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Day by day in a camp closure – Reynosa, Mexico

One of Solidarity Engineering's main project locations, The Plaza, at one point housing over 3,000 people in an area smaller than a soccer field, was forcibly closed on May 2nd. The following Podcast is a hectic day by day account of Solidarity's humanitarian response to this camp closure.

00:00 / 38:55
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Photos outside and inside the Plaza de la República before the camp was forcibly closed and bulldozed (left) and after (right).

Audio Transcript

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John Salazar-Spectrum News 1: There behind me you can see crews pick up what’s left of the encampment here at the Plaza in downtown Reynosa. I'm about 200 yards away from the McAllen-Hidalgo bridge and there behind me you've got the Mexican National Guard it's here just to kind of preserve the peace. I'm gonna turn this camera around and give you a shot of what I'm seeing, according to humanitarian NGOs I spoke to they said there’s about 500 people remaining at this encampment, men, women, and children all waiting their turn to make their way inside the United States. Migrants who were staying here told me that there was no forewarning that this encampment would be bulldozed in the middle of the night. I'm also told the remaining migrants have been offered shelter at Senda de Vida which is about 1000 yards away from here and they are the largest shelter in Reynosa. This location has been the hub for asylum seekers since June. American volunteers I spoke to on Tuesday morning say that they are surprised this happened in the middle of the night with no fair warning. in Mexico, John Salazar spectrum news 1.

 

Chloe Rastatter: Today's episode is about the forced closure of the informal refugee camp in Reynosa, Mexico, at the Plaza de la República. This closure suddenly displaced hundreds of men, women, and children, in the middle of the night into the most dangerous city in Northern Mexico without any warning. Since the local shelters, aid actors, and migrants themselves were not given the notice, shelters were unprepared to receive this unexpected increase in population. Once the Plaza was cleared, everything was bulldozed, reminiscent of the Matamoros camp closure one year ago in March of 2021. In this episode, Christa and I talk day by day about what happened the week the Plaza closed. Within the episode, we have included sound clips from the field team from each respective day to give a more well-rounded explanation as to all that happened the week of the Plaza’s closure. Although it is a little hectic, we thought it would be the most representative way to tell todays story. Hi and welcome to Dignity Displaced, a podcast by Solidarity Engineering. My name is Chloe Rastatter

 

Christa Cook: And I’m Christa Cook

 

Chloe Rastatter: And we are two cofounders and field engineers at Solidarity Engineering which is a small humanitarian grassroots organization that has been working on the US Mexico border for about the past two years now. If you haven't listened to the last episode we'll go ahead and give you a quick rundown at the context in Reynosa. So we started constructing Senda de Vida 2 back in November due to pressure both from the Mexican government and from humanitarian actors to get the Plaza de la República refugee camp closed. At its most it housed about 3000 people but remember this is an incredibly small area it was less than a standard soccer field with little to no access to showers, clothes washing stations, limited access to bathrooms, to hand washing, so all the hygiene needs so there's been a lot of push to get a better solution for the migrants and asylum seekers who are stuck in Reynosa and so we've been working about six months to construct this camp while you know also maintaining our other projects in Senda de Vida 1 which Pastor Hector also runs and is the biggest shelter there where we have continued to support the bathrooms there and also the Plaza. Keep in mind while we were working on the construction of the baseball field or Senda 2 as we call it we were also maintaining all of our projects in Senda de Vida 1 and the Plaza so we were very well connected as to what was happening within all of these locations and supporting the asylum speakers and migrants throughout the entire city and so part of the reason we have you know been a little quiet is we’ve been really busy because the camp Plaza de las Repúblicas unexpectedly closed on Monday night.

 

Christa Cook: So quick recap of the locations 'cause it can get confusing. There's the Plaza which is basically an informal refugee camp that people just started showing up at. Senda 1 and Senda 2 which are both a church affiliated shelter and Senda 2 is still under construction. Monday, May 2nd 2022.

 

Siobhan Merrill: OK hi everyone we just wanted to update 'cause we got to the baseball field and did a lot and talked to a lot of people so we dropped off 60 blankets and some hand sanitizer…

 

Christa Cook: So Monday was a more or less regular day for us, we first started by going to the Plaza where we updated the hygiene teams, checked on the bathrooms, checked on the water, kind of the run of the mill day for us and then we went to Senda 2 which is on an old baseball field so we sometimes refer to it as Senda 2, sometimes we refer to it as a baseball field but basically it's a new shelter that is meant to house all the people who were leaving the Plaza. There we worked on the drainage canal that we've been working on for a while now and we also met with MSF or Doctors Without Borders to talk about the WASH systems that are going to go into place in Senda 2.

