Asylum seekers blocked from seeking protection in the US say conditions in Mexican border areas are increasingly dire.
![In the Mexican border city of Reynosa, home to nearly one million people, hundreds of families are camped out in a central plaza waiting for a chance to cross the border into the United States [Dylan Baddour/Al Jazeera]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/IMG_2643.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)

Asylum seekers blocked from seeking protection in the US say conditions in Mexican border areas are increasingly dire.
![In the Mexican border city of Reynosa, home to nearly one million people, hundreds of families are camped out in a central plaza waiting for a chance to cross the border into the United States [Dylan Baddour/Al Jazeera]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/IMG_2643.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
Laredo, in the US and Nuevo Laredo, in Mexico are like one city – pandemic closures created losses hard to reclaim.
![The border closure saw northbound crossings on the area’s main pedestrian bridge fall by about 60 percent [Dylan Baddour/Al Jazeera]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/image2.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
New boundaries drawn by Republican-led legislature appear to disadvantage the growing Hispanic population.
![A woman casts her ballot in the 2020 general election inside the Basset Place mall in El Paso, Texas on November 3, 2020 [Justin Hamel/AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/000_8UG6TW.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
New law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy fuels desperate scramble to find and provide abortion services.
![Women marched on October 2 at the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas, to protest recently passed legislation banning most abortions [Stephen Spillman/AP Photo]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/AP21275679977818.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
In a camp housing asylum seekers in Matamoros, Mexico, one woman’s school helps migrant students get an education.

In Mexico’s Matamoros, thousands of asylum seekers wait in an encampment for their asylum cases to be heard in the US.

Organisers of Thursday’s strike that brought out indigenous groups, students, labour unions call for a repeat on Monday.

Ecuador set to become latest South American country to implement strict visa requirements for Venezuelans.
![Venezuelans race to Ecuador [Pu Ying Huang/Al Jazeera]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/8522d0ac037a4089b31b336aaebbeda0_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
Rights groups say Colombia unprepared to deal with another humanitarian crisis as new wave of Venezuela migrants arrive.

The UN Security Council makes four-day visit to Colombia to check in on the implementation of the landmark agreement.
