An all-female engineering team is working to improve migrant facilities in Reynosa

HIDALGO, Texas (Border Report) – A woman-run U.S. engineering firm is helping build infrastructure to improve the lives of some 1,200 asylum seekers currently living in two main shelters in the dangerous northern Mexican city of Reynosa.

Erin Hughes, executive director of the nonprofit Solidarity Engineering, says each shelter currently houses more than 600 migrants, most of whom live in hot, enclosed tents on the sprawling grounds.

They are also helping about 70 migrants living on the Rio Grande in a makeshift camp called Camp Rio.

“It’s hard for most of these people. It’s incredibly hot right now, and it’s only going to get hotter. And water is limited. Access to shade and shelter is limited. Most of them are living in really hot tents with no fans, no air conditioning, no relief,” Hughes told Border Report on Tuesday at the entrance to the McAllen-Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge.

Since 2020, he has been coming to South Texas to offer help to his nonprofit.

She and two other founders of Solidarity Engineering met in 2019 at the U.S.-Mexico border when she learned about a then-sprawling migrant camp along the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico, about 55 miles east of Reynosa.

At one point, this camp grew to over 5,000 people, and her organization helped provide much-needed water and other infrastructure.

However, changes in U.S. immigration policy and the whims of Mexican cartels are constantly changing the geographic dynamics of the border, and the number of migrants in one border city will increase while in another it will decline.

“There was never a point where migrants stopped coming. We must therefore continue to provide essential services to these people. Solidarity Engineering provides clean drinking water, hygienic and safe functional bathroom facilities. We build playgrounds. We teach STEM classes,” Hughes said.

There are more migrants waiting in Reynosa right now, and Hughes said everyone in the camps is trying to make an asylum appointment through the CBP One app so they can legally get to U.S. ports of entry and apply for asylum.

But with fewer than 1,500 asylum appointments a day across the southwest border, migrants often wait weeks and sometimes months to get an appointment.

“Even with the changes to asylum, people are still arriving at the border and getting stuck,” she said.

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden announced changes to asylum that will limit the number of migrants considered for asylum if they cross the border illegally and not without being met at CBP One.

This has caused even more people to wait south of the border, she added.

That’s why, she says, it’s so important that her group improves living conditions so that migrants can endure the wait.

People who cross the border illegally and are returned under the new executive order could face a five-year ban from re-entering the United States.

Hughes lives in Pennsylvania, but travels several times each year to the South Texas border and Mexican border towns.

She says what she sees breaks her heart.

He says many migrants don’t have money for phone minutes or even the smartphones required to run the CBP One app, which allows them to meet face-to-face with a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer.

Her organization accepts donations and grants and, according to Border Report, “we’ve been doing this for several years and can really spend a dollar.”

Anyone wishing to donate can visit the Solidarity Engineering website.

They distribute hygiene kits and special bags with prenatal vitamins and clothes for newborns to future mothers. They distribute toys and diapers to families, and they even built a soccer field in Matamoros.

They offer weekly STEAM classes in science, technology, engineering, art and math for migrant children. Last week, they built an erupting volcano that even attracted adults, she said.

Nevertheless, she is aware of the dangers of crossing the border and how Mexican cartels control Reynosa and many other border towns in the state of Tamaulipas, where the U.S. Department of State warns against travel.

“Not only is Reynosa a dangerous city, but the industry we work in — asylum seekers — is a moneymaker for the cartels. So you really have to keep your cool and be smart about what you’re doing,” Hughes said.

On Friday, the State Department issued a warning about a bus kidnapping in Reynosa.

Hughes is a new mother with a 9-month-old daughter and says she feels especially sorry for pregnant women and families who have to survive in these hot and inhumane conditions south of the border.

Her group is currently embarking on a new project to build a park, picnic area and playground not only for the shelter migrants, but also for nearby Reynosa residents.

As a new mother, she says she understands how important it is for children to have fun, and she says she intends to provide that south of the border.

“It’s really sad to see them playing with broken toys and gravel, giving them some semblance of normality. Providing something just for children – a playground and park – so they can interact and play with each other. “It’s a really important part of maintaining a little bit of normality in their lives,” she said.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at [email protected].