‘Tale of two borders’: how a US Covid-era rule shapes fate of migrants

Migrants cross into the US from the Mexico through a gap in the border wall separating the Mexican town of Algodones from Yuma, Arizona, on 16 May. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty Images

As hundreds of migrants line up along an Arizona border barrier at about 4am, agents try to separate them by nationality.

“Anyone from Russia or Bangladesh? I need somebody else from Russia here,” an agent shouts. Then, quietly, almost to himself, he says: “These are Romanian.”