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Watch: Inside a Mexican Shelter Where Migrants Wait Months for a Chance to Enter America

July 01, 2019 | The Texas Tribune
By
Jay Root and Miguel Gutierrez Jr.
Migrants wait in Mexico for their asylum cases to be heard in the United States. Image by The Texas Tribune. Mexico, 2019.

Migrants wait in Mexico for their asylum cases to be heard in the United States. Image by The Texas Tribune. Mexico, 2019.

View the full video on The Texas Tribune website.

The Texas Tribune visited the Senda de Vida shelter in Reynosa, a Mexican border city across the Rio Grande from McAllen. Inside, we met migrants from around the world—from Central America to Africa to Russia—crowded into tents and waiting for their number to be called so they could cross the international bridge and ask U.S. officials for asylum.

Some migrants have been there for up to 3 months, and some have reported being kidnapped, robbed or shaken down by corrupt Mexican officials. Their stories underscore the deepening migrant crisis at the Texas-Mexico border.