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Tijuana: Migrants vs the Border 33 images Created 1 Apr 2017

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  • A woman in Playas de Tijuana stands along the border that separates Mexico and the United States, a surveillance camera ominously overhead. She is talking to a loved one through the fence. Often on weekends the US Border Patrol opens access to Friendship Park in Imperial Beach on the opposite side, so that family and friends unable to cross the border can share a moment together, even if it is through a metal barrier that only allows for fingertips to touch.
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  • Ixchel is a mother of two and an activist fighting for deportees and migrants in Tijuana, Mexico, the US border wall over her shoulder. She was deported in 2014 and her family was forced to make difficult decisions. Her situation is emblematic of many families that have multiple nationalities and immigration statuses. <br />
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After being deported, Ixchel became active with the group Madres y Familias Deportadas en Acción (Deported Mothers and Families in Action) and is now a community leader fighting for justice for those affected by broken immigration policies. Most recently, she has been organizing efforts to assist the thousands of Haitian and African migrants stranded in Tijuana awaiting appointments with U.S. Immigration and the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.
    Ixchel
  • Ixchel and her daughter Yamilet walk in the pre-dawn hours of Tijuana towards the public transportation that will bring them to the international border crossing. There, they will wait in line for several hours until Yamilet can cross over so she can go to high school in San Diego, California. Yamilet was born in the United States and decided to join her mother when she was deported back to Mexico in 2015. Many U.S. citizen students living with deported parents, like Yamilet, prefer to study in the United States given the difficulties of adapting to a new school, culture and language if they go to a Mexican School.<br />
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To make their daily commute easier, Ixchel decided to live in a neighborhood near the border. During school days, they must get up at 4 A.M. for Yamilet to get to get to her first class in San Diego at 8:30 AM. Ixchel is doing everything possible to make sure Yamilet graduates from high school and goes to college. Her other daughter lives in Illinois with her father.
    Ixchel y Yamilet en camino a la escuela
  • Thousands of students, both U.S. citizens and visa holders, wait at the Tijuana-San Ysidro border crossing at 7 A.M. Many live in Tijuana because of deported parents or family members and must cross daily to go to school. On most days, they start lining up at 5 A.M. and wait two hours for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Service to open the gate to give them access to the border crossing. Services that expedite crossing such as the Sentri-pass are inaccessible due to cost or ineligibility. Under certain circumstances such as during terrorism alerts and around holidays, crossing the border can take up to four hours.
    Cruze fronterizo estudiantil
  • Felix Peralta spends the weekend with his son at “the Bunker,” known formally as the Deported Veterans Support House, a center for deported vets in Tijuana. Felix served in the U.S. Army and, after his honorable discharge, in the reserves; he was deported in 2001. His son makes the two and a half hour journey several times a year from Fontana, California to visit his dad. At the Bunker, Felix has access to a bed, a kitchen and computer, but more importantly he is connected to other deported vets and lawyers, paralegals and activists wanting to assist these banished soldiers on their cases. In his spare time Felix likes to write poetry and he takes on grill-master duties when the other deported vets come over to the Bunker for a cook out.<br />
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There is a tragic irony surrounding the situation of Deported Veterans. Although these soldiers effectively became Uncle Sam’s property during their service and were promised an eventual path to citizenship, they are denied this opportunity. Absurdly, the United States government can punish American citizens who fight in another’s army with prison, even strip them of their U.S. citizenship in certain cases, at the same time they enlist thousands of non-citizens each year to serve in America’s military.
    Felix e hijo
  • Felix reads one of his poems. The glasses, he says, were given to him by a sympathetic tourist, and their fanciness he “owns” with a certain pride. He discovered poetry a few years ago and says it helps him process the world around him and his situation, in particular. Right now he is fighting his case to return to the U.S., but like many deported vets, is facing a difficult road to being repatriated.
    Felix retrato
  • Gladys Abad is a mother of seven, a grandmother of eight and an activist with the Madres y Familias Deportadas en Acción (Deported Mothers and Families in Action.) She is originally from Guatemala and her children represent three different nationalities: Guatemalan, Mexican and American; needless to say, immigration policies of both Mexico and the United States maintain her family in a state of separation and uncertainty. She has a beautiful voice and says that singing is a way for her to stay connected with her loved ones across three international borders.
    Gladys
  • Jesús Juárez enlisted in the US Army in 1974 with hopes of escaping a rough life in Southern California. During a stint in Puerto Rico he fell off a truck severely injuring both his head and leg, spending over a week in a coma and several months hospitalized. He believes that the head trauma provoked erratic behavior that caused him to be dishonorably discharged. Soon after, he fell into old habits, went to prison and, after release, deported. He lives in Tijuana, Mexico with his mother and is fighting to get his pension and access to medical care at the Veterans Hospital in La Jolla, California.
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  • Trump rally in Selma, North Carolina. November 3rd, 2016
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  • Trip to Holtville Cemetery, site of migrant burials.
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  • Trip to Holtville Cemetery, site of migrant burials.
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  • Trip to Holtville Cemetery, site of migrant burials.
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  • Trip to Holtville Cemetery, site of migrant burials.
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  • Trip to Holtville Cemetery, site of migrant burials.
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  • Trip to Holtville Cemetery, site of migrant burials.
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  • Trip to Holtville Cemetery, site of migrant burials.
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