In 2012, the Obama administration deported 409,849 people living in the United States without proper immigration status. By 2014, estimates suggest that Obama will have deported 2 million. The American people cheer this effort and offer simple moral platitudes: “They knew the risks, they were here illegally. Let’s round up their families and send them all back where they came from.” Or “Why don’t they get a job?” “They shouldn’t do drugs.”
Yet, research on these migrants tells us that 30% of these now homeless migrants lived for decades in the United States, contributing to the economy and paying into social security, money that they will never recover.
And 40% of those deported have been sent to Tijuana, prompting a crisis of public health and safety of massive proportions.
This new video by VICE documentaries offers an inside look into the lives of a few of these migrants living in the canal of Tijuana.
And click here for more of the story published by Vice Magazine. Story by Laura Woldenberg, with photos by David Maung.
