Philanthropy responds to COVID-19 in the Borderlands.
Updated:: July 9, 2020
Borderland Foundations secure over US$58 million
to support families and communities impacted by COVID 19.
to support families and communities impacted by COVID 19.
Since our last newsletter, community foundations from San Diego to San Antonio have secured an additional US$11 million dollars to support COVID 19 relief programs. The generous spirit of Individual donors, small businesses, large corporations, donor advised funds, as well as local, regional, and state governments has responded forcefully to this pandemic. As of today, US$58 million dollars has been donated to support families, communities, nonprofit organizations, small businesses, and more. Click on the links below to see how these BPP member agencies are responding locally to help those most in need. Want to make a contribution? Select the organization nearest you and support their efforts. Need help for your nonprofit organization? Contact the foundation in your area to see how you may qualify for a grant or nonprofit loan.
In California, The San Diego Foundation, San Diego Gas & Electric, Alliance Healthcare Foundation, and United Way of San Diego County joined forces to support families in need and the local nonprofit sector with donations from local partners and donors to create the San Diego COVID-19 Community Response Fund. The International Community Foundation has established a new fund to support outreach activities in Mexico. San Diego Grantmakers is working with the City of San Diego to design and implement the City's Small Business Relief and Support Grant Program with a unique equity lens. The US-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership is able to assist you with fiscal agency support and can receive and distribute charitable donations on your behalf, as well as support in-kind gifts to the other side of the border.
In Arizona, the Arizona Community Foundation and their affiliate network established an emergency fund to support nonprofits responding to the Coronavirus and are raising and disbursing funds across the State. They also launched a new fund to support Latino-owned businesses. The Community Foundation for Southern Arizona crafted a community resource guide that is updated daily and has opened a new fund to provide grants and loans to support nonprofit organizations serving the local community.
In New Mexico, the Santa Fe Community Foundation launched the COVID-19 Response Fund to address critical gaps in food security and income during this unprecedented time. The Con Alma Health Foundation continues to be engaged and is providing key information resources as well as health related grants to agencies across the State. The Community Foundation for Southern New Mexico has opened an emergency fund to support nonprofits.
In Texas, the El Paso Community Foundation created the Coronavirus Fund to help people, and nonprofits in the local community deal with the financial pressures brought on by the pandemic. El Paso Community Foundation, FECHAC, and Desarrollo Económico also recently partnered on the UNIDOS Fund to secure additional PPE for hospital workers in Cd. Juarez. The Paso del Norte Health Foundation created the El Paso COVID-19 information hub, and the Paso del Norte Community Foundation is partnering with United Way of El Paso to support the El Paso COVID -19 Response Fund to support nonprofit organizations serving the most vulnerable in the community including the homeless and elderly. The San Antonio Area Foundation, United Way of San Antonio and Bexar Counties, and multiple partners have unveiled the COVID-19 Response Fund to support local nonprofits serving the economically vulnerable.
Please consider supporting one of these local funds established to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Your gift joins thousands of others working to build a safe and resilient community in the Borderlands.
In California, The San Diego Foundation, San Diego Gas & Electric, Alliance Healthcare Foundation, and United Way of San Diego County joined forces to support families in need and the local nonprofit sector with donations from local partners and donors to create the San Diego COVID-19 Community Response Fund. The International Community Foundation has established a new fund to support outreach activities in Mexico. San Diego Grantmakers is working with the City of San Diego to design and implement the City's Small Business Relief and Support Grant Program with a unique equity lens. The US-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership is able to assist you with fiscal agency support and can receive and distribute charitable donations on your behalf, as well as support in-kind gifts to the other side of the border.
In Arizona, the Arizona Community Foundation and their affiliate network established an emergency fund to support nonprofits responding to the Coronavirus and are raising and disbursing funds across the State. They also launched a new fund to support Latino-owned businesses. The Community Foundation for Southern Arizona crafted a community resource guide that is updated daily and has opened a new fund to provide grants and loans to support nonprofit organizations serving the local community.
In New Mexico, the Santa Fe Community Foundation launched the COVID-19 Response Fund to address critical gaps in food security and income during this unprecedented time. The Con Alma Health Foundation continues to be engaged and is providing key information resources as well as health related grants to agencies across the State. The Community Foundation for Southern New Mexico has opened an emergency fund to support nonprofits.
