海角大神

Karla Castillo Medina goes door to door at the migrant shelter, delivering newspapers like an old-fashioned newsie.

鈥淕ood afternoon! Anyone home? I鈥檓 just dropping your paper here,鈥� she calls out as she slips the latest issue of El Migrante, a six-page news bulletin for migrants and refugees, under tent flaps and makeshift bedroom doors fashioned out of heavy blankets.

The monthly paper carries news migrants can use to keep themselves safe on their dangerous journeys, such as contacts for safe places to sleep, legal aid organizations, and soup kitchens, as well as profiles of relevant nongovernmental organizations and fellow migrants.

鈥淚nformation is protection,鈥� says Monica V谩zquez, an official in Mexico with UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency.

El Migrante has been put together for the past three years by local journalist Ms. Castillo and her colleagues at the international nonprofit Internews. It is one of several initiatives 鈥� online and on paper 鈥� that have emerged in recent years to equip vulnerable migrants heading for the United States with oftentimes lifesaving information about their rights, where they can seek support, and what is new with ever-shifting border policies.

International law gives migrants the right to seek asylum outside their home country, and Mexican law provides them with some support measures, but most need help learning how to exercise these rights.

From TikTok legal aid video explainers to migration-specific Facebook pages and moderated WhatsApp groups, more and more organizations are stepping up to try and help bridge the information gaps that exist among governments, border patrols, human traffickers, and migrants.

News they can use

The air is stagnant in a small back room of the shelter. Six bunk beds cover every inch of wall space; the only decoration, a metallic-blue balloon shaped like the number three, droops sadly toward the center of the room.

Ms. Castillo introduces herself and asks the group living here, mostly women, if they have heard about El Migrante. She gets a mixed response.

鈥淚f you want the most up-to-date news, you can join our WhatsApp group,鈥� she tells them. That is where the Internews team will answer migrants鈥� questions and direct them toward trustworthy resources in real time. But not toward traffickers 鈥� if anybody posts about crossing the U.S. border illegally, they鈥檙e expelled from the group.

鈥淚t鈥檚 dangerous and I fear for them,鈥� says Jesse Hardman, Ms. Castillo鈥檚 U.S.-based colleague. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 stop it, but they won鈥檛 learn how to do it in our group. Our goal is for people to be relying on safe channels of information.鈥�

One woman reaches out for a paper and flips to an article called 鈥淲hat鈥檚 new with Title 42?鈥� The Trump-era rule went into effect with the arrival of COVID-19 and has shuttered the border for the past two years, keeping everyone in this room in a holding pattern.

鈥淭he border鈥檚 opening up again at the end of May,鈥� says one man.

鈥淪omeone told me that鈥檚 actually not happening,鈥� says a woman sitting on a bottom bunk, nursing a baby.

People start to talk over one another and Ms. Castillo jumps in to explain that Title 42 was meant to have been overturned by May 23, but a judge temporarily blocked the move. 鈥淲e鈥檙e basically in the same situation as the past several months,鈥� she tells them.

That news seems to suck what little air there is out of the room. The group scatters, as residents turn to cellphones, child care, and new reading material in El Migrante.

Not all migrants have easy access to up-to-date information. Some can鈥檛 read easily, lack internet connectivity or a cellphone, or they fled home in such a hurry they had no time to prepare plans for their journeys. The information that is out there can be overwhelming and contradictory, 鈥渁nd unfortunately half of it is false,鈥� says Ms. V谩zquez of the UNHCR. 鈥淭he rumors out there are tremendous.鈥�

That鈥檚 what makes trustworthy sources of information invaluable. 鈥淭he probability of risks goes down when migrants have access to credible information,鈥� says Rodolfo Cruz Pi帽eiro, director of the population studies department at the College of the Northern Border, outside Tijuana, who has studied how migrants get their information. 鈥淵ou can make better, safer decisions.鈥�

Print news may be dying elsewhere, but it鈥檚 alive and well for the thousands of migrants and refugees at shelters across Mexico each month who read El Migrante.

Navigating the labyrinth

The idea for the paper was born in the fall of 2018, when thousands of mostly Central American migrants traversed Mexico and arrived in Tijuana as part of the so-called migrant caravan. Mr. Hardman, who was working in California for Internews, got in touch with Ms. Castillo, a local reporter at the time, and they teamed up to survey some 200 newly arrived migrants about how they informed themselves and what sorts of questions they had about seeking asylum in Mexico and the U.S., or their rights as migrants.

鈥淥ne response really stuck with me. Someone wrote, 鈥業 want to know how to navigate this labyrinth,鈥欌�� Ms. Castillo says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 exactly what they鈥檙e facing: chaos and confusion with no road map.鈥�

The project took off, and a four-person team now reports and delivers 3,000 copies of the print paper once a month to roughly 50 shelters across Mexico, mostly on the southern and northern borders.

They produce a biweekly radio program that runs on a network of Mexican public radio stations, and moderate a WhatsApp group where Haitians, Hondurans, Cubans, Guatemalans, and others 鈥� dispersed across Mexico 鈥� can find daily news updates and ask more specific questions about anything from the paperwork required to enter a public health clinic to where to get diapers.

Marta Valenzuela, the education coordinator at an NGO supporting migrant families in Tijuana, says El Migrante may be old school with its print format and uncomplicated layout, but it鈥檚 exactly what some migrants need.

鈥淚t鈥檚 easier for them to take something physical,鈥� she says of the people who pass through her office. 鈥淭hey have so much information thrown at them when they arrive. It鈥檚 helpful to have something concrete to come back to,鈥� she says.

Stay informed, stay safe

Not that El Migrante has supplanted the smartphone. Ms. V谩zquez runs a page called Confia en el Jaguar, or 鈥淭rust in the Jaguar鈥� on Facebook, she says, because that鈥檚 where migrants naturally go to communicate with friends and relatives. 鈥淲hy not put the information they need in the same place? Make it easy and accessible for them,鈥� she says.

Confia en el Jaguar has become a central digital location where international organizations and local NGOs can share messages with the migrant and refugee communities, and where Ms. V谩zquez鈥檚 team works in coordination with various U.N. agencies to answer questions in real time.

The proliferation in recent years of migrants traveling with smartphones has upped the project鈥檚 visibility. People from 36 countries consulted the page in the first four months of this year, and her staff engaged in direct message conversations with some 12,500 migrants and refugees in five languages last year.

She sees efforts like El Migrante and Confia en el Jaguar as working hand in hand, reinforcing trustworthy information 鈥渋n physical spaces and online. We have to cover all the bases.鈥�

Another online initiative has sprung from a legal aid organization with offices on both sides of the border, Al Otro Lado, or 鈥淥n the Other Side.鈥� It recently launched an account on TikTok, an app more commonly associated with viral dances and goofy lip-syncs than dissecting the complexity of U.S. border policy.

Migration and border policies are complicated and confusing, which makes it easier for criminals to dupe migrants, says Maddie Harrison, the community education coordinator at Al Otro Lado.

鈥淔ake news and misinformation have grown since the pandemic,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou also see scams 鈥� people posing as immigration officials trying to charge people to cross the border or posing as immigration attorneys.

鈥淲e try to summarize what big policy changes actually mean for people at the border or thinking about traveling to the border,鈥� Ms. Harrison says. Their most-watched video had 50,000 unique views, and she can see that it was played in countries around the world.

鈥淧eople thinking about traveling to the border were able to access that information, hopefully making informed decisions鈥� that helped them stay safe, she says.

鈥淚f our goal is to help people make informed decisions,鈥� Mr. Hardman says, 鈥渢he sooner we reach folks, the better.鈥