In 2023-24 the US southern border with Mexico was processing record numbers of asylum seekers when our research team conducted interviews with migrants, service providers and officials on both sides of the border. The lower Rio Grande Valley, in southern Texas, is a dynamic binational border space of cities and farms where some 2.7 million people reside. In this border region products, people and contraband regularly move in both directions. Increased securitization over the last two decades has made the movement of migrants and asylum seekers at the southern border more difficult but also formalized in response to policy shifts. This photo essay shows the journey of asylum seekers from Latin America and other parts of the world as they gather in Mexico and seek access to the United States. Due to the numerous policy changes, delays, and securitization efforts by the US and Mexico, a complex array of infrastructure and institutions have formed that both hinder and support migrant progress in the Rio Grande Valley border region. Most of the migrants we spoke with were from Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. In addition to navigating shifting immigration policy and security forces in Mexico and the US, migrants also faced threats of extortion, kidnapping, hunger, and violence.
Figure 1. Migrants at a camp in Matamoros, Mexico line up to receive donations of rice, pasta and canned tuna from a pastor. Local organizations truck in drinking water, and donations of diapers and clothing also are delivered. The size of the camp on any given day can fluctuate from dozens of people to several hundred. Most of the migrants are in family groups with small children waiting for their appointment to cross the border.
Figure 2. Makeshift camps form in the borderlands as migrants wait for their appointments to enter the US or consider crossing without authorization. This camp on the shore of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo in Matamoros, Mexico is a short walk to the international bridge into Brownsville, Texas. Tents, tarps, hammocks, cook stoves and plastic water containers are essential elements. Migrants could stay here for days or weeks.
Figure 3. Other migrants stay in shelters, supported by religious and civil society. Casa del Migrante Matamoros is a civil association with Catholic foundations that works to defend the human rights of migrants and refugees. The shelter provides temporary accommodation, food and clothing, medical, psychological and social care, and legal guidance on asylum in the United States.
Figure 4. Typically filled with families, student volunteers lead a Lotería activity (a traditional Mexican game of chance, similar to bingo) for migrant children and mothers at the Casa del Migrante shelter in Matamoros, Mexico to help pass the time.
Figure 5. Other shelters are run by religious groups. Senda de Vida (Path of Life) Shelter in Reynosa, Mexico serves asylum seekers. Here migrants gather in prayer in the shelter’s church. The emotional and physical toll of the journey demands fortitude, often grounded in migrants’ Christian faith.
Figure 6. Through the CPB One application that migrants accessed from their cell phones, a date and time is given to cross the border. Typically, migrants prepare for this important event by visiting the informal barber shops in shelters and camps. A young boy gets a haircut at Senda de Vida shelter in Reynosa, Mexico.
Figure 7. Due to a high demand for shelter, Senda de Vida was building additional housing for migrants in 2024.
Figure 8. People wait in an enclosed walkway on the international bridge between the US and Mexico after leaving Reynosa, Mexico before entering the US in Hidalgo, Texas. This was the last stop before entering the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) checkpoint at the other end of the bridge. The line on the right was for non-citizens and the line on the left was for U.S. citizens.
Figure 9. The international border between the US and Mexico in the lower Rio Grande Valley is defined by the river, which makes wall building challenging. For many years, there were no walls, only checkpoints and patrols. Wall-building intensified over the last two decades as a means to reduce unauthorized entry of migrants. Most of the walls are built on levies, often several kilometers from the river. The map distinguishes border walls built during the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations in the Texas counties of Starr, Hidalgo, and Cameron. Each administration cited national security as the rationale for building this expensive infrastructure. Ironically, there are farms and communities in the US that are south of the wall.
Figure 10. A newly constructed levee and wall near Mission, Texas. Wall heights also vary by administration. This wall built during the Biden administration has closely spaced light and motion sensors but is not difficult to climb.
Figure 11. A taller, discontinuous border wall with a gate, stadium lights and an abandoned ladder used by migrants to scale the wall near Mission, Texas. This wall was built during the first Trump administration.
Figure 12. The view from Orilla del Rio Bravo Park in Matamoros, Mexico where informal shelters were set up for migrants waiting for their CPB One appointments to cross into the US. Layers of razor and concertina wire were placed to prevent migrants from crossing this section of the Rio Grande River (called the Rio Bravo in Mexico). At the time this photo was taken, CBP Agents and National Guard were stationed on the US side of the border.
Figure 13. The Department of Homeland Security funds border wall construction, including the installation of fixed and portable stadium lights. Considered a deterrent to illegal migrant crossing, these lights cause severe light pollution in areas of the southern border and also pose a significant threat to migratory birds and other wildlife.
Figure 14. In 2018, private wall construction via donations and a GoFundMe campaign began directly along the Rio Grande River near the National Butterfly Center (a conservation organization that was fighting wall construction across its property). This crudely designed bridge is in danger of collapsing. Meanwhile, the builder has admitted that he defrauded donors and diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars of their money into his personal account.
Figure 15. The securitization of the lower Rio Grande Valley has intensified as various administrations pushed to stop the flow of migrants and asylum seekers entering the US without authorization. Yet this border region is also a semi-tropical area that attracts tourists escaping the northern winters as well as bird watchers and naturalists. Here is a Texas tour boat with a view of Mexico in the background.
Figure 16. A banner welcoming migrants to the US hangs in Team Brownsville’s reception center in downtown Brownsville. Team Brownsville is a civil society organization run by volunteers. Migrants receive advice on the next steps of their journey as well as basic supplies here. The center is across the street from the bus stop. In the background, members of the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR) interviews new arrivals for work permits.
Figure 17. Undocumented migrants were typically ordered to remove their shoelaces and jewelry before being taken into custody. They were only allowed to carry their passports and cash when taken to a detention facility. Organizations like Team Brownsville provide migrants and asylum seekers with replacement shoelaces, other toiletries and snacks.
Figure 18. Statue of the Virgin Mary at the Ozanam Center in Brownsville, Texas garlanded with rosaries by grateful migrants who had successfully crossed into the US.
Figure 19. Many of the migrants let into the US at the southern border were traveling in family groups with small children. One of the most requested items at shelters were diapers and wipes. This photo is of volunteers packing diapers for migrants in a warehouse in McAllen, Texas.
Figure 20. The border towns in Texas that receive migrants are “pass through” settlements, as migrants usually only stop here for a few days before moving on to another destination in the US. Travel bags with necessities are provided by Catholic Charities to migrants leaving McAllen by bus or air.
Figure 21. Asylum seekers are sometimes monitored using electronic bracelets to prevent them from absconding and melting into American society. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement use these to keep track of them between court dates.
Figure 22. The white and green border patrol vehicles are ubiquitous on the US side of the border. In this image CBP in McAllen are deporting people to Reynosa, Mexico across the bridge. While many migrants arrive seeking asylum and an opportunity for a better life, many journeys end in removal. Even those who are allowed into the country are given only a temporary status that allows them to begin the long legal process to request asylum.
This research was made possible through a grant by the National Science Foundation #2222327 – Geographies of Migration and (In)Security at the US-Mexican Border. Student travel was also supported by the Campbell Graduate Student Research Grant and the Joseph Dymond Undergraduate Research Grant from the Department of Geography at The George Washington University.