In Texas, the El Paso Community Foundation created the Coronavirus Fund to help people, and nonprofits in the local community deal with the financial pressures brought on by the pandemic. El Paso Community Foundation, FECHAC, and Desarrollo Económico also recently partnered on the UNIDOS Fund to secure additional PPE for hospital workers in Cd. Juarez. The Paso del Norte Health Foundation created the El Paso COVID-19 information hub, and the Paso del Norte Community Foundation is partnering with United Way of El Paso to support the El Paso COVID -19 Response Fund to support nonprofit organizations serving the most vulnerable in the community including the homeless and elderly. The San Antonio Area Foundation, United Way of San Antonio and Bexar Counties, and multiple partners have unveiled the COVID-19 Response Fund to support local nonprofits serving the economically vulnerable.
Please consider supporting one of these local funds established to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Your gift joins thousands of others working to build a safe and resilient community in the Borderlands.
Published: July 9, 2020
Special Report: As cases surge, California struggles to slow COVID-19 in Latino communities. Gov. Gavin Newsom calls them the unsung heroes of the California economy in dangerous times. They are the workers, many of them Latino, who can't afford to shelter in place. They harvest crops, work shoulder to shoulder in factories, prep food in restaurant kitchens and put roofs on houses. Yet until recently, few local public health officers and experts in California focused on another fact about that group: Latinos of working age are getting sick and dying from the coronavirus in disproportionately high numbers. Now, the alarm bell has sounded. After virus testing sites branched out to more diverse communities in recent weeks, the grim severity of the situation is clear. "We have failed our under-served communities," said David Lubarsky, chief executive officer for UC Davis Health, speaking of the overall response to date to the pandemic. UC Davis partnered with Sacramento County and community groups such as La Familia on recent testing in more neighborhoods of color that... (read more)
Between borders. From a doctor stranded in Ciudad Juárez to a shelter closed after an outbreak, COVID-19 is hitting hard along the Texas-Mexico border. Leer en español. This is Part 1 of COVID-19 in the Immigration Pipeline-a series supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, published by the Texas Observer in collaboration with the Border Center for Journalists and Bloggers. When news of the pandemic arrived, D.T. found herself locked in a cell on the U.S. side of the Paso del Norte bridge more than 1,700 miles from home, pregnant and desperate. The 26-year-old had fled Havana, Cuba in July 2019 to seek asylum after being labeled a dissident and beaten by police. Inside the cell, she began suffering abdominal pains. Perhaps they came from injuries suffered in the most violent of two attacks she'd endured during long months waiting in Ciudad Juárez for her asylum claim to be considered by a U.S. immigration judge. Two other pregnant women shared her cell in March-one looked like she could give birth any minute. D.T., a physician as well as an asylum-seeker, examined their bulging bellies and worried: "Can you imagine... (read more)
People with coronavirus are crossing the US-Mexico border for medical care. Chris Van Gorder says he's seeing a telling trend in the hospitals he runs. Coronavirus patients are showing up in emergency rooms after calling 911 from the US-Mexico border. "They'll literally come to the border and call an ambulance," says Van Gorder, president and CEO of Scripps Health, a hospital system in southern California. The rise in ambulance traffic from the border, which several officials described to CNN, is a symptom of the pandemic's spread in the region -- and a sign of the many connections between communities in both countries. "There just is not a wall for viruses at the border," says Josiah Heyman, director of the Center for Inter-American and Border Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso. "The wall is an illusion, because the two sides are really woven together." An increase in cross-border coronavirus cases, which... (read more)
Published: June 25, 2020
What's behind a COVID-19 spike in Imperial County. In late March, Imperial County had just nine confirmed cases of COVID-19, and the head of the largest hospital there thought his community had dodged a bullet. But Dr. Adolphe Edward soon realized his assessment was premature. "All of a sudden, we had 65 patients with COVID," Edward recounted during a recent interview, "which was over 70 percent of my hospital admissions." Today, the rural county on the U.S.-Mexico border with 180,000 residents has the highest coronavirus infection rate per capita of any California county. As of June 16, the county's public health department reported that 4,389 people had tested positive, and 52 people had died with the virus. The surge in cases is partly due to the county's location right on the international boundary, health officials say. Edward's hospital, the 150-bed El Centro Regional Medical Center, is just a half-hour drive north of Mexicali, a city with over a million residents in Baja California that has become... (read more)
