A migrant walks atop a freight train known as “The Beast” in Piedras Negras, Mexico. Migrants and asylum seekers lacking the financial resources to pay a smuggler often resort to using cargo trains to reach the United States border. This mode of transportation is very dangerous; over the years, hundreds have fallen onto the tracks and have been killed or mutilated. Thousands more have fallen victim to extortion, rape, kidnapping, or robbery orchestrated by drug cartels or corrupt authorities in various stops along the train’s northward route.
2024 Photo Contest, World Press Photo Long-Term Project Award

The Two Walls

Photographer

Alejandro Cegarra

The New York Times/Bloomberg
08 October, 2023

A migrant walks atop a freight train known as “The Beast” in Piedras Negras, Mexico. Migrants and asylum seekers lacking the financial resources to pay a smuggler often resort to using cargo trains to reach the United States border. This mode of transportation is very dangerous; over the years, hundreds have fallen onto the tracks and have been killed or mutilated. Thousands more have fallen victim to extortion, rape, kidnapping, or robbery orchestrated by drug cartels or corrupt authorities in various stops along the train’s northward route.

Since 2019, Mexico's immigration policies have undergone a significant shift, transforming from a nation historically open to migrants and asylum seekers at its southern border to a country that enforces stringent immigration policies. A series of compounding factors – evolving immigration and foreign policies under successive US administrations, the imposition of COVID-19 protocols, and political and economic instability across Central and South America – contribute to an ongoing crisis at Mexico’s borders. Furthermore, US implementation of expedited deportation policies, initially under the guise of COVID-19 concerns through "Title 42," and later under "Title 8," which criminalized repeated attempts to cross the border, has left thousands stranded in Mexican border cities. These areas, often under the control of corrupt authorities and drug cartels, force migrants and asylum seekers to wait indefinitely in improvised camps where they are exposed to heightened risks of violence and precarious living conditions.

The collaboration between the US and Mexico to deny asylum and enforce harsh migration policies has fortified barriers for those seeking refuge. The physical, psychological, and administrative obstacles erected by these policies symbolize the shutting of doors once open to those most in need of safety.

Drawing from his own first-hand experience of migrating from his native Venezuela to Mexico in 2017, photographer Alejandro Cegarra initiated this project in 2018. His work documents the plight of deeply vulnerable migrant communities with respect and sensitivity. Through his photography, he hopes to foster greater understanding, empathy, and solidarity toward those on the frontlines of the global migration crisis.


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Alejandro Cegarra
About the photographer

Alejandro Cegarra (b.1989) is a photographer from Venezuela whose work explores the essence of belonging, the pursuit of a home, and the denunciation of human rights violations in Venezuela and Mexico, where he currently resides. Cegarra began his career in photojournalism by filling in for photographers at Venezuel...

Read the full biography
Technical information
Shutter Speed

1/5000

ISO

800

Camera

Sony ILCE-7M3

Jury comment

This project is an example of dynamic, world-class storytelling. The images are at once unsparing and respectful, and convey the intimate emotions present in diverse migrant journeys. The concern of migration resonates across the region and the jury felt that this photographer's own positionality as a migrant afforded a sensitive human centered perspective that centers the agency and resilience of migrants.