UPDATE: It is in the air. It is in the air.

UPDATE: 9 am. Flight still on the ground in Brownsville.

UPDATE: She may be on a deportation flight, 8:20, from Brownsville to Honduras, this morning.

Don’t look away.

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.

As Guatemala once again ponders over its craven acceptance of deportation flights, which inevitably spread Coronavirus to their already ravaged country, and Honduras and Salvador take their human cargo, mindless of the contagion, we watch, I from an apartment in New York City, others from Texas and Ohio, eyes glued to flight manifests every early morning.

I am perched on the eighth floor of a building in Brooklyn in an apartment with Melissa. We have not left for several days. We have a terrace, so we can go out and feel the sun and wind, and watch the reduced traffic, automobile and pedestrian, below. When watching together, we sigh and scold to each other about those that do not observe social distancing. That’s not six feet, one of us remarks to the other. We stand together, touching.

Artist Iviva Olenick is working on a series called "States of Emergenc(y)e," a "textile arts and performance series advocating for opening borders and extending compassion and care to immigrants and refugees."

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We have gotten the reports of children testing COVID positive, in custody. They need to LET THEM OUT, send them to their sponsors now.

Photos from Matamoros. Buses to the south.

From WAPO. In other words, MPP is back in place for Northern Triangle, but perhaps without any of the legal window dressing.

But, Mexico insists, US has to keep the unaccompanied kids, and anyone who is sick.

It is almost impossible to get a clear idea of what the announced changes to immigration policy will be. Listening to the president and his chorus of evil, at the Coronavirus press conference, they seemed to say or imply the following:

1. Apprehended migrants will not be held. They will be transferred to airports and flown to their own countries.
2. Mexico will not accept anyone from any third countries.
3. There will be no judicial review of this procedure.
4. No asylum seekers will be allowed to cross.

JUST🚫ICE

Big News. Guatemala prohibited inbound flights. Initially except for deportation flights. One boarded this morning in Brownsville for Guatemala but everyone was then taken off and the full busses left as did the ICE workers.

Travel restriction. Meaningless for deportation flights so far. No one cares about these people. Observed three busses of human beings boarded in shackles to a plane headed for Guatemala, a country that said they would restrict all incoming flights from other countries...but not deportation flights.

Suspended: Witness at the Border

These are hard times, and the specter of the Coronavirus hangs over the vulnerable in a way that we can barely allow ourselves to pronounce, much less write it down and make it even more real. Imagine the scenarios, the way this plays out for those trapped at the border, and in prisons that have walls, as well, and I will imagine still another that is haunting me as I write.