Inside the Crisis at the US-Mexico Border | w/Slim Albaher | Brut - video Dailymotion

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Brut visited the U.S.-Mexico border to see how migrants seeking asylum live. YouTuber Slim Albaher explains the desperate ongoing situation.

Transcript

00:00Hi I'm Slim Albehar and today I'm with Brew. Do you remember this picture?

00:07A man and his daughter died right in this area. They were found face down, a man and his child,

00:15right at this river. The father was named Oscar. He was 25 years old. His daughter,

00:22Angie Valeria, was 23 months old. The two were seeking asylum from El Salvador when

00:27they drowned in the Rio Grande. This horrific picture has shocked the world,

00:31showing a vivid and devastating picture of the immigration crisis.

00:35They got tired of waiting. They just waited too long. They want to be right there and it looks

00:39very close but it's very dangerous, extremely dangerous. With Brew, we wanted to understand

00:46the story behind this picture. So we traveled to the southern border and visited the migrant

00:50camp of Matamoros, the Mexican city just across from Brownsville, Texas. This is where Oscar

00:57and Angie Valeria spent some of their final days. Most asylum seekers here come from Central

01:10America, among them tens of thousands of children who've been affected by President Trump's

01:16zero-tolerance policy on immigration. Last month, 20,000 migrant children were illegally brought

01:22into the United States, a dramatic increase. These children are used as human pawns by vicious

01:30coyotes and ruthless gangs. Matamoros has become a forced shelter for migrants. Over a thousand

01:39refugees, including around 300 children, live in a tent encampment. Many said they live here

01:45without sufficient food or even drinking water.

01:58They're going to come through. We're going to give them a burrito. We'll give them a granola bar

02:03and we'll give them a cookie. If these families are holding up, it's in part thanks to the help

02:08of American volunteers who every day cross the border to supply them with food, water,

02:13and a reason to have hope. It's a very sad situation, and to see children suffer,

02:21to see children eating on concrete floors, it breaks my heart. I went to war. I was willing

02:27to give my life for America, and what I see America is doing now is just tearing me apart

02:33emotionally, spiritually. This is not the America that I fought for.

02:43My family, there are five of us. Three boys and a little boy, and me.

02:48What I do is I throw my little bag of chicken inside and I stay here in the sun.

03:13What I do is I try to avoid it and I ask those who help me and give me strength.

03:17Because sometimes, you know, sometimes you do it a little better for our children.

03:24Well, I don't know. What are they going to do with us?

03:28♪♪♪

03:58Thousands of asylum seekers end up stranded here for months,

04:11and this is the result of a metering system. That system limits the number who can apply

04:15for asylum each day, but they're also affected by the Migrant Protection Protocols, better known as

04:21the Remain in Mexico Policy, that forces migrants to wait across on the side while their asylum

04:27claims a process.

04:36Yeah, we've got family down here. They're using the river water to actually wash their clothing.

04:42Now, one thing that they need to understand is that the minute that they enter into that area,

05:02they have the right to be processed for asylum. That is U.S. soil. So you can see the temptation.

05:09I'm a strong swimmer. I would not attempt that. This was about two weeks ago. A gentleman was

05:14showering down in the river. He was cleaning himself and he drowned. That undertook very,

05:20very dangerous. The Matamoros Refugee Camp exemplifies all the Trump's administration

05:27strategies to keep migrants from gaining entry into the U.S., including the separation of

05:32children. More than 5,400 children were separated from their families since July 2017. Thousands of

05:38children have been held in the U.S. Border Patrol facilities across the country. We met a lawyer who

05:43was able to enter a facility. My name is Karla Vargas. I am a senior attorney with the Texas

05:49Civil Rights Project here in Alamo, Texas. Migrants were calling this facility the perrera,

06:05or dog cage. The government made no differentiation between housing an adult in a facility like this

06:15and under these conditions, and a child. There was one 16-year-old child who died

06:21in the Westlake facility after falling ill. His name was Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez. He was

06:2816. They keep them in a building like this incommunicado, so they have absolutely no access

06:43to lawyers, no access to family, no access to anybody other than potentially their consulate.

06:49I saw children, I saw infants that were detained in this facility. The lights are on all the time.

06:56Migrants also call these places hieleras, or ice boxes, and it's because they're kept at absolutely

07:02frigid temperatures, especially for children. Any crisis that's happening here at the border,

07:07I want to be very clear, this was a crisis that was implemented and fomented by our government.

07:17In Brownsville, Texas, not everyone is against Trump's immigration agenda.

07:21In this city, only five minutes away from the border, the president has loyal supporters.

07:28Some agree to talk to us at the city's shooting range.

07:41I think Trump is doing the right thing, trying to make it

07:46so we don't get flooded by illegals. The parents want the United States to come out with a kid

07:51in their arms, and it's a lot easier to gain citizenship if you have a child with you,

07:57a lot easier. I think that's terrible. And right now, they're doing DNA testing on those

08:03children and the adults, both. They're not related. They're being deported.

08:09However, the problem is the kids are here now. What do you do with the kids?

08:16The children are in a far worse position than the adults, yet they still bring them over as

08:29if they're just items. You have three-year-olds, two-year-olds, even babies coming over the border.

08:35Next thing you know, you see them floating in the river, all because some parent paid

08:39human traffickers some money. That's it. Come here legally, sign the paperwork,

08:44do the paperwork, pay the fees, fines, everything like that, and come here legally. That's fine by

08:47me. But if you're coming over here expecting a handout, you come over here and you expect

08:52something for free? I don't think so. Donald Trump is already making immigration

09:01the centerpiece of his 2020 re-election bid. And if his first campaign event proved anything,

09:06it's that his message has changed little since 2016.

09:08Every single Democrat candidate for president

09:11raised their hand in favor of giving free health care to all illegal aliens.

09:21They want to give more to illegal aliens than they give to American citizens. You see that?

09:29As president, I will never allow the Democrats to take away your health care dollars and give them

09:35to people that are in our country illegally. Thank you.

09:41This message continues to rouse his supporters, but other Americans aren't afraid to speak out against it.

09:47We can't change the president. We can just put band-aids on the damage he's done

10:05until he's gone, until he's just nothing but a horrible chapter in the history books of America.

10:11It made me very angry. It made me want to have to do something. It made me want to use my voice.

10:16I needed to, just for myself, remember what kind of caused this in me. So I did create,

10:25I had an artist replicate these tattoos. Now, one of them is for Alonso, and the other one is for

10:30Jessica. Jessica, she died. She died. She was ill. Her parents were in another detention facility.

10:36She was devastated, refused to eat, and she died. Felipe, also, he was dehydrated. He was very ill.

10:42He was separated from his parents. He didn't get the medical treatment that he needed,

10:46and he died. These are victims of a failed policy. Separating children from families is

10:51just the most horrid thing that I've ever experienced in my life. It's things that

10:55I never thought that America would ever resort to, but we're here. We're living it. We're seeing it.

11:00Every day when I cross the bridge, I see victims of a racist policy. I see kids that are ill,

11:06kids that need help.

Inside the Crisis at the US-Mexico Border | w/Slim Albaher | Brut

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