 

Siobhan Merrill: …and then we ran into the new project coordinator from MSF for Tamaulipas we kind of explained all the WASH services around the camp. She wants to set up a meeting next week so that we can all talk as a team and she mentioned wanting to discuss…

 

Chloe Rastatter: Yeah so Monday was a pretty normal day and then we you know have been working very consistently to get this baseball camp finished, all of the actors understood the importance of this, there has been months and months of work and months and months of planning going into it and one of the major reasons that the camp was not being opened right then and there is the Mexican federal government had declined our permit for electricity. Keeping in mind that all of the other buildings and houses directly around this shelter have access to electricity. The reason they declined our electricity is because it's in a flood plane. That being said we were continuing to you know work on the million other things that needed to be finished this camp was not finished we were not expecting people to move into it anytime within the next few weeks and 11:30 PM you know rolls around and there's suddenly a group message made on WhatsApp that was created by some of the NGO's who have been working in Reynosa and everyone essentially got a message saying so sorry for you know the late text but the Plaza is being swept right now by the National Guard are here everyone is leaving and all the tents are being bulldozed.

 

 

Chloe Rastatter: We had absolutely no warning, luckily for us some of our partners including the Sidewalk School  and local churches on the Mexican side were able to get our water tanks out before everything was bulldozed but it went from being an entirely business as normal, business as usual as much as it can be in this type of setting day, to oh my god we are at a full emergency and so that brings us to Tuesday.

 

Christa Cook: Tuesday May 3rd 2022. I'm a little worried that once the Plaza is completely cleared the military is gonna block it so nobody can get in just like in Matamoros so I think we need to go I think I think we need to I don't think we need to wait around.

 

Chloe Rastatter: And the next day we get to the Plaza, it's everything is gone it's like they're clearing out the maybe 10% of their remaining trash, like they bulldozed it and cleared it so fast and alcalde puts on a press conference… quick clarification here the alcalde is the mayor of Reynosa… and INM does a press release saying that the camp was closed, planned closed but they said that it was a partnership with all these organizations and that the baseball field was finished and that there was no more donations needed which is crazy because there's so many more donations needed. This is the mayor of Reynosa’s response during the post-Plaza closure press conference that occurred on May 3rd when asked if the city of Reynosa had received money from the US federal government to assist with the crisis at the border. Please note that Solidarity Engineering has not received any funding from the US federal government and to our knowledge no humanitarian organizations working within Reynosa have received money from the US federal government in order to aid the crisis in Mexico because US emergency funding like FEMA must be spent inside of the US.

 

Reynosa Mayor: The NGOs are receiving money and they’re receiving money over here from the federal government, from USAID, and they’re actually, they haven’t been helping us in the last couple months because we told them a few times to not use the resources on this Plaza, but use them on the other center. Hopefully next time when they are receiving money they listen to where we are telling them.

 

Christa Cook: We woke up to this information and also that Roe v. Wade is possibly being repealed so it was a it was a lot it was a lot to wake up to. So first thing we did was we stopped by our storage unit on the US side and luckily Baby to Baby had just sent us a ton of hygiene donations which is particularly helpful in this instance because everyone just lost access to water so we were able to bring over a lot of baby wipes, hand sanitizer, blankets, things like that to start distributing. We are just now getting to the baseball field we passed by Senda just right now and there was I mean hundreds of people outside the Senda. Now we are at the baseball field there's a few hundred people out here Miguel said about 100 people have moved in they just didn't have anywhere to go so luckily we're gonna be able to drop off about 60 blankets a few 100 baby wipes and a shit ton of soap so we're coming with some supplies which is good. While we were distributing we just started talking to a lot of people to figure out what happened and this is what they said:

 

-Spanish interview-

 

Asylum Seeker: They arrived really quickly. It was all so fast, they said everyone needs to go to the Senda de Vida shelter with no explanations. When the commotion arrived we were told to leave to leave now, so obviously I also grabbed my backpack and I had to come with the crowd to the Senda de Vida and well here we are waiting for help. I heard of people that is the people who weren't there in the Plaza said we're leaving we're leaving and then everyone started to get rowdy. One agent took some people things others had to leave things behind. Some belongings were left where they were sleeping so seeing that everything was taken, obviously I also came to Senda because I was not going to stay there at the Plaza and that's how it happened. As we were leaving the police starting to show up and clean the Plaza going around and around and around. It all started around 10:00 PM that's what people began to arrive at Senda. Some by bus others must walk, yes that's it that's what we got to experience last night.