In Ciudad Juárez, a new 'filter hotel' offers migrants a safe space to quarantine. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Hotel Flamingo in Ciudad Juarez has been filling up with guests. When they arrive, they have to go through a thorough disinfection process. First, they step inside a tray filled with diluted bleach, to clean off the soles of their shoes. Then it's on to a handwashing station, where they're instructed to scrub with a generous amount of soap and follow up with a big squirt of hand sanitizer. Finally, they receive a fresh face mask, and the hotel coordinator sprays their shoes with an alcohol mixture. These guests aren't tourists on vacation. They're people who tried to cross into the U.S. but, for a variety of reasons, have been sent back to this border city and need a safe place to stay. Migrant shelters, which are trying to control the spread of COVID-19, can't immediately take them in. So Hotel Flamingo has been temporarily converted into a "filter hotel" - a space where they can quarantine for 14 days before transferring to a... (read more)
Coronavirus cases surge in Arizona's border counties. Arizona is seeing more COVID-19 cases statewide, but two small counties along the US-Mexico border are seeing particularly troubling trends. In the last month, Santa Cruz county has reported over 1,500 new cases and Yuma County has reported more than 3,000. That's a stark change from numbers those areas have seen in the past - Santa Cruz County had just 69 cases when Gov. Ducey lifted the stay at home order on May 15. Yuma County had 310. Gary Nabhan, an agricultural ecologist and a research social scientist at the University of Arizona, said these are agricultural hubs for the state and the country. Produce is harvested in farmland near Yuma and it's packed and delivered through the border in Nogales. Nabhan said both areas are staffed with essential workers who don't have the chance to stay home when sick. "Whether they're packing the produce in Nogales or... (read more)
Published: June 11, 2020
Border-crossers turn to bikes as lines stretch for hours. Between work in Nogales, Ariz. and family in Nogales, Sonora, Diego Baldenegro finds himself crossing the local border every three or four days. Until about a month ago, that meant getting into his car and crossing through the vehicle lanes at the local ports of entry. "Up until then, in the car it wasn't that bad," he said. "It was like an hour, an hour and a half. Now it's three to four hours, five (in the vehicle lanes), and so your car overheats." On Monday morning, Baldenegro rolled out of the DeConcini Port of Entry on a different set of wheels: a Mongoose mountain bike. "On the bike, it makes (crossing the border) a little easier," he said. Baldenegro is one of a growing number of local residents turning to two-wheeled transit as lines to cross the border on foot or in personal vehicles stretch for hours. Riders who spoke to the NI said that, in recent days, a separate bike line was forming to go through the downtown Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers screening... (read more)
Coronavirus on the border: California hospitals overwhelmed by patients from Mexico. When Manuel Ochoa started feeling sick - his body sore, his breathing restricted - he drove from his mother's home in Mexicali, Mexico, to the U.S. border. The 65-year-old retiree parked his car at the international bridge and tried to drag himself to the country where he has permanent residency, and where his health insurance is valid. Just before he approached the Border Patrol checkpoint, he collapsed in the sun. That's when U.S. immigration officials made a call that has become increasingly common during the coronavirus outbreak: for an ambulance to transport a U.S. citizen or resident from the Mexican border to the nearest American hospital. As Mexico's health-care system has strained under the coronavirus, small community hospitals in Southern California, some of the poorest in the state, have been flooded with Americans who have fallen ill and crossed the border. They are retirees and dual citizens, American... (read more)
Mexican families struggle to send remains of virus victims back home. When Crescencio Flores died of coronavirus in New York, his parents back in Mexico asked for one thing: that their son be sent home for burial. The 56-year-old construction worker had been in the United States for 20 years, regularly sending money to his parents but never going home. Since he died in April, Flores' brother has been working with American and Mexican authorities to have the body transported to the town of Huehuepiaxtla in the state of Puebla. So far, his efforts have been in vain. His brother's embalmed remains are still in a U.S. funeral home. "I am trying to do this because my parents, 85 and 87 years old, live there," Francisco Flores said. "They are rooted in their customs. They want a Christian burial for the remains of their son." The family's situation is common. More than a thousand Mexican immigrants have died of the virus in the U.S., according to the Mexican government, and many... (read more)
Published: May 27, 2020
COVID's controversial "washing tunnels" for those crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
Authorities in the Mexican city of Nogales, which borders Arizona, put those entering the country through a curious "disinfectant tunnel" to prevent the spread of COVID-19. That way, everyone who arrives in Nogales, Sonora, from the international "Mariposas" checkpoint -including pedestrians- must go through these tunnels where they are sprayed with a disinfectant that keeps the body clean and free of the virus for 24 hours, according to a statement from the municipality of Nogales. Health authorities in the region, who have announced that they will install more of these anti-COVID corridors at local border checkpoints, believe that most of the cases of coronavirus recorded in Nogales have been from people crossing from Arizona. There is sufficient data that argues the neighboring state's more than 13,000 confirmed infections could've helped with Sonora's 700, and 34 dead. However, there are those who... (read more)
Coronavirus cases jump along California-Mexico border.
