Elisa Filippone, an activist with Angry Tias and Abuelas, crosses the U.S.-Mexico border almost every single day to distribute food and clothing to those waiting for a chance to enter the country.

She’s both humanitarian and hero.

“This community (Brownsville) is angry because what we’re doing at the bridges shouldn’t be happening,” Filippone says.

“Before the zero-tolerance policy was made public, people used to walk the entire bridge, walk into the Ameican Customs building and make a claim for asylum there,” she says. “After the zero-tolerance policy, CBP placed their agents in the middle of the bridges to prevent people from walking in.”

The new policy stopped the flow of migration, and now people are waiting in Matamoros to make an asylum claim. The three shelters in Matamoros are at full capacity, which puts the remaining people who are fleeing violence at home, in an ever-growing tent city.

Filippone says, “It can be my sister. It could be me. I just happened to be born in Texas by an accident. Another woman, who just happened to be born in Guatemala, she values freedom. She values the same as me.”