 

Christa Cook: So based off these interviews what we realized quickly was the biggest need was food so we started calling around local churches, huge shout out to Isaiah 55, to start collecting food donations.

 

Siobhan Merrill: Hey everyone just wanted to update everyone so basically Cindy's crossing 1000 tents this week plus a shit ton of blankets and a lot of food so we brought over 200 tents with Tucker and Cindy and her husband today but she asked our help to cross all the rest of it the rest of the week so just wanted to see if that's good with everyone if we help her out with that. Only reason I want to run it by is 'cause that means it's our gas money that's going into doing stuff that's not WASH so just wanted to check on that…

 

Christa Cook: Wednesday May 4th. Wednesday we crossed back again and distributed all the food donations that we had collected.

 

Chloe Rastatter: So on Wednesday we had gotten about half of the story figured out we talked to a lot of migrants and asylum seekers who were cleared from the Plaza but a lot of them were just as confused as we were about what happened and so luckily enough we already had a meeting scheduled with Pastor Hector who is the director of both Senda de Vida one Senda de Vida 2 and Jennifer Harbury of the Angry Tias and Abuelas and we have been working with the this collaboration you know this small team for months and months and months working towards the baseball field being opened and in the meeting we went to them for answers 'cause we were kind of like what the what the hell we don't have any electricity and we're not going to get any electricity and we kind of learned that Pastor Hector had really no choice but to open the the camp after the Plaza closure I remember he looked at us you know after he told us everything that had happened on Monday night he was like you know we just started having to bus people they called us and we started having to bus people to Senda de Vida because there was nowhere to go and you know there wasn't enough room in Senda de Vida 1 so we just put people in Senda de Vida 2 but but it's not ready and we were like Pastor Hector we know it's not ready.

 

Christa Cook: Keep in mind Senda de Vida 2 is the place that has no electricity at the time there were no tents so it was literally just a wall that was basically, and bathrooms, that had already been built.

 

Chloe Rastatter: So we met with Jennifer and Hector and basically made a game plan of what are the absolute base necessities. We need to figure out drinking water we need to figure out getting electricity that pumps to the WASH infrastructure that is consistently working. We need to figure out food and most importantly we need electricity and we put all of our heads together and were lucky enough to find a generator that a group down here was willing to loan us out that would have been sufficient enough to at least get us going as were working to get a solar microgrid. Unfortunately we couldn't get the generator across.

 

Christa Cook: We also were lucky enough to find somebody who donated a bus because Pastor Hector's bus is starting to have problems and you can see how important it is for him to have one when random times like this so that's still in the American side too we were not able to cross it.

 

Chloe Rastatter: And that brings us to Thursday.

 

Christa: Thursday May 5th.

 

Siobhan Merrill: Just some updates on everything going on in Reynosa so apparently the reason there's no one outside Senda 1 is because CBP flew like a giant drone, like two giant drones and a plane over them and so everyone scattered and I asked, I forget his name I think he works for public works or something, where they went and he was like I have no idea maybe the neighborhoods where they were renting houses and then basically there's like no water so he's gonna try and help us get some and right now we're kind of just figuring out what our options are so I'll keep you guys updated on what what more we find out.

 

