Blankets and Socks That Save Migrants on Mexico’s Border Manuel Ocano - La Opinion
go to original January 15, 2022

One of the volunteers arranges the clothes that are left next to the food (Border Angels)

Migrants who try to reach the United States by crossing the border through the mountains of California often find warm clothes on their way precisely when they are at the mercy of the cold or about to freeze due to the low temperatures of this winter time.

"We know this because occasionally they send us messages in which they tell us that they found the warm clothes," Dulce García, executive director of the Border Angels organization, told La Opinion.

"My feet, my hands were freezing... My head was already hurting a lot," said one of those migrants in a message he sent to the organization's office, located in San Diego.

“I was about to give up, when I found the clothes, warm socks, and the [written] messages they left us. Thanks to you we were able to move on”, indicates the message of another migrant who found the help that the organization leaves along the way.

“Thick socks for winter are what migrants take the most” when they find them on their way, said García, who is also a dreamer and an immigration attorney.

When migrants arrive at the California border in the winter, they face a level of cold that is unfamiliar to them. Almost all of them come from temperate zones and even with a tropical climate.



The garments are new and are bagged to keep them clean (Border Angels)

Central Americans basically have two seasons: a hot and humid summer and a winter that consists of a rainy season. And although migrants from higher areas arrive from the Mexican states of Michoacán and Guerrero, they do not compare to the cold border.

On the other hand, the mountains of Otay, east of San Diego, and La Rumorosa, in Baja California, already have snow at this time and, further east —in the desert— the temperature also drops during the early mornings to a freezing point.

Attorney García explained that almost all migrants who arrive at the border lack resources, so they are ill-prepared for the climate they encounter.

They generally cross with sports shoes, cotton shirts and at most, light jackets, which are the clothes they regularly wear in their places of origin.

In this cold season "we are concerned as we see more and more families and mothers with their children trying to cross the border," said the lawyer.

Read the rest at La Opinion

Related: Despite Its Sunny Reputation, Some Parts of Mexico Do Have Cold Winters (Mexico News Daily)

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