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'Don't risk your lives': Wave of solidarity helps migrants at the US border

Migrants await at the US-Mexico border, February 2025.
Migrants await at the US-Mexico border, February 2025. Copyright  AP Photo
Copyright AP Photo
By Euronews
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More than 4,000 immigrants have been deported from the US this year as Trump intensifies his crackdown with mass deportations. In response, aid groups are helping undocumented migrants at border crossings.

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It was one of his big campaign promises, and he has kept it. US President Donald Trump took less than 24 hours to approve the first deportations of migrants.

Two weeks have passed since his return to the White House and the signing of executive orders, in this time, more than 4,745 people have been deported. In addition, there have been some 8,000 arrests across the US.

Trump has made it clear that his administration is against illegal immigration in order to favour those who enter the country legally.

But illegal immigration isn't a new issue. Obama expelled nearly 3 million migrants, George W Bush deported 2 million, while Trump expelled 1.19 million migrants during his four years as president.

The number of people living illegally in the US reaches about 11 million out of an estimated population of 340 million, according to the American Community Survey.

Chaos at the US-Mexico border

Beyond those who have been expelled, there has been chaos at the border. Mexico has deployed 10,000 troops in the area. The US has also sent in the army.

The wall has been reinforced with more barbed wire, and thousands of migrants hoping to enter the land of the free are now in legal limbo with no apparent solution.

"They don’t know what to do. Many people are in limbo because they have no immigration documents, no money, no jobs, and they don’t know the city," said Gladys Cañas, president of the Asociación Ayúdanos a Triunfar, which provides humanitarian assistance to migrants on the border in Tamaulipas.

Yet even in the face of desperation, hope persists, and thousands of people crowd the other side of the wall with the dream of gaining access to the US.

"Don't risk your lives," Cañas tells a group planning to swim across the Rio Bravo river that separates the two countries where at least 1,107 migrants have drowned since 2017.

'Their frustration keeps growing'

"Their sadness, their despair, their frustration keeps growing." Cañas told Euronews, saying she witnessed the pain of these people who no longer even know what to do every day.

The only thing that is clear to them is that they need to improve their future, something they cannot achieve in their countries of origin, she explained.

With a tired voice and teary-eyed, a young anonymous immigrant assures us at the border that he wants to "fight for as long as I can, until another door or window opens, and work (in the US)".

He is not the only one who refuses to give up on his idea of entering the country. "I would like to work here, live here ... buy a house to live here", says another.

But their optimistic dreams contrast with harsh scenes of disillusionment.

"Every day you hear desperate cries, people crying. The situation they find themselves in on this border of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, is one of tears ... They don't really have a plan B," Cañas explained.

Cañas now dedicates her life to helping people and organises supplies and humanitarian assistance deliveries. "We bring them food, water, toiletries, quilts and anything else that could help them to be in dignity on both international bridges."

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