Starting in mid 2023, as many as a thousand asylum-seekers a day were corralled by authorities into open-air camps just outside of Jacumba for days on end to await processing by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They had no access to water, food, shelter or even bathrooms. Local townspeople, loathe to see deaths on their doorstep, stepped in to help but were overwhelmed. Volunteers have served about 13,000 meals to migrants in the camps in the past two months, says John Schultz, a 26-year-old Jacumba resident who has joined a group of aid workers helping migrants at the camps. Karen Parker told me, "We're seeing seizures, diabetic emergencies, broken bones, burns, lots of burns." 

Images made under commission from NPR and WSJ over several months.