In photos: Life along the U.S.-Mexico border during migrant increase and COVID-19 restrictions
13 April 2021
Axios traveled to McAllen and El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to see how the communities are responding to an increase of migrants from Central America.
Of note: The region in South and West Texas are among the poorest in the nation and rarely are the regions covered in depth beyond the soundbites and press conference. Axios reporters Stef Kight and Russell Contreras walked the streets of McAllen, El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez to record images that struck them.
Mural at El Paso’s Casa del Refugiado to welcome Central American refugees. Photo: Russell Contreras/Axios
Barbed wire and a flag welcome you back to the U.S. Photo: Stef Kight/Axios
People wait in line nearly three hours on the Bridge of the Americas to leave Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to enter El Paso, Texas. Photo: Russell Contreras/Axios
A vaquero passes a Chicano mural in El Paso's Segundo Barrio. Photo: Russell Contreras/Axios
Where construction on the border wall and a levee has halted in South Texas due to President Biden's executive order. Photo: Stef Kight/Axios
Republican House members and Texas state troopers tour the Rio Grande. Photo: Stef Kight/Axios
A mural with the word esperanza, or hope in English, greets Central American refugees at El Paso’s Casa del Refugiado. Photo: Russell Contreras/Axios.
Where migrants staying in one of the Annunciation House shelters in El Paso celebrated Easter. Photo: Stef Kight/Axios
A migrant woman and child sit on the ground of a temporary outdoor processing facility under the Anzalduas International Bridge in McAllen, Texas. Photo: Stef Kight/Axios
A turf area in the overcrowded temporary processing facility in Donna, Texas. Photo: Stef Kight/Axios
A motorist drives by a Chicano mural in El Paso's Segundo Barrio. Photo: Russell Contreras/Axios.
The border fence along Sunland Park, N.M. Photo: Russell Contreras/Axios.
A young migrant girl carries a baby doll as she walks back to the crowds of migrants waiting at the outdoor processing facility under the Anzalduas International Bridge in McAllen, Texas. Photo: Stef Kight/Axios
A Mexican immigrant mother talks about trying to get health care for her four children at Centro De Salud Familiar La Fe in El Paso, Texas. Photo: Russell Contreras/Axios
Buses wait to take migrants from the temporary processing center to local charities. Photo: Stef Kight/Axios
Where migrants enter a shelter run by Annunciation House after being tested for COVID-19. A full-time volunteer (left) walks with Axios reporter Russell Contreras (right). Photo: Stef Kight/Axios
The wall through a wall. Photo: Stef Kight/Axios
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.