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The city of Matamoros, Mexico, sits directly across the border from Brownsville, Tex. Over 2,500
people have gathered there since the Trump administration rolled out the “Remain in Mexico” policy,
in a squalid encampment along the U.S.-Mexico border, while they wait for their asylum hearings.
They live in cramped, unsanitary quarters — some in tents, others in makeshift shelters — without
electricity or running water. They are increasingly susceptible to respiratory illness and
malnutrition.

On April 1, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Executive Office for Immigration
Review announced that they would be postponing all hearings because of the coronavirus outbreak.
They live in constant threat of the virus, all for exercising their human right to claim asylum.

Volunteers and nonprofit groups have all but vanished. UNICEF left. Doctors Without Borders still
offers some services, but Global Response Management, an international nonprofit organization, is
the only consistent presence. Its volunteer doctors, nurses and medics, in some cases asylum
seekers, have been doing their best.

But the agency’s best is limited to distributing vitamins, masks and moving tents apart. Under
normal circumstances, if you can call any of this normal, doctors and nurses can’t do much aside
from tending to a wound that requires stitches, and diagnosing strep throat or the flu. They aren’t
able to get tests to diagnose Covid-19.

The executive director of G.R.M., who is a nurse, reports that within the camp there were five
patients with Covid-19 symptoms. The agency reported these to local authorities but were refused
testing. It asked that these migrants be taken away from the camp to nearby hotels, but Mexican
immigration authorities have not authorized the move.
Matamoros is the second largest city in the state of Tamaulipas, with a population of over 520,000.
While there are no confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the camps, there are some eight confirmed cases in
the city. People with mild or moderate cases could be quarantined in their tents and more severe
cases sent to local hospitals. But, according to G.R.M., the city’s five public hospitals have 10
ventilators and 40 intensive care unit beds between them. An outbreak would be catastrophic.

Mexico has been slow to react to the coronavirus threat. In mid-March, President Andres Manuel
López Obrador told reporters, “I have faith that we’re going to move our dear Mexico forward, that
these misfortunes, pandemics will not harm us.” He has defiantly kissed and hugged supporters at
recent events. Mexico has reported at least 4,219 cases of Covid-19 and 273 deaths. Medical workers
have protested against the lack of protective gear.

Western news organizations are abuzz with worry over migrants on our southern border. They fret
over what will happen if an outbreak were to erupt in the camp. But the plight of the migrants is
nothing but a morbid concern. We’re treated to images, taken from helicopters, of bodies lying on top
of each other, swollen by the sun, and drowned children and their parents, embracing. It’s the classic
voyeuristic Jonestown footage. This is a mass killing of vulnerable people of color, preyed on because
they dreamed of a better life. Despite the worry now about the asylum-seekers in Matamoros, no one
is rushing to help them. People are just rushing to read about this impending mass grave.

As the mounting toll of the coronavirus comes into view, it’s clear that migrants around the world are
among the most vulnerable. They often lack health insurance, struggle to make ends meet and are
often in poor health. They don’t have the luxury or the freedom to socially distance themselves from
others. The undocumented men and women in our communities are on the front lines — often with
no protective equipment or safety net — risking their lives to do the jobs most Americans won’t.
They are disinfecting hospitals and doctors’ offices, delivering your food and taking care of your
elderly relatives.

President Trump believes the medical community’s insistence on quarantine is a conspiracy to

destroy his presidency. My parents are among the aging, immunocompromised and undocumented
in New York City. If they get sick, they will die. The Trump administration will not help us. We
migrants, on the border, or here in New York, are left to fend for ourselves.
Do you know about crows? As an undocumented migrant, I’ve always felt an affinity for them.
Research has shown that they are as smart as a 7-year-old child. And yet, they are considered pests,
undesirable birds, by most. People shoot them, or lay down barbed wire so they will not roost. If you
hurt a crow, and it gets a good look at your face, generations of that crow flock could swoop and
swerve and attack you. Crows never forget if you hurt them or one of their own.

As one of the fulfilled prophecies of the American dream, I’ve earned the right to foretell one. If the
American and Mexican governments let us die en masse, we will haunt your children, and your
children’s children, and their children too. They will never sleep in peace, and they will come to know
our names.

Christopher Lee is a photographer. Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (@kcornejov) is the author of “The Undocumented Americans.”

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