The southernmost counties in California are witnessing an influx in cases. A Southern California county that shares a border with Mexico is seeing a spike in coronavirus cases. The Associated Press (AP) reports that El Centro, a farming community in Mexicali - a town in Mexico on the U.S.-Mexico border - is seeing a rise in coronavirus-related hospitalizations. Some believe this uptick stems from American citizens who live in Mexico coming to the U.S. for care. El Centro Regional Medical Center, located in the Imperial Valley and El Centro metro region, reportedly admitted 14 infected patients on Monday evening, pushing its coronavirus caseload to 65. The hospital temporarily stopped accepting COVID-19 patients due to the surge. As of May 21, the hospital is down to 52 coronavirus patients, per its Facebook page. Nearby Pioneer Memorial Hospital saw a similar... (read more)
U.S. returned at least 1,000 unaccompanied migrant children despite corona risks.
The United States has returned at least 1,000 unaccompanied migrant children to Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras since early March despite risks of violence and discrimination that have worsened because of the coronavirus pandemic, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF said on Thursday. Mexico has also returned at least 447 migrant children to Guatemala and Honduras over the same period, UNICEF said. It warned that children returned by the United States and Mexico faced added protection risks because of the perception they are infected with the coronavirus. "COVID-19 is making a bad situation even worse. Discrimination and attacks are now added to existing threats like gang violence that drove these children to leave in the first place," UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said. "This means many returned children are now... (read more)
Published: May 13, 2020
San Diego to donate face shields to Tijuana as border command group works to address COVID-19.
San Diego, Tijuana cross-border cooperation proves strong during coronavirus pandemic. Proving the strength of the cross-border relationship between San Diego and Tijuana, today San Diego Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer will be joined by Tijuana Mayor Arturo González Cruz to announce the donation of 1,000 3D-printed face shields from the City of San Diego to the City of Tijuana for use in public hospitals. Mayor Faulconer will also detail a new regional working group that tracks and monitors the pandemic in San Diego and Baja California. "COVID-19 knows no boundaries, so our border region is working together to monitor the situation in Baja and preparing for healthcare impacts in the San Diego region should they arise," Mayor Faulconer said. "San Diego and Tijuana are in this... (read more)
Americans waiting out coronavirus in Canadian and Mexican border cities reflect on time away.
Citizens say they feel more comfortable outside U.S. They are Americans from two different worlds, but when the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. hard, they decided to take the same step -- riding it out across the border. Cities such as Toronto and Vancouver in Canada and Puerto Peñasco in Mexico are some of the places that Americans are taking shelter in during the crisis, and many say they have few regrets. While they miss their family and friends back home, the ex-pats say they feel more comfortable in their current locations, since the U.S. leads the world in cases and deaths by a large margin. Canada has some 67,000 cases and less than 5,000 deaths and Mexico 29,000 cases and less than 3,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. New York state alone has more cases and deaths than both countries combined (330,000 cases and 21,000 deaths). "It's a strange feeling not being able to see your parents, but I know that we're... (read more)
U.S. suspends protections for migrant kids at border, expelling hundreds amid pandemic.
María does not know what to do. Her request for U.S. asylum was denied. Her authorization to be in Mexico, contingent on having an ongoing U.S. immigration case, has expired. And now, the U.S. has sent her 10-year-old son alone to Honduras, where she fled an abusive partner who threatened to kill her if she returns. After losing their asylum case under the Remain-in-Mexico policy, which has granted protection to just 1.1% of the migrants who have completed their proceedings under the program, María allowed Jesús, her young son, to cross the border alone to turn himself over to U.S. officials, thinking he would be allowed to reunite with family in Texas and seek refuge in the U.S. under long-standing policies for unaccompanied migrant minors. Instead, Jesús was placed on a... (read more)
Border Report: 'Tijuana is facing a different kind of crisis'.
