Back in the United States, Border Patrol agents on Monday fired pepper balls at a group of Venezuelan migrants who were leading a protest along the El Paso, Texas-Juárez, Mexico, border after they were denied entry into the U.S. and blocked from seeking asylum. This is Yaneiri Hernández, a Venezuelan asylum seeker and protester who witnessed the assault. 

Yaneiri Hernández: “They pulled out guns and started shooting. Things shouldn’t be like that. We are not animals; we are human beings. We want to go to the United States to work, not to do bad things. We’ve spent several days here sleeping like animals. The Mexicans are the ones who have helped us with food, clothes, shoes and blankets.”

In October, the Biden administration started expelling Venezuelan asylum seekers to Mexico under an expansion of the Trump-era pandemic policy Title 42, which has blocked at least 2 million people from seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, in violation of international law.