Did the US Cause Its Own Border Crisis?
The right to asylum has been enshrined in US law since the 1950s. It\u2019s meant to provide a safe haven for people fleeing violence and government persecution.\xa0
Laura Ascencio Bautista and her family have faced both in Mexico, where her brother Benjamin disappeared along with 42 others in 2014 after police stormed a bus from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers\u2019 College.
In the years since, violence in her home state of Guerrero left Bautista desperate. She heard asylum was created for people like her. So she traveled north, headed for the perceived safety of the United States.
\u201cI was told that if I went to the US border and told my family\u2019s story and how it\u2019s not safe back home, the United States could protect me,\u201d she said.
Despite all the political hand-wringing about a crisis at the border, many Americans don\u2019t understand what\u2019s driving so many people from Mexico and other countries to come to the US in the first place. This week, Reveal senior reporter and producer Anayansi Diaz-Cortes takes us to a part of Mexico that many families are leaving behind\u2014a place where fear is a part of daily life\u2014and unwinds US policies that helped trigger the cycle of violence and migration that continues to this day.\xa0
- \n
- \nSupport Reveal\u2019s journalism at Revealnews.org/donatenow\n \n
- \nSubscribe to our weekly newsletter to get the scoop on new episodes at Revealnews.org/newsletter\n \n
- \nConnect with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram\n \n