1/21/20

By Josh Rubin

It is overcast this morning. The wind, which usually flaps our banners and sends our signs flying for once is gentle, only calling for minor adjustments as we sit at the base of the crossing, on the US side.

As witnesses show up, folks from Matamoros, some citizens, some Mexicans with the right paperwork, step out of US customs, and descend a short stairway, and many cross the street to where we stand, peruse our message, exchange a few words with me or others.

A man, asking for me to help in Spanish, managed to get across to me that he wanted to know where he should go to marry the mother of his child, over in Mexico. He carries a clear envelope with his US citizenship papers. I point him to CBP offices. A few minutes later he emerges. He was directed to an office in Harlingen.

Later this month, there is scheduled in Matamoros a protest against the refugees trapped by the policy called MPP, Remain in Mexico. They feel it unjust that their city and their citizens are forced to take on the burden of our policy of punishment, designed to discourage asylum seekers by forcing them to live in conditions that may kill some of them, may force them into painful decisions to fracture their families.

Why us? they will ask, in front of the American consulate. We hope they direct their anger at US policy, at the cooperation of the Mexican government and its slavish obeisance to us, and the cartels that plague them and the refugees alike.