'Work that never ends': the lawyers fighting for migrants stuck at the border
Al Otro Lado helps asylum seekers navigate a system that has become increasingly difficult under the Trump administration
The El Chaparral crossing from Tijuana, Mexico, into the US is the crossroads of the world. Sisters from El Salvador plait one another’s hair; men from Cameroon await an asylum hearing on the far side. Iranians play dice; a father from Brazil buys his child a taco from a street stand with carefully counted coins.
Groups of young Americans also converge carrying armfuls of papers. They are also migrants of a sort: they have come from all over the US to volunteer for a remarkable organisation called Al Otro Lado – To the Other Side.
As the Trump administration turns the screw on migrants – refusing to accommodate those awaiting asylum interviews as law requires – these people, their counsel and sustenance to those in flight
