matamoros, Mexico, a sprawling compound of improvised shelters separated from Texas by just a few yards of dirt and the Rio Grande. As it happens, Matamoros is also the subject of a Bruce Springsteen song, “Matamoros Banks.”
Bruce Springsteen's powerful call to action for Matamoros
Bruce Springsteen
More than 2,500 asylum-seekers are living in a state of intense danger on the streets of Matamoros, Mexico. Many of the most vulnerable people fleeing danger and persecution in Central America and the Caribbean end up in Matamoros because of the widespread belief that the crossing at that point is relatively easier than desert ports of entry.
In squalid Mexico tent city, asylum seekers are growing so desperate they’re sending their children over the border alone
Washington Post
In the middle of the largest refugee camp on the U.S. border — close enough to Texas that migrants can see an American flag hovering across the Rio Grande — Marili’s children had fallen ill.
After U.S. court ruling, Honduran newlyweds among migrants clinging to asylum dream
Reuters
Led by a dream of marrying on U.S. soil, a young Honduran couple travelled thousands of miles from their home in the port city of La Ceiba, narrowly escaping a kidnapping in Mexico before seeking asylum across the border in Texas.
The Out Crowd
This American Life
Reports from the frontlines of the Trump administration's "Remain in Mexico" asylum policy. We hear from asylum seekers waiting across the border in Mexico, in a makeshift refugee camp, and from the officers who sent them there to wait in the first place.
You've seen the image. Now, hear a widow recall how her husband and daughter drowned in the Rio Grande
60 Minutes
A widely seen photograph of a father and his 23-month-old daughter who drowned trying to reach the U.S. was seared into memory this summer. Now, Tania Avalos, the wife and mother of the drowned migrants, is telling her story to 60 Minutes
Mexico’s Capitulation to Trump Has Put Thousands of Lives in Danger
Slate
The Mexican foreign minister says his government has nothing to be ashamed of. He’s wrong.
There Are Two Types of Detention Facilities at the Border, “Iceboxes” and “Dog Pounds”
Slate
A lawyer who has been volunteering at the border for years helps contextualize the new horrifying details.