Pictures from Sarah

Our first full day in Tucson, we visited the vigil at the University Medical Center for the victims of the recent shooting.

CC students at the vigil.  We were amazed and inspired by the amount of love and support for the victims and their families.

Tucsonians at the vigil.

We met with a member of the Sierra Club in Douglas to learn about the environmental impact of the wall.  The San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area is ecologically diverse, and the impact of the wall is quite incredible.  The Sierra Club has a "Wild vs. Wall" campaign to raise awareness to the oftentimes irreparable destruction that this symbol causes. The wall not only destroys natural and crucial habitat to many endangered and threatened species, but it also prevents the natural migration of these animals.
We then took a walk through the Conservation Area, and although we were adequately prepared with water and good shoes, we were all tired after our short walk in the desert.  It's disturbing to think that some migrants cross this desert in the summer months when the temperatures can reach more than 100 F, and that they do it without adequate food and water supplies, and without good shoes.

Every Tuesday night in Douglas, members of the Frontera de Cristo ministry remember the lives of those who have passed away while crossing the border.  The vigil was incredibly powerful, and a reminder that while the journey to cross the border is dangerous, but that people are willing to take such immense risks to come here.

This is also from Las Cruces, the vigil in Douglas.  Here, you can see the line to cross back into Mexico.  The line disappears around the corner, out of the frame of the photo; but the line is very long.

We toured the Border Patrol Station in Nogales, the largest station in the United States. We were greeted by about 5 agents, and each shook every single one of our hands.  Though it was easy to see that some of our tour was a bit showy, it was very interesting to learn about immigration from the law enforcement perspective.



Eliza, trip leader, explaining how the border wall divides Nogales, AZ and Nogales, Sonora of Mexico.



The Nogales sector of the border wall.  This photo looks out over Nogales, Sonora of Mexico.

CC students climbing on the border wall.

Day Four by Bernadette

The moon tonight was one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. Just outside the window of the Tohono O’odam reservation’s cultural center, I can see it rising, swollen and orange, framed by giant saguaro cacti. Stars are spreading brightly across the clear night sky, lighting up faint, far away wisps of clouds. To the east are the sacred Baboquivori Mountains where the creator resides. Beyond the home of the gods is Mexico.

It seems that this issue grows more complex every day.

Today we spoke to a county coroner. He explained statistics to us. As border control tightened over safer, urban crossing areas, people began crossing the deadly Sonoran desert in search of a better life. The desert killed many during the summer months, and some during cooler months. Neatly colored bars and graphs related the time of year, age of victim, and cause of death.

He showed us disturbing photographs of swollen, sun-dried bodies that were bleeding, mummified, or skeletal, depending on the stage in which they were found. He showed us how dentures and tattoos can help people identify family members. If this fails, clothing brands, or little holy cards with penciled in addresses, or love letters tucked into bras, or phone numbers written in wallets can help forensic specialists track down the families. After several days of drying in the sun, bodies are “unidentificado,” defined only by imperfect teeth, body ink, or small messages hidden in clothes. Everything they ever were or hoped to become is reduced to whatever ruins survived the desert sun. The number of unidentificados in recent years have surpassed the storage capacity of the county coroner’s office, so they have a refrigerator truck parked outside, holding the people who did not keep enough information on their wasted bodies.

Several days ago, we participated in Las Cruces. We joined a procession of people walking to the border wall, each of us holding a cross with the name of a victim of the desert. When it was my turn to read the name on my cross and cry the name of a victim, I shouted, “Unidentificado!” to the crowd, who yelled, “Presente!” I knew then that my victim was unidentified, but it was not until this morning that I understood why that person was unidentified. I did not quite grasp what it meant to be killed by the sun—killed by your own dreams.

Yesterday in the detention center, I saw girls my own age in a small glass room. They stared at me across the room of police and agents. I waved at them sheepishly, ashamed at my own good fortune of being born in the right country.

I also met border agents, who were young and frustrated. They said they were expected to hold back the Mississippi with a two-by-four. They patrolled the urban areas with the resources they had available to them, and left the desert as a natural barrier to illegal immigrants. However, the desert is no match for dreaming and people still come.

There is a church in Douglas where ranchers, undocumented people, border agents, and immigration activists worship together. They teach each others’ children how to love each other and know their god. They cook together and organize social events. Outside, they are enemies. Inside the walls of the church, they are one before God.

However, Christian activists in the community struggle for justice. Christ was a revolutionary and as a church, they must stand for the rights of the alien. A pastor told the story of the Good Samaritan, but with a new twist. What if the Good Samaritan kept finding bleeding people on the side of the road each week? Should he keep healing the people, or might it be time to fix the road? He calls for justice, but knows that he will alienate half his congregation, destroying the last refuge of cooperation, if the church takes a political stance.

Meanwhile, a woman is preventing domestic abuse through home visits and education. An Aztec man is teaching multiplication through dance, and wisdom through the wind blowing through the thin stretch of trees between his tiny schoolhouse and the highway. Young students are lugging Gatorade and pretzels through the desert trails, to leave survival packages for people who may not survive the journey. A small team of lawyers is teaching detainees their rights. Sierra Club scholars are documenting the pain the wall is inflicting on the natural world. A community of native people is struggling to balance humanity and survival, as their ancestral lands are cut in two and violence spills over onto sacred sites. Above a small mountain of flowers, balloons, and teddy bears, a Congresswoman is overcoming her wounds of crazy hatred and ignorance.

I don’t know what the answer is. I’ve seen reflections of tragedy that make me feel like the world is crazy. But I’ve also met quite a few people this week who are nothing less than heroes. The world is crazy and the solution is not simple. But people are dying. Let’s start there, and then deal with the politics of it all.

