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John Moore, a special correspondent for Getty Images, is the author of “Undocumented: Immigration and the Militarization of the U.S.-Mexico Border.”
The migrants forded the trickle of sewage that is the Rio Grande in far west Texas and crossed the U.S. border to the outskirts of El Paso. They picked their way through razor wire into makeshift encampments, hoping to make asylum claims in the waning days of covid-era border policy. They lined up on the dirt under the watchful eyes of Texas National Guard troops along the perimeter — and then the days passed.
This was the scene recently in the sliver of territory between the Rio Grande and the border wall. A place in the United States but also not in the United States. It is physical, this in-between space, but it is also a powerful metaphor for the uncertainty at the heart of American immigration and border policy.
Many observers expected a massive influx of migrants this month after the expiration of the policy known as Title 42, which for three years gave U.S. immigration authorities extraordinary powers to remove asylum seekers who made “irregular” border crossings. Instead, the numbers surged a week earlier, with at least 10,000 crossing daily ahead of the deadline.
Two large groups gathered on this 100-yard-wide strip of dirt along the river, where vegetation is sparse and structures are nonexistent, except for lampposts that cast an orange glow at night. Dense clouds of dust form in the slightest breeze. There is no water to drink or food to eat.
As a photojournalist who has covered immigration and border security for more than 15 years, I set out to document this story. Based in Latin America earlier in my career, I came to understand the reasons so many leave their countries in search of a better life. Crime, poverty and environmental pressures can be major “push” factors. But the “pull” factors are just as important. In every village, people know which families have relatives sending money home from America. They own the biggest houses, with new roofs and indoor plumbing.
When the U.S. economy is good and low-skill jobs are plentiful, people outside our borders are aware. Many will take on debt to pay smugglers to guide them and provide some modicum of protection during their travels. Many risk the dangerous journey through Mexico atop the freight trains known as la Bestia — the Beast.
So it should not have been a surprise that migrants realized that arriving under the expiring policy would be less punishing than what would come next. Sure enough, the Biden administration unveiled a tougher regime. New policies require migrants to have previously applied for asylum if they passed through another country before applying in the United States. If they enter with what border officials consider bogus asylum claims, they can be deported and barred from reentry for years.
A 28-year-old Venezuelan migrant named Laura (she asked me not to use her last name) arrived carried by fellow migrants. She had fallen while trying to climb the Beast and broken her ankle. Over three months, she and three relatives had trekked from South America through the treacherous Darién Gap and north through Central America and Mexico. “Do you think they’ll let me pass through the fence so I can get treatment?” she asked. “I’m in so much pain.” The next day, she was no longer there, but I couldn’t find out whether she’d been admitted into the United States or turned away.
I have heard the stories of many arriving migrants over the years. U.S. Border Patrol agents might treat them with great professionalism, or with indifference or even cruelty. The numerous families seeking asylum at times overwhelm the authorities, who might release them into the United States en masse, pending immigration court hearings, or deport them.
This uneven enforcement partly explains why so many gamble all their savings, even the lives of their families, to try to make it through. To challenge the system is to enter an uncertain, in-between space — a no-man’s land like the one between the river and the wall.
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