Christmas food and games for immigrants at the US-Mexico border

On the border between Mexico and the United States, hundreds of people spend their first Christmas outdoors. Some spent weeks, others months and even a year waiting to leave Ciudad Juarez and enter El Paso, Texas.

However, Title 42, the US regulation that disallows entry of asylum seekers and allows expedited returns, remains.

Out of solidarity, some Samaritans came to distribute donations, including children’s toys.

“I see a lot of people in need, a lot of people who don’t have a place to go. It’s a very complex issue that I’m not an expert on (…) I really do because at Christmas it’s all about giving,” says Daniel Morgan, a volunteer who has traveled from El Paso with other acquaintances.

This solidarity has allowed many migrants to eat and shelter from the cold in shelters. But they can’t let their guard down. Their mission is to cross the border, no matter how long it takes. Loretta Maria Salgado has been trying for a year.

“I left Cuba a year ago, I left Havana for English Guiana, I crossed Brazil, then I crossed Peru, crossed Ecuador, then I was in Colombia. From Colombia I went through the jungle, a very bad experience. Fourth on the day we were in the jungle a group of Cubans . A friend of mine died, he was bitten by a viper. On the fourth day we no longer had food or water,” Salgado says.

“Me and another girl passed out almost three times. We had to fetch water from the river. We saw many deaths, we saw people being robbed, people being raped. We saw everything. Thank God, we got to the camp and they helped us there and they took us to the immigration authorities.”

Loretta and other walkers are hopeful that the immigration procedure will be suspended in the United States, as it was thought to happen in early December.

Many of them say the turbulent trek through the jungle brought them closer as a family, and that’s how they hope to cross the border.

Title 42 has been used more than 2.5 million times to turn away asylum seekers who crossed irregularly into the US and turn away most asylum seekers at the border.