Home > Prensa > Buzfeed News: Photographs of Asylum-Seekers on their Journey to Another Life
2021-07-28 Buzzfeed News

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by Pia Peterson, BuzzFeed News Photo Editor, and Hailey Sadler, Community Contributor

Posted on July 28, 2021, at 2:35 p.m. ET

“We are running away from one place, and we end up coming to an even worse one,” says Miriam Rodríguez, an immigrant from Honduras currently in Mexicali, Mexico.

Everyone who watches or reads US news has seen images of immigrant families in some of their most stressful moments, from precariously crossing the border by boat to sobbing in detention. The footage is familiar, and the southwest border of the US is expected in 2021 to see the highest numbers of asylum-seekers and immigrants it has in 20 years.

This is partially due to Title 42, an order enacted under the Trump administration and kept in place by the Biden White House that, citing the coronavirus pandemic, allows the US to quickly turn immigrants back to Mexico without giving them a chance to seek asylum. Not only has Title 42 blocked asylum-seekers from attempting to gain protection, it has also led many people to attempt to cross the border multiple times, resulting in higher numbers of encounters with authorities.

Many of the families who have attempted to cross into the US in recent years have also gotten stuck in dangerous border cities as a result of the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) policy, enacted in 2019, which forced over 71,000 immigrants and asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico until US immigration courts could rule on their cases. On June 1, the Biden administration formally ended MPP, and since then, some families have been able to seek asylum. However, thousands of families are still being sent to Mexico under Title 42. President Joe Biden has reportedly been briefed on a plan to stop the practice, formally known as expulsions, for families by July 31, but for now, parents and children are left waiting and wondering.

What happens to these families after they are sent to Mexico? What are their stories and hopes for the future?

Beyond Migrant is a series of portraits of families who have gotten caught in the limbo of US immigration policies and been sent to Mexico after trying to seek asylum. The series, by Hailey Sadler, highlights the stories of 15 families using a makeshift photo studio in the small border town of Mexicali, Mexico, in May. Each portrait was shot against a uniform black backdrop in order to invite viewers to engage with the subjects’ stories beyond their momentary circumstances.

The project received logistical support from Border Kindness, a nonprofit that provides holistic services and legal counsel to asylum-seekers, immigrants, and refugees in Mexicali.

“I am afraid for him.” —Oscar Pineda, 45

A man sits beside his son and has an arm around him Hailey Sadler

Oscar Pineda, 45, and his 16-year-old son, also named Oscar, have been living in limbo in Mexicali for a little over three years. A mechanic by trade, Pineda fled his home country of Honduras after being targeted by a local gang. He stretches out his hand to show a healed bullet wound. His son was with him when it happened.

The father and son spent four days braving the desert heat to cross from Mexico into San Diego, where they turned themselves in to immigration officials. They were sent back across the border into Tijuana, Mexico, but then traveled to Mexicali. “I had already lived here in Mexicali for a while, so I felt more confident about living here,” says Pineda.

For the past three years, they have been waiting, working enough to support themselves, and hoping for a legal way to cross into the US. Stuck between their past and future, Pineda describes feeling torn between the dangers of attempting to cross again and the dangers of returning home. He says they will keep waiting. “I am afraid for him,” Pineda says of his son. “For me, I make up my mind to whatever destiny touches me, but for him, I am patient… I am very afraid that the gangs will get him, because he is just starting to live. That is the fear.”

After this interview was conducted, with help from Border Kindness, Oscar and his son were able to seek asylum in the United States.

 

“I missed the courts. I missed the date.” —Vilma Peraza, 29

A sitting woman is held by her son, who stands behind her and embraces her
Hailey Sadler

Vilma Peraza, 29, says her biggest regret is leaving her daughter behind in Honduras. But she didn’t know what else to do. She has been separated from her husband for five years. As a single mom, she made the difficult decision to leave her home with a migrant caravan in 2018, in hopes of being able to fight for a better future for her children in the United States.

She was concerned about making the dangerous journey alone with two young children, so she left her 10-year-old, Adriana Rosemary, in Honduras with her parents and brought her son, Jefferson, who was 3 years old at the time. Peraza’s eyes fill with tears as she shares their story. “It was a very difficult moment. I’m sorry.” Jefferson, now 6, sits next to her, and he reaches out to softly scratch her back. Peraza regrets leaving Adriana behind, she says, “because it is not the same for the children to be with their mother as it is for them to be with someone else.”