The border is taking a leading role in the region's conversations about how to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Not only are South Bay ZIP codes showing a higher number of cases, but a far greater share of coronavirus tests administered to patients there are coming back positive. Tijuana has been hit hard by COVID-19. The city has the some of the highest numbers of coronavirus-related deaths per capita in Mexico at 173. As of Sunday, Baja California had a total of 1,660 confirmed cases. An analysis by the magazine Zeta found that the state's working class has been hit particularly hard. Dozens of coronavirus victims are being buried in an already-packed graveyard in Tijuana, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. County officials and hospital leaders have started sounding the alarm. They've asked the U.S. government for assistance to help Mexico respond to the crisis, and help San Diego prevent and... (read more)
The COVID-19 effect on U.S.-Mexico border cities.
What were once bustling centers of activity are ghost towns with rising case counts. About a month ago was one of the most popular weeks for crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Semana Santa, the week that precedes Easter is a time usually reserved for a trip to the Mexican coastline for many on either side of the border. The travel also provides a welcome flush of cash for those in the vital tourism industry of the region, making sure they too, eat well for Easter Sunday.But this year, with coronavirus grinding travel to a standstill, the reality was much less festive. A major economic hit. An hour from the Arizona-Mexico border, in the resort town of Puerto Peñasco, Maria Eugenia Zacatelco Montiel would normally have had to schedule extra boat tours during Holy Week. Instead, she had to lay off all but 10 of her 24 staff members from her... (read more)
Published: April 30, 2020
Texas farmworkers struggle without government aid and coronavirus protection.
In the predawn light, Francisco Garcia kisses his two daughters and whispers that he'll be back after work. He makes his living harvesting onions near the South Texas town of Mercedes, a few miles from the Mexican border. "For an indocumentado like me, this is how we make a living. For us, there is no coronavirus. My kids and my wife depend on what I bring in every day and that's it," said Garcia, 40. "Why? Because we don't have benefits, nobody's helping us." More than half of the 2.5 million farmworkers in the U.S. are undocumented. But while their presence is considered illegal, their work amid the coronavirus pandemic is far from that - the Department of Homeland Security has deemed farm work an "essential" service. Farmworkers and their advocates are concerned about their working conditions, comparing them to... (read more)
"Exporting the virus": Migrants deported by U.S. make up 20% of Guatemala's coronavirus cases.
When it unveiled an unprecedented order last month to swiftly expel virtually all unauthorized migrants from the U.S. southern border, the Trump administration said potentially infected foreigners could spread the coronavirus in the U.S., prompt outbreaks in immigration jails and strain public health resources along border communities. But in a paradoxical twist, Guatemala, the largest source of migration to the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years, fears the U.S. is exporting the virus there through deportation flights. At least 99 migrants recently deported to Guatemala by the U.S. have tested positive for coronavirus as of Sunday, according to the nation's public health ministry. Deportees from the U.S. make up nearly 20% of the... (read more)
Some border area U.S. citizens will not be getting stimulus checks.
Tom Kobylecky is a truck driver from Chicago. He lives in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, which has been his home for over ten years. Indeed that ten-year period is in itself very significant because he has lived just across the border with his entire family for ten years on the advice of his immigration attorney. After living in Reynosa for ten years, the Kobylecky family were beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel. His Mexican wife was waiting for an appointment at the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez to apply for legal residency. Then along came the COVID-19 pandemic, and a series of administrative rulings by the Trump administration that have put dark clouds on the horizon. The most recent, a ruling that excludes U.S. citizens married to immigrants without a social security number to receive stimulus checks. "I really haven't been affected too much by COVID-19 other than having to spend... (read more)
Published: April 16, 2020
Coronavirus on the border: Why Mexico has so few cases compared with the U.S.
