After interviewing people wishing to immigrate to the United States in Ciudad Juarez, northern Mexico, I walked across the bridge across the U.S. border and returned to El Paso. The bridge has a driveway and a sidewalk, and pedestrians pay 40 cents (about 60 yen) per person.
People crossing the bridge on the US-Mexico border
If you walk halfway up the bridge, you can look down on the Rio Grande River that separates the two countries. A little further away on the U.S. side is the approximately 9-meter-tall “border wall” that former President Trump ordered to be built. According to US media, more than 200 illegal border crossers in El Paso have suffered broken legs and head injuries while trying to climb over the wall in recent years. There have been numerous reports of people smuggling people setting up ladders on the Mexican side and forcing them to climb up the wall and fall onto the US side.
There is no shortage of would-be immigrants from Central and South America who are willing to risk their lives to smuggle themselves into the United States in hopes of living in the United States. For those without passports, the 40-cent toll bridge is probably too far away for them to cross even if they wanted to.
On the Mexican side of the river, a man who appeared to be a hopeful immigrant was waving and shouting something. I couldn’t hear him, but he seemed to be saying, “Please take me too.” (Toshinori Asai, photos also)
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2023-12-25 21:00:00
