5/11/23

By Josh Rubin

“Go back. Go back.” This from the men carrying automatic rifles, above the families struggling to keep their footing on the US bank of the Río Grande. They had just swum across, using inflated pool toys to keep their children’s heads above the water.

Quédense en Mexico, on the recorded announcement, carried to us on the Mexican side, across the water. But they would not go back, they would not remain in the encampment in Matamoros. They would not wait until Title 42 expired. And as Texas National Guard and an assortment of other uniformed men unspooled more of the concertina wire between these refugees and the ridge, they stood their ground and held up their children for the armed men to see, or maneuvered along the steep bank, looking for that opening, that place where they could throw carried clothes over the wire and protect their hands from its bite.

More men, on horseback, rode up to watch from above. Drones buzzed through the air. A helicopter circled. Troops moved along behind their defenses.

And then, at long last, it ended. They made an opening, and with babes in arms, the wire parted, making a way up the bank for them.

As the families moved along the ridge line of the bank, toward “processing,” new spools and posts come down to build new ranks of defense against these desperate, homeless people, to reinforce Fort USA.