Crisis: Borderlands - UNICORN RIOT

In late February, Unicorn Riot dispatched a small media team intent on learning more about the ongoing border crisis to the desert borderlands of Arizona in the southwest United States. While there, we learned how the new Trump regime’s policies were impacting the local community. We saw police pepper spray an immigrant rights protest in the streets of Tucson, and went to the remote areas of the Sonora Desert to witness “water drops” left in hopes of saving lives.

We met organizers with LUPE Tucson, a grassroots immigrant rights organization which has existed since 2015. They told us that many of the migrants trying to cross into the United States consist of indigenous people coming from various areas of South America, and how the United States policies are complacent in what the LUPE organizers call an ongoing refugee crisis caused by US foreign policy.

We also followed humanitarian aid workers from an organization called No More Deaths through the remote Sonora Desert as they left water for migrants in what are called “water drops”. No More Deaths volunteers explained their work providing aid to migrants lost in the borderlands because of the Border Patrol’s policy of “Prevention Through Deterrence”, which forces migrants into the remote desert where many lose their lives because they are unable to afford crossing a safer way.

Here is our mini-documentary on what we learned. (22 minutes, 1080p)