Morgan Smith
For a decade, I've been making monthly trips to the El Paso/Juárez area to document -conditions and help various humanitarian groups. In late 2018 when a flood of migrants appeared along the border, mostly fleeing from violence in Central American countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, I began working with La Casa del Migrante, the major migrant shelter in Ciudad Juárez, seeking out people on the streets of the city and prowling along the border wall trying to interview Mexican soldiers. What emerged are photographs that document US cruelty toward those fleeing their home countries.
Morgan Smith
When I approached the wall from the US side, kids appeared and asked for money to be photographed. This boy said that for an extra dollar, he’d show me how easy it was to climb the wall.
Morgan Smith
Early one morning I drove along the border wall west of El Paso, Texas and Juárez, Mexico and suddenly these migrants came running toward me. I tried to talk to them but they kept running and disappeared over the next hill.
Morgan Smith
A family living on a side street next to the international bridge that leads back to the US. They were part of a group of several hundred who had waited for weeks to be called for their asylum hearings.
Morgan Smith
Another look at the conditions in which migrants were living near the international bridge. Mexican officials eventually dispersed them to unknown locations.
Morgan Smith
A young Honduran boy and his father at La Casa del Migrante, the largest shelter for migrants in Juárez, waiting for their asylum hearing with US officials.
Morgan Smith
Mexican soldiers now guard many sections of the wall like this area west of El Paso and Juárez. They are cheerful but bored, rarely agree to be photographed but claim that they have stopped migrants from crossing into the US. Our Border Patrol disagrees.
Morgan Smith
Cuban migrants opened a restaurant in downtown Juárez hoping it would support them until their asylum hearings. The restaurant soon closed.
Morgan Smith
A young migrant man from Nicuragua wanders the streets of central Juarez asking for money.
