Noticias Actuales

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They were children and teenagers known to the world as “unaccompanied migrants” or “detainees.” They were housed in a remote area, living in conditions that experts decried as unhealthy and inhumane. Then, as their existence became a national scandal, they were dispersed across the country.

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Last December, outside a federal detention center in Tornillo, Texas, Yolanda Chávez Leyva stood witness. A barbed wire fence seperated her and other demonstrators from a militaristic tent city that housed thousands of undocumented immigrant children. Leyva, a history professor with a focus on the U.S.-Mexico border, watched as trucks hauled teenagers and water in and sewage out. Many of the refugees in the “kid prison,” as Leyva calls it, faced gang violence and poverty in their home nations of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador before trekking some 2,000 miles to the U.S. in search of a better life.

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On Saturday, a 21-year-old white supremacist walked into a Walmart in my hometown of El Paso and opened fire. Witnesses say he walked in calmly, confidently, as if “on a mission.” He drove about 650 miles from the Dallas area to carry out an act of terrorism; so far, 22 have died and over two dozen are injured. A rambling essay published on 8chan shortly before the massacre, which investigators believe he authored, described “a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas” and “defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion.”

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The University of Texas at El Paso was the weeklong focal point of the Academic Minute, an audio series from Inside Higher Ed that features professors from top institutions throughout the country as they delve into current research topics. Higher Ed, a digital media company that has provided higher education news, analysis and resources since 2004, profiled five UTEP professors as they shared thoughts on topics related to the current challenges of the U.S.-Mexico border.

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In 1917, American health officials in El Paso, Texas, launched a campaign to use toxic chemicals, including gasoline baths, to disinfect immigrants seeking to enter the United States through the US-Mexico border.

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Los menores migrantes a menudo llegaban por la noche. Eran adolescentes de América Central y del Sur, llevados por agentes de la frontera al Centro de Detención de Tornillo y conducidos a filas de literas de metal en tiendas militares rodeadas de alambre de púas. El toque humano, incluso un simple abrazo, era raro dentro de esta ciudad temporal asegurada, donde casi 3 mil menores no acompañados estuvieron confinados juntos entre junio de 2018 y enero de 2019. En este entorno hostil, el desierto tipo chihuahuense, la imaginación y la fe los ayudaron a sobrevivir.

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The young migrants often arrived at night. They were teenagers from Central and South America, brought by border agents to the Tornillo Detention Facility and led to rows of metal bunk beds in military tents ringed by barbed wire. Human touch, even a simple hug, was rare inside this secured temporary city, where nearly 3,000 unaccompanied minors at a time were confined between June 2018 and January 2019. In this harsh environment, the Chihuahuan Desert, imagination and faith helped them make it through.

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The thousands of refugees from Central America and Mexico who have crossed into El Paso since late 2018 strained the capabilities of the area's social service agencies. There was a need for community volunteers, and some UTEP employees and students answered that call.

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A curator says artwork created by teenage immigrants who were held in a now-dismantled West Texas tent city portrays their longing for freedom and comfort. The “Uncaged Art” exhibition highlights artwork produced by former detainees at the Tornillo tent city and is on display at the Centennial Museum at the University of Texas at El Paso until this fall.

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When a local priest called University of Texas-El Paso history professors Yolanda Leyva and David Romo this past winter, asking if they wanted to showcase art created by children in the Tornillo immigration detention center, they jumped at the opportunity.

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When I first saw the art of the children of the Tornillo detention camp, I was struck by the colors. Vibrant, bold, luminous blues, yellows and reds, full of life and optimism. And then there were the birds: tropical birds with brilliant plumage, scarlet macaws ( guacamayas), red-beaked parrots and lots of quetzals in dazzling green, blue and gold. In Guatemala the quetzal is a symbol of hope and freedom. “The quetzal,” one of the young artists told his teacher at Tornillo, “cannot be caged or it will die of sadness.”

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An art show opens in El Paso today. It's what they call a "multi-sensory exhibit" that includes works like a chapel, cut from cardboard, surrounded by trees and hedges spun from yarn, with Popsicle stick church pews and crosses. There are many images of bright birds, cooing in trees; and a looming volcano, smoking over a bright, cheery town.

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The experiences of migrant children detained in a Texas tent city are on display at a rare exhibit of their art at UT El Paso’s Centennial Museum. Among the pieces the students created was a white Catholic church made of construction paper, popsicle sticks and yarn. Other students created dresses made of cloth with depictions of their homeland.

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A recent BBC World News "Witness" podcast highlighted the complex history of the Bracero Program that brought millions of Mexican guest workers to the United States from 1942 to 1964.

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