17th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest People
Seeking Asylum
Taken at the San Ysidro border, this picture depicts a mother and her child within 500 feet of the U.S. border in Tijuana. After travelling over 2,700 miles from Honduras, migrants had been placed by Mexican officials into a makeshift shelter in a converted open-air sports arena. They awoke hungry on Thanksgiving Day, as rain worsened the unsanitary conditions in the already-packed shelter. Migrants then walked to the border, attempting to present themselves as asylum seekers to the US immigration authorities, but instead were met with a human barrier formed by Mexican police blocking the pedestrian walkway. Municipal authorities in Tijuana have said they are unequipped to handle the growing numbers of refugees seeking asylum both in the United States and Mexico. The latest numbers have 6,219 migrants based in Tijuana with an additional 1,669 migrants trekking toward Baja California from the Mexican states of Jalisco, Nayarit, and Sinaloa.
Photo Detail
Date Taken: |
11.2018 |
Date Uploaded: |
06.2019 |
Photo Location: |
Tijuana, Mexico |
Camera: |
NIKON D810 |
Copyright: |
© Ada Trillo |
Awards