"Life after ‘Remain in Mexico’: Honduran family’s harrowing journey to U.S., encampment in Mexico"

STORYTELLING CATEGORY

Border Report/Nexstar Media Group
12/08/2021

This digital piece also was produced for TV news broadcasts and was reported over a period of two years by South Texas Correspondent Sandra Sanchez who traveled frequently to a migrant camp in the northern Mexican border town of Matamoros where she met often with the family of Carolina Carranza Silva. The entire piece was shot on a cellphone. Carolina is seen receiving medical care; under her tattered tent; her daughter wearing only a diaper as they were one of the first asylum-seeking families sent back to Mexico under Donald Trump's Migrant Protection Protocols Program (MPP) also known as the Remain in Mexico program. We first met them in August 2019 and then visited them in Houston after they were legally released on humanitarian parole while they awaited their immigration process. This Part I, released Dec. 8, 2021, showcases how they were kidnapped twice while trying to migrate to the United States. Unique and compelling graphics assist with the storytelling. And an uncertain ending leaves readers/viewers ready for Part II.

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In Part II, we meet up with the family as they navigate life in America and struggle to pay bills, receive health care and understand complicated immigration laws. We film them in their apartment as Carolina is uncertain whether the family will show up for their next scheduled immigration court hearing. And as a final follow-up to the series published on March 4, 2022, we learn that they did not show up for immigration court in Houston and their case was "terminated," something that is happening more under the Biden administration, and we explain what that means.

Submitted by Michael Humphries.