Chloe Rastatter: Thursday morning we woke up and were planning to go to a meeting with Department of Homeland security DHS in Brownsville this meeting had already been planned. Initially this meeting with the DHS was supposed to be to talk about Title 42 because Title 42 which you've heard us talk about before the COVID border closure policy that has expelled over 1.7 million asylum seekers and migrants in the fiscal year of 2021 alone, is supposed to be lifted in a few weeks but this meeting really kind of turned into what can we do to support Senda 2 because we are beyond an emergency point. On Wednesday we had put our heads together with Hector Jennifer and Global Response Management to get this generator across we really thought that we had at least a temporary solution and we wake up on Thursday morning and get news that we can't cross this generator without paying really high taxes like $19,000 which none of the organizations have $19,000 right now for that. So the reason it $19,000 is it's a 19% tax when you cross anything into Mexico and this generator is about $100,000. We were hoping to be able to get this generator across without paying this tax through some of our connections and you know it's it's relatively normal to be able to cross humanitarian supplies untaxed but our request to cross this generator was formally declined and so we went to this meeting with the DHS and basically laid out the facts: that the baseball field or Senda 2 camp was forcibly opened on Monday night after the city of Reynosa along with the National Guard and other actors came into the Plaza without alerting any of the humanitarian actors who are managing the camp like Pastor Hector like Pastor Miguel like ourselves and forcibly closed the Plaza leaving there to be nowhere to go for hundreds of people. This all happened within a short timeline of us getting our federal electricity permit declined by the government. It had been communicated very clearly and multiple times over from the coalition that Senda de Vida 2 would not be able to be opened without addressing the electricity problem. One you just need it for basic operations and two this is one of the most dangerous if not the most dangerous neighborhood in all Reynosa, we need to have electricity access in this area regardless of even hours before the camp being closed you know messages being sent to everybody reminding them that the camp cannot be opened without electricity. There were hundreds of people living with either outside of Senda de Vida 1 or 2 or inside without shelter, without water, without electricity, because we were not ready. We had worked incredibly hard to get this generator lined up as like a backup solution just to find out Thursday morning that our request to cross it was declined. We told the DHS people how we have been working on this for months how it is absolutely critical to camp operations and how the solution that we had proposed had been formally declined the DHS told us that they they made it seem like it was going to be a really really high priority you know thousands of people without having electricity in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods as a result of their policies you know you would think that they wouldn't be able to connect us to people to help us get this generator across and the focal point of the meeting really turned from Title 42 to getting this generator across. It was with a lot of different humanitarian actors and all of them are like we need to get the generator across, we need to address this.

 

Christa Cook: OK yeah we just went to the DHS meeting and Chloe brought up to them during this meeting basically that that what happened with the generator you know that the Plaza got closed and moved a lot of people you know were kind of moved to a location with no electricity and then we tried to cross this generator and we got denied and so we're gonna follow up with them and see if they can help us they said in the meeting that they will try to help us they said it's out of their realm which is true but that they probably have connections somewhere and then can hopefully get this brought up to somebody else.

 

Chloe Rastatter: They did seem like relatively like pretty concerned about it I do think they're actually gonna bring it up we're gonna send an email to two different people and they said they were gonna make a list for who they were going to forward this issue to so hopefully they're gonna. We're gonna try to ask them to figure out how to get a permit for electricity so it's not just the generator and we'll see if they can connect us to their like get connected to the right people or not.

 

Christa Cook: There's quite a few other updates I have a bunch of notes written down so if you wanna know something more specifically let me know but that's really the only update that concerns us directly…

 

Chloe Rastatter: And so the representatives of DHS gave us their cards and told us to email them you know told us they would do everything they can to get this to the right people for us to be able to get this crossed or to get money to cross it. So this meeting happened last Thursday the 5th, today is Wednesday the 11th, and we still have gotten no response from anyone within the DHS connecting us to kind of next steps and so we're kind of left on our own.

 

Christa Cook: So this generator and the bus are literally just sitting in front of my house unused at the moment and major thank you to the Footprint Project for working with us to design a solar microgrid and replacement for the grid connection to the city. It is incredibly incredibly important and so we are working on getting a solar grid but as of now we're kind of gridlocked you know the the city and the actors alongside the city closed the Plaza knowing that we didn't have electricity and did not communicate and did not have a backup plan for us for this electricity.

 

Siobhan Merrill: So something I just saw that is new as of I'm assuming the Plaza close, is I just saw probably like 50 people maybe 75 people walking along that back road near the river all looking like they just got deported so no shoelaces with bags in their hands. I'm assuming all just walking to Senda slash Senda 2 and I mean I don't think they're gonna get let in so just proof that like at least 50 people a day you know are gonna end up over that way as well.

 

Christa Cook: So while Chloe and I were meeting with the DHS on Thursday the other half of our field team went to Reynosa to distribute 2700 bottles of water, tons of toilet paper, hygiene supplies they also helped coordinate crossing tents which is incredibly important because all the tents in the Plaza had been bulldozed so all the supplies and work that had gone into the Plaza were gone so it was extremely important to get emergency shelter and water to people so that is what our field team was doing on Thursday.

 

Chloe Rastatter: So that brings us to Friday.

 

Christa Cook: Friday May 6th.

