As the current administration demands a [new] border wall and more security to stop the “influx” of undocumented immigrants, the number of migrants crossing the border is historically low. According to US Customs and Border Protection, last year they made almost 304-thousand apprehensions, a dramatic difference from almost 860-thousand a decade ago. Since then, border crossings have reached nowhere near that same amount. Many Mexicans are still moving, just not to the U.S.
Internal migration in Mexico is a decades-old practice. People have moved to different cities and states for work, education, family, safety, and other opportunities that their home state is lacking or doesn’t provide enough of. Many of these internal migrants move from southern states such as Oaxaca, Veracruz, and Chiapas and come north to the border states of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamualipas. Often settling in the metropolitan border cities of Juarez, Nogales, and Tijuana.
These videos focus on the cities of Nogales, Sonora, and Juarez, Chihuahua, two of the three largest cities bordering the U.S. Migrants from all over Mexico are calling these cities home and creating networks of their own as they establish new roots… without crossing the border.
*Nogales and Juarez are featured below.
*Juarez was completed with the help of two fixers: Jose Luis Gonzalez and Pablo Hernandez. Without them, this work would not have been possible. Thank you.