For the past two years, I have repeatedly traveled to the US and Mexico to document the arrival and expulsion of asylum seekers from Latin America, Haiti, and African and Asian countries at the border with Mexico. They couldn't present their claims before a judge because of Title 42, a measure put in place by the Trump administration during the pandemic. The Biden administration lifted Title 42 on May 11, 2023. I followed asylum seekers on their journey in Mexico, through the Chihuahua desert, atop the infamous cargo train known as La Bestia, The Beast, and to their arrival in the US.
Decades of civil war, endemic poverty, violence, and natural disasters have produced forced displacement across most of the societies across Latin America, making it hard for people needing international protection to find better conditions in any other country and polarizing their movement to the United States. For the past two years, I have repeatedly traveled to the United States and Mexico to document the arrival and expulsion of asylum seekers from Latin America, Haiti, and African and Asian countries at the border of Arizona and Texas. They couldn't present their claims before a judge because of Title 42, a measure put in place by the Trump administration under a 30-year-old public health regulation. The statute, designed to stop the spread of a contagious disease, allowed the summary expulsion of asylum-seekers coming from a country hit by a virus such as Covid-19. Still, people never stopped moving. Since the pandemic began, almost 2.5 million have been expelled to Mexico after their attempt to enter the United States. The Biden administration lifted Title 42 on May 11, 2023. In the months preceding this decision, asylum-seeking families from South and Central America moved massively to the north. I followed some of them on their journey in Mexico, through the Chihuahua desert, atop the infamous cargo train known as La Bestia, The Beast, and to their arrival in the United States.