Deportees Stuck Between Two Countries in US-Mexico Border 'Purgatory' Rosalina Nieves - CNN
go to original February 26, 2014

Deportees talk about living in 'El Bordo' after the U.S. has rejected them and Mexico doesn't want them. (CNN)

TIJUANA, Mexico - Part of the fence separating the United States and Mexico sits about 50 yards away from hundreds of tunnel-like holes and makeshift tents where people live, stuck between two countries.

Trash surrounds the area, driven there by the sewage that runs through the nearby Tijuana River channel. The odor of rotting food and feces oozes from the ground; the warm weather and hot sun worsen the smell.

The stench makes it hard to breathe, and it's harder to fathom how any human being could live in these conditions. Yet, an estimated 4,000 people call this place home, a stretch known as "El Bordo," or "the border," wedged along the U.S.-Mexico border. It's inside Mexico, just outside the city limits of Tijuana.

With a disheveled shirt and shorts covered in dry gray sludge, Fernando Miranda smiles and points towards the fence, signaling the location of the place he once called home. He hasn't seen it in three years.

"I am heading back there and nowhere else. There is no way in hell I am staying here," Miranda said.

Miranda and the others living in El Bordo are stuck in between two countries and their laws.

Read the rest at CNN

Photo: Fronteras Desk

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