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Cross-country bike ride brings attention to migrant crisis

2 years 5 months 1 week ago Sunday, October 17 2021 Oct 17, 2021 October 17, 2021 2:09 PM October 17, 2021 in News - Local

Cyclists on a cross-country bike ride made a stop in the Valley, as they hope to get the White House's attention and help end the Remain in Mexico policy, set to go back into effect next month following a federal judges ruling. 

The We the People bike ride started nearly 1600 miles away from the Rio Grande Valley in California. 

Cyclists from across the country united to encourage others to call for a "Common Good approach" to the nation's immigration and border practices."

"A lot of the people in the rest of America, as you might know, they don't know what happens at the border," Cyclist Doug Pagitt said. "They only see certain stories."

Pagitt has been riding along the U.S. Mexico Border since Sept. 11. He and fellow bike riders made a stop in McAllen on their cross-country trip to meet with asylum seekers across the border in Reynosa.

"Heartbreak from migrants and asylum seekers who are forced to remain in Mexico," Pagitt said. "Heartbreak of Border Patrol who have had to save the lives of people crossing the desert. We've seen the heartbreak of people who work in humanitarian and religious communities." 

Pagitt says the ride is bringing each rider closer to understanding what some migrants go through. The cyclists say hearing migrant stories and telling them across the country could bring change to immigration policies. 

"So often these same people have one attitude when they're thinking about their faith and then another attitude when they think about their politics," Pagitt said. "We want them to have the same level of compassion and goodness and care when they vote and the people they support— politically, as they do when they think about their faith." 

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