The U.S.-Mexico border has long been a region of contrasts. But people in both countries are puzzling over the latest one: The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus on the Mexican side is just a small fraction of the U.S. count. On Sunday, confirmed cases in California topped 6,200, compared with just 23 in Baja California. Arizona had 919 cases, dwarfing the 14 in neighboring Sonora. New Mexico reported 237 cases; in Chihuahua state, there were six. The U.S.-Mexico border is the busiest in the world, with an estimated 1 million legal crossings per day. The neighbors' economies are intertwined. So why is there such a big difference in cases? The disparity reflects, in part, a time lag. Mexico did not report its first case until Feb. 27 - a month after the virus was detected in the United States. To date, the country has counted 993 cases, less than 1 percent of the U.S. total. But Mexico is also pursuing an unorthodox strategy. It is relying less on tests, and more on... (read more)
Scenes from the U.S.-Mexico border during coronavirus pandemic.
Members of an asylum-seeker family remain in a tent at the Juventud 2000 migrant shelter in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico, on April 3, 2020 during the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic. Thousands of migrants overcrowding shelters or begging in the streets in Mexican cities along the US border are living in fear as the novel coronavirus spreads in the population and screening interviews for asylum seekers are being suspended. (Photo by Guillermo ARIAS / AFP). See complete gallery here.
Border families express concern over border COVID-19 restrictions.
Families who are divided by the border tell KTSM they are growing concerned with the spread of COVID-19 after restrictions were put in place two weeks ago at border crossings for essential travel only. "It's all too common, we have a lot of families who have been separated by our immigration laws, where you have family members who have been deported and are living on the Mexican side," said Immigration Lawyer Iliana Holguin. She explained tough situations are being made worse. "It's hard enough being separated from your family members like that during normal times and it's even more difficult when we're talking about the situation that we're in right now," Holguin said. Patricia Miramontes told KTSM it's affecting her now. Two years ago Miramontes husband was deported, now she lives in El Paso while her husband and daughter live in Juárez. "I go to Juarez every weekend, I don't ever miss," said Miramontes. She explained she's lucky she... (read more)
Published on: March 26, 2020
Coronavirus border travel restrictions start to impact daily life.
Mexican residents with legal visas began to be turned away from the U.S. Saturday morning. Martin Arce, a Tijuana factory worker, spent the past week manufacturing respirators that are being shipped throughout the U.S. to fight to coronavirus pandemic. Work was so hectic, that Arce didn't have time to pay his phone bill. Because unlimited plans are cheaper in San Diego than they are in Tijuana, Arce has a plan from Cricket Wireless. And because his phone is now shut off and he doesn't have a computer, Arce has to cross the border to pay his bill in person. But when he tried to cross through the San Ysidro Port of Entry Saturday morning, Arce was turned away because of new restrictions prohibiting "non-essential" cross-border travel. The restrictions, announced Friday by President Donald Trump, went into effect just after midnight Eastern time Saturday - 9 p.m. Friday here. The goal is to stem the spread of the coronavirus by limiting cross-border travel while still protecting trade and commerce. A similar deal is... (read more)
South Texas COVID-19 cases spike on border with Mexico.
Fears the virus will infect a Mexican border tent encampment where thousands of asylum-seekers live. The number of cases of COVID-19 in two South Texas border counties dramatically spiked on Saturday night totaling five cases with the announcement of the first confirmed case in Hidalgo County and several in Cameron County, health officials said. Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez on Saturday night announced that a coronavirus case was confirmed in McAllen, which is the largest city in the border county. That triggered the county to order the Hidalgo County Division of Emergency Management to go into a Level 1 Operational status, the county's highest. "We knew this day was coming and we are prepared," Cortez said in a statement. "This is a highly contagious disease and residents should not be surprised - or alarmed - that others in Hidalgo County will likely contract the virus." The news..(read more)
A closed border, dashed hopes and a looming disaster.
The United States, citing the coronavirus, is shutting off access for anyone trying to claim asylum from the Mexican border. Tania Bonilla arrived in this Mexican border city on Wednesday determined to apply for asylum in the United States. With her 1-year-old in tow, she had defied the odds - evading a death sentence by a Honduran gang at home, she said, as well as deportation by the Mexican authorities at the southern border and kidnapping by smugglers en route. But now, in eyeshot of an international bridge connecting the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez to the United States, a new and even more serious obstacle presented itself: the coronavirus. In response to its rapid spread, which has claimed about 13,000 lives worldwide, the United States government announced on Friday that in addition to closing the Mexican border to nonessential traffic, it would shut off access for anyone trying to claim asylum from the border. In practice, the United States will deport anyone caught crossing between official ports of entry, including.. (read more)
