11-05-2025
'Everything is sad.' Families protest border separations after Hugs Not Walls canceled
JUÁREZ, Mexico — Irma García López looked out over the Rio Grande towards the border fence that separates the United States from Mexico and separates her from her daughter.
She had hoped to have embraced her daughter as part of the Hugs Not Walls event that was originally scheduled for Mother's Day in Mexico, May 10. The abrupt cancelation of the event after the permits were revoked by the Trump administration came as a painful shock for her.
"It is sad that they are not allowing us to embrace," García López said, holding a red rose in her hands. "The event is not as exciting and joyful as other years have been. Everything is sad. We didn't expect that the U.S. government didn't let us go to the river and meet."
She had learned that the event was canceled on Wednesday, May 7, from a message on Whatsapp.
Her daughter, Sara López, looked south towards Juárez feeling the same disappointment, especially as the family is passing through a difficult time.
"It is May 10 and I wanted to hug her," López said. "We have lost two family members this month and I wanted to give her a hug so she knows that I am with her, even though I am far away, and that my heart is there supporting her in her grief."
It has been nearly 13 years since López, 42, has been able to gather with her family in Juárez. The Hugs Not Walls event, organized by the El Paso-based Border Network for Human Rights, an immigrant advocacy group, has become the only chance the family gets to gather and embrace.
Both López and her mother joined around 100 other people wearing pink and yellow shirts on either side of the border to protest family separations and that the Trump administration had revoked the permits for the Hugs Not Walls annual event due to the extension of the border military zone into El Paso.
Border Network for Human Rights originally planned to hold the Hugs Not Walls on Mexican Mother's Day, May 10. The protest was coordinated under the banner "Madres de la Frontera: Love without borders" to denounce policies that lead to family separation.
"Because the Department of Defense has labeled the area that we typically do [Hugs Not Walls] a military buffer zone, we were not able to do it," Samantha Singleton, the policy director at the Border Network for Human Rights, said. "In lieu of Hugs Not Walls it is a protest showing that even though there are borders that love doesn't stop and we are going to continue to help families be together."
U.S. soldiers and U.S. Border Patrol vehicles briefly arrived on the opposite side of the Rio Grande as the protest began, a reminder of why the families who stood on the banks of the river could not embrace their loved ones on Mother's Day.
The Department of Defense announced the establishment of a 170-mile-long, 60-foot-wide stretch of land that runs along the U.S.-Mexico border from El Paso through New Mexico to the Arizona border as a National Defense Area in April. The border militarization follows President Donald Trump's executive order declaring a national emergency at the southern border, calling the arrival of migrants an "invasion."
The number of migrants currently crossing the border is at a historically low level.
The Trump administration began considering a military zone along the New Mexico border in March. The National Defense area empowers the U.S. military to detain any person who unlawfully crosses the border onto military land in the United States until they can be turned over to immigration authorities.
A second National Defense area was announced on May 1, southeast of El Paso, and falls under the command of Fort Bliss.
The border militarization's further separation of families on Mother's Day weekend led to outcry from El Paso politicians. U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, and El Paso West-Central city Rep. Josh Acevedo joined the families in their Mother's Day protest Saturday, both condemned the separation of the families.
"This is one of the best times when [families] can hug for three minutes," Acevedo said. "I believe that having this alternate event is really important to show that there are a lot of people that believe that we should be able to have more compassion and more humanity."
Escobar condemned the Trump administration's arbitrary cancelation of the event.
"Here we are facing a very different event than usual because we have an administration devoid of compassion and humanity," Escobar said. "But we will continue moving forward; we will continue fighting together, not only for this community but for this region, for dignity … we will continue together until every family in this region is reunited."
The separated families released balloons on either side of the border wall, and families in the U.S. placed roses on the rusted border wall that keeps them from their loved ones.
White balloons floated up from the U.S. side of the border and flew south, following the red balloons released by family members on the Mexico side of the border.
The distance created by being separated from loved ones weighs on the families.
"Being separated for many years and [U.S.] government didn't allow us to see each other, to be close," García López said, as a tear fell down her cheek. "It is very sad."
Her daughter, López, had originally gone to the United States to seek medical attention for her daughter, who developed health problems as a child. Her daughter is now receiving attention and is now 17 years old.
The families who gathered on the border hope that the Hugs Not Walls event returns in the future, and that the further militarization of the border will not keep families apart.
Jeff Abbott covers the border for the El Paso Times and can be reached at:jdabbott@ on Twitter or @ on Bluesky. Gaby Velasquez contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Families denounce border militarization, separation on Mother's Day
