Shelters of Ciudad Juárez

The city of Ciudad Juárez in 2010 was considered the most violent city in the world. and although crime rates have declined somewhat since then, cartel and gang activity remain a persistent and significant threat, especially to vulnerable migrant populations. Families fleeing violence that have travelled thousands of miles from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and (recently) Haiti seeking asylum in the US are regularly targeted for kidnapping, extortion, rape and human trafficking. The city is so dangerous for women that the term ‘feminicide’, specifically the targeted killing of women, has become inextricably linked with the city. In the past decade hundreds of women have been murdered and thousands more gone missing in Juárez, and statistics show that up to 80% of migrant women have suffered some form of traumatic abuse during their journey.

As the US continues the policy of refusing to admit migrant families fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries, currently using an obsolete public health regulation called ‘Title 42’ instead of the Migrant Protection Protocols of the previous administration, these families are trapped in cities like Juárez without money, connections or resources. A series of grass-roots organizations have taken on the arduous and dangerous job of providing shelter for these families while they petition the US government for admission or, in extreme cases, make the heartbreaking decision to send their children over the bridges alone, knowing they will be admitted as unaccompanied minors.

In May 2021 I travelled to Juárez with a courageous activist named Karina Breceda, a young mother of three children who is the founder of a charity organization, Haznos Valer, that provides shelter for women and families as well as pre and post natal care, sexual assault aid services and children and family counseling. Through her connections, I was permitted to photograph migrant families at two Juárez shelters. These are those photographs.