Peraza and Jefferson arrived in Mexico in 2019 and tried once to cross into the United States. From Honduras, Peraza’s dad paid the equivalent of $10,000 to a coyote who promised his daughter and grandson would make it safely into the US. “Our guide didn’t tell us that we were going to be caught by immigration,” Peraza says. “He didn’t say a word, and they caught us. They kept us locked up for eight days. … They told us to wait here in Mexico. Then they deported us here to Tijuana.”

Peraza feels cheated by the coyote. “If he had told me, ‘You know they are going to catch you,’ I wouldn’t have gone to the other side. I would have waited for them to give me asylum and I wouldn’t have crossed.”

Being alone as a single mother in a foreign country, uncertain of your status, is daunting, Peraza says. “Since I knew absolutely nothing about here, I had zero help. Then I met some friends and they brought me here [to Mexicali]. I had no help at all, so I couldn’t go to the court. I couldn’t tell you what the court is. … They just say, ‘You have to go to a court here.’ But I didn’t even have a phone. … I didn’t know anything. I couldn’t even travel. I was afraid. I had no idea. So I missed the courts. I missed the date.”

Peraza and Jefferson have been in Mexicali for three and a half years now. Peraza works as much as possible and calls home often to check in on her daughter. Whenever she can, she tries to check the TV to see if there’s news of the ever-changing and complex US immigration policies that affect her case.

“I always watch the news and feel hopeful about President Joe Biden giving us asylum. … Therefore, we are waiting for the necessary time to see what happens next.”

“I’m waiting,” she says, “to see if I’m given another chance.”

“It hurt me to have to come.” —Kevin Godoy, 23

A young man in a T-shirt with anchors on it stares into the camera
Hailey Sadler

“The truth is that my mother told me to come, because a cousin of mine was killed,” says Kevin Godoy. He is 23 years old and alone. “So I couldn’t stay with her. It hurt me to have to come, but I am always in contact with her.”

Godoy’s father left him and his mother when Godoy was only 2 years old, so he grew up very close with his mom. He saw how hard she worked to provide for him and his three sisters. “My whole life, she was there for me. Since I was little, she never let me lack — schoolbooks, food, home — she was always with me.”

“Because I was carrying some papers to be able to defend myself to ask for asylum, I was calm,” Godoy remembers of when he encountered Border Patrol. “I thought they were going to help me. I did not think it was going to happen the way it did. They took everything from me, my backpack, they threw the food away, and they told me that the papers were useless. They did not even let me speak to explain that I wanted asylum, and they tore my papers. … I picked them up, I kept them, and I brought them with me. But since I thought they were not going to be of any use to me, I threw them away.”

That was three years ago. Godoy has not tried to cross again. For now, he’s focused on surviving in Mexicali with whatever odd jobs he can find. Eventually, he hopes to join his cousin in Bryan, Texas, and to be able to provide for his family.

 

“We were left without a house. That’s why we came here, to move forward.” —Norqui Regina Cortes, 26

A young woman sits on a folding chair with a young boy on her lap. The boy is holding a toy lion and wearing a shirt that says "Mister Strong"
Hailey Sadler

“We were left without a house. That’s why we came here, to move forward…” Norqui Cortes’ voice trails off. She, her husband, and their 2-year-old son, Edrás, left Honduras after the devastation of hurricanes Eta and Iota in December 2020. “We tried to cross twice, but US immigration sent us back.”

Currently, Cortes and her husband and son live in a shelter. “It’s a little bit bad,” Cortes says. It’s very hot. Ventilation is poor and, like most shelters or migrant hotels in Mexicali, it’s desperately overcrowded. Multiple families will pile into a single room. Often, the only privacy is in the bathroom. It’s no place to raise a child. Cortes had hoped to get to the United States so that Edrás would have a chance to study when he gets older and find a trade. “Sometimes I feel there is no more hope. But I don’t want to go back to my country either, there is no work.”

After this interview was conducted, with help from Border Kindness, Norqui and her family were able to seek asylum in the United States.

“They just came and they’re leaving, and I’m still here.” —María Serrano, 61


Hailey Sadler