4/5/20

By Tom Cartwright

A REPORT ABOUT THE MATAMOROS ENCAMPMENT

As far as we know there have been no confirmed cases of COVID.

People are not mingling as closely as before the pandemic, especially in large groups. It seems as though there is much more awareness of social distancing, but as those of us who have spent time in the camp, that is very difficult do with the density of the camp and at the natural interdependence of residents in the camp.

There are very few volunteers in the camp now and the energy level of the residents seems lower. That's not surprising given what must be a perpetual worry over the cancellation of court dates and uncertainty of dates in the future, the closing of the border and the quandary of what that means for the future, and the overwhelming level of denial rates. And now, added to all of that, the danger of contracting and the potential spread of COVID coupled with a paucity of medical care available, not withstanding the heroic efforts of Global Response Management to prepare for emergency response and to educate the residents in preventative measures, elevates the anxiety by many factors.

Although many volunteer groups are not resident in the camp now for the safety of the asylum seekers, they are still very, very active. Team Brownsville and the Angry Tias and Abuelas continue to provide dependable humanitarian assistance with food and other supplies and support of other NGOs. The Resource Center Matamoros is on site and continue their stalwart and difficult work to support of the camp, in the areas of hygiene, infrastructure, information, and facilitation of remote connections to other important services. Project Corizan (Lawyers for Good Government) attorneys continue to stay in contact and support asylum seekers remotely. The Sidewalk School is now providing services remotely on tablets and offering sanitized books using social distancing.

Global Resource Management continues to press forward quickly with standing up their pop-up emergency clinic/hospital at the far end of the camp as it stretches into the park. Their tent has arrived in Brownsville so we can only assume they have reached an agreement with the Mexican Government to install and operate the field hospital. I hope I didn’t inadvertently leave out any group and if so I apologize for any omissions.

Many Mexican asylum seekers have departed. Estimates tallied that there were 160-200 Mexican families in the camp and now that number is closer to 70. The migration is not surprising given that Mexicans were exempt from MPP so they were not waiting for court dates but were “metered” and waiting for their number to be called to cross. Even before we left, CBP was only allowing perhaps 3-5 people to cross per day, and on some recent days zero. A few weeks ago we witnessed a meeting of about 150 led by a Mexican asylum seeking resident and list keeper. He suggested, and the residents voted on, capping the list at 150 with no substitutions because so few were being allowed to cross. It was a remarkable display of organic organization and democracy by the residents.

So, unlike those from other countries that have court dates and fear losing them, many Mexicans seem to be choosing to find a safe place to wait out COVID.

Others, dependent on now amorphous court dates, rigged courts, and dangerous conditions remain with few options.

These desperate and wonderful people are trapped.

They have no way forward.

They can’t go back.

It's a human tragedy that was totally avoidable.

All it needed was a policy based on humanity, not based on hate.