 

Chloe Rastatter: Friday was kind of a regrouping day with Jennifer, Hector, Pastor Miguel (Pastor Hector’s right hand man) and us because it became pretty clear after the meeting with the DHS that we likely weren’t going to find a solution for getting this large generator over so we needed to make a plan you know third times the charm fourth times a charm, let's make a plan to get at least electricity to run the fridges and the WASH infrastructure. Luckily we already have lights so lights aren't a problem but all other electrical accesses are a problem and we you know it was one of those days where Solidarity you know just kind of ran into all the right people at the right time because as all of this is happening and all these changes are going on you have to remember the context that we're at. It is hundreds of people are outside these shelters outside of Senda de Vida 1, outside of Senda de Vida 2 and if you walk outside the wall you're probably gonna have three or four people coming up to you telling you they have nowhere to go they don't know what to do how can you help them when is the camp gonna be open and it wasn't till Friday did we even kind of have an idea of what to do next 'cause we were you know 17 steps behind. It was just the absolute emergency response of let's give out bottled water and let's try to get some tents and then figure it out from there and so Friday was the first day that we were able to really realistically regroup and sit down and look at the facts together because a lot has happened but when you really narrow it down what it looks like is hundreds of people outside with nowhere to go, more people coming up migrating to the US Mexico border, little access to resources. Outside of the camps there are there's no bathrooms no water no food no shelter at least with inside the walls you have somewhat protection and you know we've been working alongside MSF all week as well to get water moved in to both Senda de Vida 1 and Senda de Vida 2 because Senda de Vida 1 is suddenly way over capacity not nearly enough food and water for the population even though there was you know just a week ago and so we started meeting with everybody and kind of made a next plan, next steps to get everything open but there's a lot of needs. We have the bathrooms more or less running right now and we have water from MSF all the tanks are in. I don't know about food.

 

Jennifer Harbury: Alright food, we are finalizing who can do it just temporarily like bring sandwiches while we deal with registration and everything 'cause it's gonna be too crazy to expect people to just walk in and organize kitchens and stuff and I don't think we yet have the industrialized size stove and pots and pans so I know that pastor John's mother Dorita, pastor Dorita, said that she knows how to make like 3000 sandwiches with her church group. She has done it before, and Lulu did it before for the 700. She can’t do it now but she could tell us how to do it or help us find someone. Did you say someone named Martin knew somebody who could help if we paid them?

 

Chloe Rastatter: Can ask around, he's from Reynosa  I helped him so now that we know that something we can send him a message yeah quickly.

 

Jennifer Harbury: And maybe Dorine that would do the whole thing I mean that would crash her pretty badly for a couple of weeks but she's been wonderful about jumping right in and running around with me and buying them emergency stuff and everything so it's really nice to work with, she's like Miguel and Johanna right just like what you need OK let's go.

 

Chloe Rastatter: So yeah that food is I think the I don't know what else.

 

Jennifer Harbury: So there's food then we brought over the toilet paper a lot of toilet paper.

 

Chloe Rastatter: Yeah we are working on that.

 

Jennifer Harbury: Yeah cleaning it's gonna be super important and then tents I don't know how many tents are over there right now.

 

Chloe Rastatter: OK I think that my standing of like next steps is we just need to set up the tents and once the tents are set up we can move people and it's not gonna be ideal but it's gonna be better than it's not on the street it's like they are now.

 

Jennifer Harbury: No I mean we cannot if they're on the streets they're getting kidnapped and there's gonna be a typhoid or typhoid type you know one of those kinds of diseases that's gonna break out if we leave them in the streets much longer.

 

Chloe Rastatter: Yeah and that's what MSF told us yesterday about a problem like open defecation outside.

 

Jennifer Harbury: Typhoid is coming, that's almost guaranteed.

 

Chloe Rastatter: So we I think we are basically ready, I mean, a lot of things are going to have to be-

 

Jennifer Harbury: Ready enough.

 

Chloe Rastatter: Ready enough.

 

Jennifer Harbury: If there's running water so they can wash hands, get a shower and use a running water toilet we're OK.

 

Chloe Rastatter: I think that base the base is set up and you know were just gonna be multiple steps behind for a while right now like we got pretty screwed over by everything.

 

Jennifer Harbury: To say the least!

