What's really happening on the frontlines of the border crisis | Erin Hughes

The Nick Halaris Show

This week on The Nick Halaris Show we are featuring Erin Hughes, the co-founder and Executive Director of Solidarity Engineering, an organization dedicated to using engineering to protect the public health of communities in crisis. They got their start back in 2020 by providing clean water and sanitation facilities at asylum-seeker camps that formed as a result of the controversial Remain in Mexico policy. Now, they are providing humanitarian support at camps across the US-Mexico border and around the region. Their primary focus is on water, sanitation, and hygiene programs, but they also build playgrounds, provide STEAM education, and engage in data-driven advocacy.

I wanted to have Erin on the show to highlight her incredibly courageous story and get the perspective of someone who has actual on-the-ground experience at the border. The news coverage of the border situation seems so rife with hyperbole and untrustworthy information, I really wanted to talk to someone who is actually there and see what’s happening firsthand. I had high hopes for this conversation and it did not disappoint. Please tune in to this important episode to learn:

• How an award-winning This American Life podcast episode inspired Erin to drop everything, quit her job, and head down to Mexico to try to make a difference
• Why she spent the pandemic building water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure for some of the most vulnerable people in the world
• How the asylum system used to work, what’s happening now, why it’s so broken, and what we should do about it
• The surprising demographics of asylum seekers
• The terrible role that drug cartels play in the migration ecosystem and how they are using dangerous conditions along the way, like in the Darian Gap, to their advantage
• & Much, much more

Stay tuned to the end to hear why Erin believes that pressure from climate change, failed States, drug trafficking, and global conflict means that large-scale migration is here to stay.

As always, I hope you all enjoy this episode. Thanks for tuning in!

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