Experiencing the Border

In my last post I promised to write about my experience on the Mexican side of the border from a trip with an organization called BorderLinks. BorderLinks takes delegation groups (college groups, youth groups, law school students, various interest groups, etc...) on trips across the border to educate them about border issues on the Mexican side. We were only gone for three days and two nights, but it seemed like at least a week because it was so packed with intense information. Our group (the Tucson YAVs and the four YAVs from Hollywood, CA) started in Tucson with an introduction to the border by Rev. John Fife. This extraordinary man started the Sanctuary Movement in the 1980's for central American refugees fleeing from their homelands during periods of military violence. He organized an underground railroad of sorts to host refugees from these countries who were being recognized by the US as illegal immigrants instead of refugees. When deported many of these people would have to face the death squads in their home countries who they were fleeing from in the first place. He was taken to court and eventually got the national policy changed, to make a long story short. He brought up the point that the Church has historically been strong in taking care of marginalized peoples' temporary needs by providing charity (soup kitchens, clothing drives etc.), but has not been strong historically in fighting the root causes of marginalization. The charity aspect is absolutely critical, because people do have daily needs, but it is really like treating the burns without lifting your hand from the flames. This brings about another huge question:
is it morally right to go against a law that one knows is inhumane? Also, what should be the government's role in eradicating the causes of marginalization in our country? These are of course questions that our country has been wrestling with for many decades, but it is interesting to attack these questions from the perspective of a border town.

Our first stop in Mexico was Nogales. Immediately after crossing the border we were in a third world country. The streets were awful (not to mention the drivers!) and most of the buildings, especially houses, did not seem to be structurally sound. I won't be able to say every stop we made, since it would take forever, but I'll go over some highlights. We hung out at the Wall and admired some pieces of art that had been painted and sculpted on the Mexican side of the Wall. We met up with the artists, who were able to explain their intentions with the art. That night a couple trip mates and I stayed in a Mexican family's house... well it was on its way to becoming a house anyway. The mother's name was Blanca and the hospitality given to us was incredible. Their house had cinder block walls and a roof made from a piece of tin with holes in it. There was no door and the family was exposed to more weather than people in a house should be. Despite this they cooked us two wonderful meals and their two boys gave up their room so that we could have beds to sleep in. The next day we visited the Center for Repatriated Minors, which was especially sad to see. These were minors who were caught trying to cross the border, who had been sent back to this center to be sent back to their home towns.

One of the most striking points of the trip came when we visited Altar (pronounced All-tar). This is the main jump off point for migrants who are planning to cross the border. There are crowds of people, who are from all over, waiting in the town square, and there are backpack vendors and water vendors lining the streets, obviously selling supplies to migrants planning on making the journey. We also visited a "guest house" for migrants, which was a run down room full of bunk beds that had pieces of plywood instead of mattresses. The floor was covered in flies that were feeding on dried bodily fluids and each migrants was charged 50 pesos per night, which is a night ($5), which does not seem like much until you realized that these people are making an average of $3 per day. In order to eat they are charged another 35 pesos. Along one side of the town square there are large white vans lined up, which are driven by Coyotes (people who charge huge fees to smuggle migrants into the US), just waiting to pick up a van full of migrants to take them to a remote part of the desert where they can walk for 3 days to make it into the US. One man who we talked with asked if it was hard to cross the desert and after getting over my shock I told him, through and interpreter, that yes it is extremely difficult and many people die in the process. Coyotes tend to lie to migrants to make the trip seem like it will be a piece of cake. We obviously stuck out like sore thumbs in this crowd and I felt a little guilty for taking a trip to observe these struggling people. But I have to remind myself that being educated about this process is not mere tourism.

That night we slept on the floor of a migrant shelter (different than the barf-covered floors of the guest house) run by the Catholic church in the area. Here we got the chance to share a meal with some migrants planning to cross the desert. When we got back to Tucson we spent some time in the federal court and got the chance to talk with a judge about immigration law. That was a real treat and we had a great discussion. I made a promise with myself before leaving for Tucson that I would stay open minded to all perspectives of the issues on the border and I will continue to keep that promise. I have found it important, however, to learn more about a few things that will be crucial when one is forming an opinion about undocumented workers and immigration policy. First, I strongly recommend learning more about the history of the US-Mexico border. It is important to learn about the trends of the past and the history of immigration policy along this border. Another important piece in learning the motivation for migrants to come to the US is to look at economic policies and partnerships between our countries. One of the main policies that is important is called the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). One term in this agreement was that Mexico would stop agricultural subsidies to its farmers, which drove the prices of their crops way up and allowed US crops to be sold much cheaper in Mexico. Thousands of farmers were driven out of business in this way. I said earlier in this post that the average person in Nogales is making around $3 per day, which does not cut it. These are a couple initial factors to take into consideration when making up one's mind about comprehensive immigration policy reform. I would love to hear anyone's opinion on anything written in this post or anyone's opinion about border policy in general. Salud!