A Border Patrol agent directs a group of migrants near Jacumba Hot Springs, California.
‘Utter confusion’ for migrants after crossing the border
Photographs by Gregory Bull/AP
Story by Kyle Almond, CNN
February 11, 2024
A Border Patrol agent directs a group of migrants near Jacumba Hot Springs, California.
They crossed the border near Jacumba Hot Springs, in a desolate, barren area about 75 miles east of San Diego.
About 200 migrants, from many different countries, had reached their final destination — illegally — but they were not looking to run or evade the authorities. They waited for them.
It’s a scene that has played out often in this crossing hot spot, where the border wall meets a mountainside and the US Border Patrol maintains a constant presence.
“It’s a known place where there are already tents from previous people who’ve come,” said Gregory Bull, an Associated Press photographer who documented this recent group’s gathering.
Bull and an AP videographer made the drive to Jacumba Hot Springs in early February after being tipped off by a local volunteer group that has been providing food and assistance to migrants for months.
When they arrived, they found that many of the migrants had little idea of what was going on — or what was supposed to happen next.
“It’s just utter confusion,” Bull said. “At one point, someone asked us, ‘How far are we from California?’ Well, we’re in California. They weren’t really sure how long they were going to be there or what’s happening. They had no idea what was in store for them at all. They were just sitting there wondering what the next few hours were going to be like.”
Bull’s photos show Border Patrol agents addressing the group, trying to get everyone to line up so they could establish order and prioritize who needed to be processed first.
But because of the language barrier, many of the the migrants didn’t understand.
“They’re wondering if maybe it’s a passport issue,” Bull said, “so they’re sort of waving their passports around, completely confused as to what they need to do to get going to the next step basically.”
Bull said the majority of the migrants he encountered were Colombian, Peruvian and Ecuadorian. There were also groups from India and China.
Brutal weather conditions made everything that much harder. California has been dealing with heavy storms and cold as of late, and the Jacumba Hot Springs terrain offered no respite from the windy chill.
“You’re out in the middle of nowhere really,” Bull said. “There are no trees to hide from. You’re in the elements completely.”
It was raining when Bull was there, and the migrants were doing whatever they could to take cover and avoid the wind. Some huddled in leftover tents. Others, Bull said, built little lean-tos with old blankets and some cardboard.
“Most of these folks kind of had nothing,” he said. “Many of the blankets and jackets were just thrown to them right then, by volunteers and other people. Or they were found in that little campsite, dirty and underneath something.”
The migrants weren’t prepared for the intense conditions.
“Many have walked all the way up from the tropics to get here … so they’re not bringing a parka and gloves and a wool hat, you know?” Bull said. “No one’s really ready for it.”
Bull was dressed for the weather, and even he was struggling.
“I was with a full jacket, raincoat, and my fingers started to go numb shooting (my camera) because it’s just bitter cold,” he said.
The number of unauthorized immigrants crossing the border keeps reaching record highs, overwhelming Border Patrol resources that are already stretched.
The influx has gotten worse since May, when Title 42 expired. That pandemic-era public health measure allowed authorities to turn away migrants at the border. The San Diego Border Patrol Sector, which includes Jacumba Hot Springs, reported more than 230,000 encounters during the fiscal year that ended in September — a level of activity the agency had not seen in over two decades.
Earlier this week, Senate Republicans blocked a major bipartisan deal that would have enacted restrictive border controls. It was rejected after pressure from former President Donald Trump, who attacked the bill as too weak and is making the border a central campaign issue in his race for the White House.
Bull spent about six or seven hours at the campsite near Jacumba Hot Springs, starting in the afternoon and going late into the night.
Over that time, he saw Border Patrol bring buses to move out groups of migrants and take them to area detention centers to be processed. Women and children went first while the men endured the cold, waiting hours for their turn.
By the time he left the camp, there were maybe about 50 men left, still waiting on their bus.
The next day, Bull visited Tijuana, Mexico, and photographed migrants who were camping out as well. These people, however, were taking a much different approach.
“Those are folks that decided, for one reason or another, they’re not going to risk crossing illegally,” Bull said. “They’re going to cross at a port of entry basically and go through the legal process of application for asylum. But I talked to a family that had been waiting six months to be able to do it that way, in a little tent, in a shelter in Tijuana with dwindling resources and no idea how many more months they’re going to be waiting it out.”
One of his photos shows a young Mexican boy sitting on a bucket. Every day, Bull said, his mother checks an app called CBP One to see if there’s any update on their asylum request. Five family members live in the same tent.
“It’s got the little boy and a sibling and then the mom and then her mom and dad are all in this little tent,” Bull said. “And that’s how they’ve lived for six months now.”
Bull, who has been based in San Diego for over a decade now, has been covering the border on and off since 1994, when he started working at the Brownsville Herald in Brownsville, Texas.
A lot has changed since then, he said, as there is much more security built up on the border.
“When I worked in Brownsville in ’94, we in the newsroom would all go to lunch in Matamoros, which is the (Mexican) city across the way. We’d come back, no big deal,” he said. “Now, with the massive lines and checking in and out and stuff — at least along the California border — that’s kind of tougher to do. It’s a different vibe.”
Bull says that when he’s photographing migrants, he tries to approach them with respect and care.
“They’re quite vulnerable at that moment, so it is a moment of trying to see, is everyone OK with me shooting pictures? Some don’t want it, because maybe they are afraid they’ll be found or something,” he said. “You have to kind of be conscious of that.”
In general, he says, migrants want to tell their story.
“If you are kind and open, I feel like they understand that there’s a larger issue at play and they’re pretty OK with it,” he said. “I just try to be open and ready to react to what they feel is their comfort zone.”
