Sorrow, Resilience, and Tenderness: Surviving the Wait at the US-Mexico Border

A video dispatch from a bridge spanning two countries

Every day, migrants arrive at the US-Mexico border hoping to gain entry and find safety. But before they are processed, they must wait—usually for days, sometimes in extreme heat and inhospitable conditions.

Mother Jones reporter Noah Lanard and I spent nearly a week at the border bridges between Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico, to meet these migrants ourselves and film their stories. What we found was a powerful mix of tragedy, perseverance, and, we were surprised to discover, hope. 

We will be sharing these stories with you soon. But just to begin, here’s a glimpse of some of the scenes at the border with those who are suspended between two worlds, and those who are trying to help.

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Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

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