AP teams deployed to the southern border document the dramatic rise in child and family migration with a riveting series of moving, deeply-reported packages.
When the U.S.-Mexico border became a major front-page story again in recent weeks, the AP set out to tell the story of newly arriving Central American children and families in trademark AP fashion: with compelling all-formats journalism and richly reported viewpoints from migrants to bring perspective to readers on the topic of immigration.
Photographers Julio Cortez and Dario Lopez-Mills, reporters Adriana Gómez Licón and Elliot Spagat, and video journalists Eugene Garcia and John Mone answered the call and more, delivering stellar coverage from the border at every step.
They produced a string of stories last week that amounted to a master class in how to cover the border.
Among the highlights, they told the story of a 7-year-old girl crossing the border without her parents in the middle of the night, and the story of migrant families dumped by the Biden administration in a dangerous Mexican border town while other families in the same circumstance were given entry into the U.S. They embedded at a bustling border crossing and chronicled the smuggling across the Rio Grande, where the sound of air pumps turning on signified to border agents that rafts were being inflated and the crossings were about to start. They staked out bus stations, river crossings and shelters to find voices of immigrants, and relentlessly pushed for access to overcrowded Border Patrol facilities. With border access severely limited by the government, Cortez’s use of a drone produced front-page newspaper photos and enhanced the video offerings.
A smuggler carrying migrant families paddles a small inflatable raft across the Rio Grande from Mexico into the U.S. at Roma, Texas, March 24, 2021.
AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
Migrant families, most from Central American countries, wade through shallow water after being delivered by smugglers in small inflatable rafts onto U.S. soil in Roma, Texas, March 24, 2021. As soon as the sun set, at least 100 migrants crossed the Rio Grande with smugglers into the United States.
AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
Migrants, most from Central American countries, disembark from a smuggler’s inflatable raft after being delivered onto U.S. soil in Roma, Texas, March 24, 2021.
AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
A woman from Guatemala weeps as she carries her child after being smuggled across the Rio Grande in Roma, Texas, March 30, 2021. Roma, a town of 10,000 people with historic buildings and boarded-up storefronts in Texas' Rio Grande Valley, became the latest epicenter of illegal crossings, where growing numbers of families and children are entering the United States to seek asylum.
AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
A 7-year-old migrant girl from Honduras, right, walks with Fernanda Solis, 25, center, also of Honduras, and an unidentified man as they approach a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing center to turn themselves in while seeking asylum moments after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Mission, Texas, March 21, 2021.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
A girl is led by the hand as migrant families, most from Central American countries, walk through the brush after being smuggled across the Rio Grande in Roma, Texas, March 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
Fatima Nayeli, 13, left, and her sister, Cynthia Stacy, 8, answer questions from a U.S.Border Patrol agent at an intake site after they were smuggled on an inflatable raft across the Rio Grande in Roma, Texas, March 24, 2021. The sisters traveled from El Salvador in the hope of reaching relatives living in the U.S.
AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
A migrant child sleeps on the shoulder of a woman at an intake area after turning themselves in upon crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Roma, Texas, March 24, 2021.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
Migrant women carry children at an intake area after turning themselves in upon crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Roma, Texas, March 24, 2021.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
A migrant man, center, holds a child as a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent stands watch at an intake area at the U.S.-Mexico border in Roma, Texas, March 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
A section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall is under construction near farmland in Progreso, Texas, March 19, 2021.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer talks to migrants after they were detained and taken into custody in Abram-Perezville, Texas, March 21, 2021.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
A migrant child holds onto a woman’s arm as they wait to be processed by a humanitarian group after being released from U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody at a bus station in Brownsville, Texas, March 17, 2021. Team Brownsville, a humanitarian group, is helping migrants seeking asylum with clothing and food, as well as transportation to the migrant’s final destination in the U.S.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
Migrants are held in custody at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing area under the Anzalduas International Bridge in Mission, Texas, March 19, 2021.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
Migrants are held at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing area under the Anzalduas International Bridge in Mission, Texas, March 18, 2021.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
Migrants who were deported after being caught trying to cross into the U.S., rest under a ramp that leads to the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge in Reynosa, Mexico, March 18, 2021.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
A migrant woman cries as she talks on a smartphone at a park in Reynosa, Mexico, March 20, 2021, after she and a large group of deportees were evicted by Mexican authorities from an area where they had been staying after their expulsion from the U.S.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
Jennifer Harbury, a Texas-based human rights advocate, speaks to the AP in Brownsville, Texas, March 21, 2021, about the dangers Central America migrants face when they are deported to Mexico and left in violent border towns. “The parents are saying ‘We are not going to make it. We have to be very realistic here, but if I send my child up to the bridge, and they cross alone, they’ll have to take them in,’” Harbury said.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
Lesdny Suyapa Castillo stands beside her sleeping daughter, Nataly, 8, at a park gazebo in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, March 26, 2021. Castillo, who says she worked as a frontline COVID-19 nurse in her home country of Honduras, says she and her daughter left for a better life after the government stopped paying her salary. U.S. authorities expelled the pair back to Mexico in the night, despite the fact that her daughter is suffering from health issues.
AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
Migrants sleep under a gazebo at a park in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, March 27, 2021. Dozens of migrants who tried to cross into the U.S. to seek asylum have turned this park into an encampment for those expelled from the U.S. under pandemic-related presidential authority.
AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
Migrants sleep under a gazebo at a park in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, March 27, 2021. Dozens of migrants who sought asylum in the U.S. turned this park into an encampment for those expelled from the U.S. under pandemic-related presidential authority.
AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
A smuggler carries migrants, most from Central American countries, on a small inflatable raft towards U.S. soil in Roma, Texas, March 30, 2021.
AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
A young child walks alone through the brush after being smuggled across the Rio Grande in Roma, Texas, March 24, 2021.
AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
Migrants walk on a dirt road after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Mission, Texas, March 23, 2021.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
A migrant child looks through the U.S.-Mexico border wall as a group is processed and taken into custody while trying to sneak across the border in Abram-Perezville, Texas, March 21, 2021.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
Two men are handcuffed together as a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent pats them down before putting them in a van while taking them into custody near the U.S.-Mexico border in Hidalgo, Texas, March 20, 2021.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
A migrant walks in laceless, muddy boots at the customs checkpoint in Reynosa, Mexico, after being deported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, March 18, 2021. Migrants are forced to give up their shoelaces as a security measure after being taken into custody.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
A migrant boy, center, launches a paper airplane while playing with other migrant children at a plaza near the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge border point of entry in Reynosa, Mexico, March 18, 2021, after being caught trying to cross into the U.S. and deported.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
A 4-year-old migrant boy sleeps next to his father at a shelter in Harlingen, Texas, March 22, 2021. The father and son spent the night in the shelter before their flight the next morning; they were released from U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
Genesis Cuellar, 8, a migrant from El Salvador, sits in a waiting area to be processed by Team Brownsville, a humanitarian group helping migrants released from U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody, in Brownsville, Texas, March 17, 2021. The group will facilitate transportation so that Cuellar, who is traveling with her mother, can be reunited with other family members who have been residing in Maryland after being released from custody. The Cuellar family separated in August 2020, when they tried to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
Yancarlos Amaya, 5, a migrant from Honduras, looks out at a United Airlines regional jet that will transport him and his mother, Celestina Ramirez, from Valley International Airport in Harlingen, Texas, March 24, 2021. The mother and son, who were headed to Baltimore to reunite with Ramirez’s brother, were allowed to stay in the U.S. after turning themselves in to U.S. Customs and Border Protection upon crossing the border.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
Yancarlos Amaya, 5, right, a migrant from Honduras, and his mother, Celestina Ramirez, ride a tram between terminals during a layover at George Bush International Airport in Houston, March 24, 2021. A few days earlier, the boy was walking along a muddy river bank after crossing the Rio Grande and landing on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico. Ramirez said they turned themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol officers and later spent hours in custody, a night under a bridge and three more days in a detention facility.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
Yancarlos Amaya, 5, left, a migrant from Honduras, explores the controls above his seat as his mother, Celestina Ramirez, looks on during an airplane trip from Harlingen, Texas, to Houston, March 24, 2021. Even though flying seems luxurious compared to the trials of the journey through Central America, Mexico and border detention, Ramirez was still anxious about flying for the first time.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
Yancarlos Amaya, 5, a migrant from Honduras, looks out an airplane window as he and his mother, Celestina Ramirez, make the trip from Harlingen, Texas, to Houston, March 24, 2021. The mother and son were en route to Baltimore to reunite with Ramirez’s brother.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
But Cortez and Gómez Licón didn’t stop reporting until they deplaned on the way home. Gómez Licón noticed during a layover in Houston that migrant children were traveling through the airport, so she went live on the Bambuser app. Cortez overheard a man asking a boy about his dreams in America with a question in Spanish: “Are you going to go to school and learn English?” Cortez approached the family and explained that he’d like to photograph and interview them. They were reluctant, but Julio persisted, explaining his own experiences being detained as a child immigrant.
The family opened up after learning of that shared experience and they allowed him to photograph the 5-year-old Honduran child all through their trip to Baltimore, resulting a rich photo essay and video package.
The work received tremendous play — with some video packages producing nearly 100 customer downloads while competing with mass killings in Atlanta and Boulder. Cortez’s photos landed on front pages in the Washington Post and Houston Chronicle. The story of the 7-year-old girl's solo journey was the second-most viewed story on apnews.com; other stories also played on front pages of U.S. newspapers.
Young unaccompanied migrants, ages 3 to 9, watch television inside a playpen at the Donna, Texas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley, March 30, 2021.
AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
Minors lie inside a pod at the Donna, Texas, Department of Homeland Security holding facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, March 30, 2021.
AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
A girl walks through a crowded pod of minors at the Donna, Texas, Department of Homeland Security holding facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, March 30, 2021.
AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
Young children rest inside a pod at the Donna, Texas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley, March 30, 2021.
AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
A migrant and her daughter have their biometric data entered at the intake area of the Donna, Texas, Department of Homeland Security holding facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley, March 30, 2021.
AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
Young migrants play soccer on a small field at the Donna, Texas, Department of Homeland Security holding facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley, March 30, 2021.
AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
Young unaccompanied migrants wait for secondary processing inside the Donna, Texas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley, March 30, 2021.
AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
The team’s outstanding efforts spilled over in this week, when the Border Patrol granted AP access to the main border facility for migrant children. Spagat and Lopez were the pool reporter and photographer respectively for a tour; their reporting and images provided the definitive account of severe overcrowding at the facility.
For bringing to life the human stories of those seeking entry to the United States, especially the sharp increase in the number of families and children in recent weeks and the struggles of border officials to cope, Gómez Licón, Cortez, Mone, Spagat, Lopez and Garcia share AP’s Best of the Week honors.
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