7/28/20

By Josh Rubin

What we know about the situation in the Matamoros encampment for asylum seekers.

The river has risen. We do not believe it has risen over its banks.

Yesterday afternoon, an operation to move the portable toilets over the levee, away from the river, to the plaza side, began.

Nearly simultaneous with the beginning of that operation Gaby Zavala of the Resource Center spoke to a large group of people in the encampment. She told them that a mandatory evacuation had been ordered. Moreover she told them that they could not simply move above the levee to the plaza, that the government had specifically indicated they could not be there.

There was mention of floodgates being opened imminently upriver, and that this would lead to a rapid rise in the river level, and that the encampment would be flooded. A day before there had been mentions of an additional 10-15 inches of rain, with the same consequences being warned. It was mentioned several times that the Guardia Nacional might be brought in to enforce the evacuation. Thus far, we have seen no reports of their involvement.

A suggestion was raised at the time that women and children shelter in a couple of places, while men went elsewhere. This was not received well, raising the fear of family separation. Since then, some additional shelter space has been arranged at a nearby convent.

The additional heavy rain was not in the forecast, and NOAA, a US agency, denied any plans to open floodgates, although they reported that they had been getting calls asking about it.

Some buses have been provided to carry people to shelters in the city. Some families were observed wheeling away their possessions in wagons. Some people were observed moving tents to the tops of the levee, the highest points in the encampment, intending to resist evacuation.

The river is expected to crest on Wednesday, indicated by the weather service. All this activity also needs to be understood in the context of the COVID pandemic. While cases in the encampment have been few, the disease is rampant in the city.

INM, the Mexican equivalent of our DHS, has taken over management of the evacuation, and claims to be following the lead of Sr. Norma, who leads a coalition of groups that have been working in support of the asylum seekers, including the Team Brownsville, Angry Tias and Abuelas, the Resource Center, Global Resource Management, the Sidewalk School, and World Central Kitchen.

An INM representative has stated that the asylum seekers will be allowed to return to camp once the flood danger has passed.

Update: we have heard that most of the people in the camp resisted evacuation and are still there.

Photo by Josué Rolando Cornejo Sabillon