5/14/21

By Josh Rubin

Once more, we are compelled to see, and to believe what we see.

It is all about seeing, and doing battle with those who would prefer that we don’t look. In the last administration, the policy known as MPP, better known as Remain in Mexico, turned migrants back into the streets of border towns and cities so dangerous that few dared to cross and report on the devastating results of the policy. Most members of the press were forbidden to cross, to photograph, to see. Editors did not risk the safety of their reporters. But for our government, the safety of the humanity we sent to cower in those crime-ridden streets, victims of kidnappers, rapists, killers, and thieves, was not important. What was important was that they were not visible.

And now? Title 42, the rule that allows immediate expulsion of migrants under the pretense of public health, sends vulnerable families into those same streets. Shelters are overflowing, ramshackle camps are springing up. Food is running out. And still the press stays on this side, fearing for their lives, along our borders, as need drives humanity forward.

Behind borders, behind the fences of places like Fort Bliss where thousands of children long for reprieve, depression begins to blur the faces of family in their minds.

Invisible need. Invisible humanity.

Witness.