 

Christa Cook: So because this informal refugee camp, the Plaza, shut down so unexpectedly we didn't have time to prepare, to have people move in to Senda 2 you as you've heard. Along with that, all the systems that we had set up had been dismantled in the course of one night so we no longer had a way to distribute goods because before we were distributing hygiene supplies via something called the hygiene free store, basically where the asylum seekers themselves were in charge of this this essentially tent filled with hygiene supplies. But all those asylum seekers have been scattered so we no longer had a way to distribute things. Also all of the porta potties that we had in the Plaza had also been removed so that led to open defecation since there's so many people waiting outside of Senda 1 and Senda 2 with no place to go and nowhere to go they they started going outside and even within the walls of of Senda 1 there's been so much confusion and chaos that it has been very hard to keep the area clean because there's been so many more people there there's no longer enough water for everybody. Since there has been such an influx of people at Senda 1 that all the water has now been prioritized for showering and for drinking there's now not enough water to clean so the bathrooms at Senda are starting to get really gross and unhygienic as well. So all of these systems: the hygiene freestore, the cleaning of the bathrooms at Senda 1, the porta potties themselves, all these systems we had been working for months to be able to maintain people's hygiene needs had fallen apart over the course of one night so we've been trying to figure out how to rebuild, how to distribute goods, how to make sure there's enough water to clean with, how to make sure there's access to bathrooms. So that Friday was a big planning date for that.

 

Chloe Rastatter: How toilet paper worked in the past in Senda is doing big bulk donations so everyone has their own role. I think if we start providing toilet paper for Senda 1 and or 2 we should ask them we should basically make a little hygiene team and have them distribute it at the front of the door like it was the Plaza and also in Matamoros it's really the only way to make sure that it's kind of what's the word rationed and distributed more equitably.

And I think you know before we close out this is an excellent time to remind everybody that this is happening directly across our own border and it is directly due to our inhumane border policies. I think a lot of Americans don't realize how dire the situation is that is being caused by Title 42 and it is just getting worse and worse by the day and it's really small organizations with very little funding who are responding to this. I mean it's crazy when we talk to government officials and even they don't know that all of the responses are being funded by independent humanitarian actors, by GoFundMes by PayPal donations. It is something that, you know might not be in our media as much as it was you know a few years ago but the problem has just gotten worse by the day and the need for humane response and dignified laws has just grown exponentially and will continue to grow exponentially as the pandemic continues to exacerbate inequalities. As climate change continues to force people out of their homes, we need sustainable solutions. This camp closure was exhausting. We’re exhausted.

 

Christa Cook: And imagine the asylum seekers themselves they must be 10 times more exhausted than us.

 

Chloe Rastatter: They must be 10 times, they must be absolutely exhausted, and you know the response is very small. On Friday as there is you know hundreds of people on the streets there were three Americans who were actively working to try to get the  camp opened ASAP just because there's not that many people here.

 

Christa Cook: I think another thing I would like to point out is you know at this point it's become a pattern: show up to the border wait a year maybe you can cross we saw it in Matamoros we saw it even in Tijuana few months ago we're seeing it here and this is never a policy that was ever written nobody said no policy was ever written that said OK show up to the border wait a year in a refugee camp and then you can cross but that is the pattern that work that is starting to emerge within the American immigration system so it almost makes you think is this the new the new American immigration system because that is the pattern that we're seeing even though that is not the policy that's been written.

 

Chloe Rastatter: So with that we really really really are asking for donations whether it's $5 or $500 the need right now in Reynosa is massive. You can donate to us through our website solidarityengineering.org you can subscribe to our Patreon solidarity engineering and for more updated news please follow our Instagram we're working on being better about regularly updating but you know as you can hear things have been so crazy and that is why we're a little bit behind on the podcast so if you're interested on more if you are interested in getting more regular updates follow us there. So we have been incredibly incredibly impressed and grateful for the combined response that all the organizations and a lot of individuals have had together in the Rio Grande Valley to respond to this huge emergency crisis so with that thank you to Thomas Tucker, John Salazaar, Lara Benitez, Joe Salter, Siobhan Merrill, Wesley Howard Ansel Shugart Schmidt, Erin Hughes, everyone else who has been helpful to our solidarity engineering team all the local Mexican pastors the angry Tias and Abuelas of the Rio Grande Valley, Global Response Management, Doctors Without Borders, the Sidewalks School, Baby to Baby, and all the advocates who have been fighting the litigation battle: American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU, Texas civil rights project and everybody else involved in you know trying to make a more humane border than what we're seeing today.

 

Christa Cook: This podcast has been produced by Chloe Rastatter and Christa Cook.

 

Chloe Rastatter: Catch us next week and again –

 

Christa: Next week, girl, we aint having it next week

 

Chloe Rastatter: Yeah catch us next time and in the meantime please consider following our social media, donating to the cause and reviewing and sharing our podcast.

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