Whiskey 8 is one of four open-air detention sites in the San Diego, California border region, west of the San Ysidro port of entry. The U.S. Border Patrol forces migrants who have crossed into the United States to wait at Whiskey 8 before being picked up for processing. In this enforcement zone, there are only four porta-potties and a makeshift water tank.
Since September 2023, the AFSC U.S.-Mexico Border Program, along with partner organizations, has been running a solidarity aid station that provides food, bottled water, and first aid. They also document the conditions migrants face in interactions with Border Patrol agents next to the secondary border wall at Whiskey 8.
This short documentary, "Atestiguar," covers one Sunday night shift at the solidarity station. It was created by Danielle Cosmes, AFSC human rights program associate.
"Atestiguar" is a short, observational documentary portraying the Solidarity Aid Station that has been operating at the Whiskey 8 Open-Air Detention Site in San Ysidro, California since September 2023. It follows Pedro Ríos, AFSC's U.S.-Mexico Border Program Director and longtime migrant justice advocate, as he covers a Sunday night shift at the station.
In covering shifts with my colleagues at Whiskey 8, I've learned the power of solidarity witnessing, as well as its limitations. With this dichotomy in mind, I made the documentary as a personal exercise of memory keeping. I hope to not forget what we have witnessed while accompanying migrant people waiting in between border walls and what feels like somatically to inhabit that physical space. I share it in an effort to make it a collective memory, too.
Solidarity with all displaced peoples globally. May borders fall and may we all come home freely and in this lifetime.
- Danielle Cosmes, AFSC Human Rights Program Associate
