From India, Brazil and Beyond: Pandemic Refugees at the Border

Fleeing virus-devastated economies, migrants are traveling long distances to reach the United States and then walking through gaps in the border wall. The Arizona desert has become a favorite crossing point.

YUMA, Ariz. — Standing by the hulking border wall, a U.S. Border Patrol agent watched as a car dropped off passengers at the edge of a road on the Mexican side. “Oh, no,” he muttered. “Here come some more.” In the next hours, dozens of people would descend a bare hillock, pass a puddle where the Colorado River trickles and, without fanfare, pass through a gap in the rust-beam barrier that soars between the United States and Mexico. They had completed the final leg of journeys that began weeks or months earlier in Brazil, Cuba, India and Venezuela. Carrying dusty backpacks and dreams of new jobs in new cities, the unauthorized migrants did not sprint across the road to hide in the vast alfalfa fields, as so many border crossers have in the past. Many of them walked toward the agent, arms raised in surrender, confident that they would not be turned away. Javier Gomez fell to his knees and prayed, his daughter, Maria, by his side.