-This is the new Ellis Island, and we are turning people away.
-Linda Rivas is an immigration attorney in El Paso,
but these days, her job regularly takes her
across the border to Juarez, Mexico.
-Yeah, it's pretty egregious. I think so.
-And lately, her work is pushing her to the limit.
-I, every day, am questioning
"How long can we do this, how long can I do this?"
I don't feel comfortable asking my staff to go to Juarez.
And so, it was a decision from early on that
if we were going to answer the call,
it was gonna have to be me,
and then we were gonna have to navigate
how we were gonna have safety measures in place.
If we were gonna continue these services,
how are we going to have our staff go over and be safe?
-In the offices of local immigration organizations
in one of Mexico's most dangerous cities,
Rivas provides free legal advice to migrants.
Most of them are seeking asylum in the United States.
-The administration made a change in asylum.
It says you're ineligible for asylum.
That is against international law and our own law,
and it's being fought over at court at a a national level
for this rule to not be valid.
-On this visit, just blocks away,
a man was murdered on a busy street in broad daylight.
-It was really shocking to be leaving an office
that I feel safe in -- you know, a fellow NGO --
and we see that there's red tape,
and that means that there's a murder.
-In recent months, thousands of migrants
have been stranded in Juarez, and they are
especially vulnerable to the violence there.
At local shelters, asylum seekers,
like Maria from Honduras, wait.
The Washington Post is not revealing her identity
because she fears being targeted by gangs.
-People look at us and know we're not from here,
and think "we can kidnap her, we can take her,
because who will care about people who are not from here?"
It's worse if we're alone.
Like me; I'm alone.
No one is going to look for me or ask about me.
My family in Honduras would,
but if they call here, who will answer?
-In the United States, anyone has the right
to claim asylum at a port of entry,
and in the past, those with a credible fear of returning home
could stay in the US until their case was heard.
But the Trump Administration is limiting
how many people can approach the border each day
through a practice called metering.
-Sometimes they call 30 people daily, 20 people,
and just lately, some days, they don't call anybody.
-Under a recent US policy known as Remain in Mexico,
even some of those who do get to approach the border
and claim asylum are forced to return to Juarez
and wait in shelters until their day in court.
-So, this is people who have reached our soil,
who are legally allowed to claim asylum,
then being forced back into Mexico to wait for a court date
that could take several months or a year
in conditions that subject them to homelessness,
that subject them to kidnapping, rape --
frankly, you know, murder.
-This phenomenon has been changing a lot
during these months.
We still don't have the resources to cope
locally with this situation.
It's a growing number of people coming every day.
We have up to almost 300 people being returned daily in Juarez.
-I went to my first hearing and the judge told me
I needed to bring a lawyer to my next hearing.
I still haven't found a public lawyer.
Finding a public lawyer is difficult
because all public lawyers have too many cases
and have too much work.
So, I only found lawyers who charge,
and they charge three to five thousand dollars.
And I don't have that kind of money.
-Rivas provides all the help she can,
but the need continues to grow.
-Okay, ustedes de Venezuela. -Mm-hmm.
-Okay.
Sometimes we find ourselves doing kind of side
"know your rights" presentations
because we'll find a group of people.
You can tell there's just confusion.
We try and take down all their information
so that we come back with intakes,
but the reality is we have a waiting list of about
200 people right now.
-With more people sent back each day,
local shelters are unable to provide space for everyone.
-There are people out there
who need our spots, so we need to go.
I've been in this shelter for three months.
They talked to us today, and the priest told us
that we can't stay here for more than three months.
If we're thinking about going to all our hearings,
then we need to find jobs, and find a place to rent.
-As much as the shelters have tried
to mitigate these issues, the reality is no one has
the capacity or the resources to house this many people.
-Rivas can only stay in Juarez for a limited amount of time.
It's too risky to be here after dark.
But she worries about all the people she has to leave behind.
-We've never dealt with this level of danger
that we've had people in.
This is the real deal.
This is not just a group of advocates or activists
saying, "It's dangerous."
It is literally dangerous.
People's lives are at risk.