At present, there are more than 117 million displaced persons around the world. In recent years, the US Southern border has experienced a surge of migrants fleeing increased violence and economic crisis in Haiti, Venezuela, and across Central and South America. In 2020, title 42 was reactivated restricting immigration at land borders in an effort to curb the spread of infectious disease amid the pandemic. As a result, border authorities expanded deportations and access restrictions, leading to record numbers of migrants and asylum seekers to be forcefully removed from the US or held in legal stasis. With humanitarian exemption granted to some, but not all, the policy has caused unprecedented pressure on not only the US borders but legal systems and ultimately those making arduous and often dangerous journeys for their human right to safety and a better life.

Recent events, including a fatal fire killing at least 39 migrants at a detention center in Juarez, have demonstrated how dangerous the journey has become and has exacerbated socio-political and geopolitical confrontations in the US and Mexico. The scale of the crisis has also caused it to become increasingly abstract in contemporary discourse, serving more as a tool for hard-line immigration and xenophobic political campaigns than reflective of the personal lives and stories of those who take on this journey.

Drawing from his personal ties and documentary exploration of ongoing crises in his home country of Venezuela, Oscar B. Castillo in partnership with Wil Sands, spent months documenting and collaborating with migrants in Mexico and at the US border. BordersCruzadas is the result of shared efforts to present a visual, evidentiary case for urgent, effective and coordinated public policy and humanitarian aid of the globally displaced. A preview of this project is currently on view at the AWP Gallery, with the expanded exhibition on view in The Hague in June 2023.