Day Three by Meg

Today we arrived in Nogales where we took a tour of the largest Border Patrol station in the country. The three agents who showed us around were incredibly friendly and in most cases open about what they do. We toured much more of the facility than I expected to see, including the detention room. People wait here in small holding rooms labeled as “Male,” “Female” or “Unaccompanied Minor.” The agents told us that their main goal is to apprehend terrorists and terrorist weapons entering the U.S. from Mexico. These people did not look like criminals. Most of them had saved all the money they had to pay someone to take them to the U.S. only to be swept up and shipped right back.

Nogales is a town literally divided by the wall separating Nogales, AZ and Nogales, Sonora. With the exception of the wall it seems like one continuous community. We went down to the wall this evening, and it felt really surreal. There’s a huge border patrol presence and harsh lights that stay on all night. The houses on the Mexico side were in much worse shape, like we were staring at a physical poverty line. The wall itself does not impede people from the crossing the border for more than five minutes. It is a very expensive symbol that screams “we don’t want you here.”

We also met with someone from the politically active alternative charter school called the Mexicayotl Academy here in Nogales. We spoke with an elegant, strong, and fierce, proud and self proclaimed Indian from the Michoacán and Azteca Nations, fluent in English, Spanish, and both of his indigenious languages. When we arrived, he asked us, “In your culture, who is your main citizen?” I wasn’t really sure what he meant. He went on to tell that for his culture the main citizen is Mother Earth. After having heard about all the environmental impacts of the border wall from a Sierra Club representative yesterday, it wasn’t hard to see how this clashed drastically with current U.S. immigration policy and culture in general. At the end of our visit with him, he told us “As long as I respect you and you respect me, we will be alright.” Respect, in turn comes from education and an understanding of a variety of different perspectives. Hearing so many perspectives and knowing where people come from and that their feelings are valid is the only way we can make any progress on this incredibly complex issue.

Day Two by Anna

What a day. What an incredible day.

We saw so many sides of the complex issues that are so pervasive in so many lives down here. These entwined themes of injustice, struggle for family welfare, abuse of the most vulnerable, fear of "other" and the unknown, and then compassion at its purest are heightened down here, but very much universal in nature.

Before coming down here I was fascinated by what goes on on the border but overwhelmed at the prospects of trying to understand all of the complexities and subtelties of the reality of immigration in our country. However, yesterday these sentiments were themselves overwhelmed by the contagious and inspiring nature of the people we met with. Time after time those fighting for immigration rights are shut down and lose cases to the formalities of time and immoral legislation. Yet their initial disheartenment seems to be quickly overshadowed by the conviction they have in the importance of the battles they are fighting.

The border is not at all what I expected it to be. The town of Douglas, Arizona, across the border from Agua Prieta, feels far more tranquil and peaceful than I imagined. We drove past the wall itself when we got in yesterday evening. The eerie floodlights overwhelmed our little white van as we drove down a lane a mere 20 meters from Mexico but other than a couple of Border Patrol officers sitting in their big trucks, all was still. There are indeed Border Patrol cars on almost every city block, and plenty of police cars speeding about, but otherwise the streets are quiet and people have been very friendly. As one man we spoke with today put it, it's not quite Mexico and it's not quite the United States.

As it has been explained to us a few times now, this town has a history of peace. Its location is absolutely at the heart of plenty of complications and issues, but the actual crime and violence rates are very small. However, the rest of the country does not see this reality and lives in fear of the border. This miscommunication has largely allowed for the militarization apparent down here, which has, arguably, in itself created more violence that ever existed before. The more heavy of a military presence, the less people are passing through quietly. Instead they are relying on coyotes and other human smuggling networks to get them across, many of which are ridden with violence and corruption that affect both the migrants and the residents of border communities. The stories we have heard here mirror the statistics we have read about how, as Border Patrol increases, so does the number of people crossing and the number of people dying. One would think that if further militarization of the border were working, it would have the opposite effect. The public is generally only shown this resultant violence, not the actual causes behind it. This inspires fear and therefore further reinforcement, and the cycle continues.

Back to experiencing Douglas: its location and controversies seem as though they might leave the town feeling like an identity-less middle ground. However, this is not the case for many who live here. Obviously there are lots of ways in which the two sides are unable to live in harmony, and I do not wish to downplay the horrific reality of so many. But we are used to hearing that side and today I started to understand the ways in which the combination of both worlds also creates a new, complex culture of its own. A pastor we met with today spoke of how important it has been for him to be able to raise his children here. He explained the concept of the border as a "place of encounter" rather than a "place of division." He is American and his wife Mexican. He explained that "bilingual education" has become a dirty word in much of Arizona, as kids are punished in local schools for speaking Spanish even outside of the classroom. He explained the importance of raising his children so that they are comfortable crossing borders, both literally and figuratively. They are used to hearing questions in English and responding in Spanish. They are used to seeing boundaries and crossing them daily. But they are also aware of the privilege that accompanies being able to cross as they please and every day they see the what happens to many people without these privileges. He spoke of the deep pain he feels on a regular basis becuase people are being humiliated on his behalf. People are denied basic human rights and overtly treated "like dogs", as many put it, on the behalf of "keeping our country safe." He spoke of how living on the border makes him feel like he is no longer avoiding the sufferings of the world, but instead living with amongst them, and how, in this, the joys have also become more pronounced.

I am seeing more than ever how truly frightening it is what we are capable of when we isolate ourselves from the humanity in one another. It is also truly incredible to see what immense changes and generosity come about when individuals are willing to see their connectedness and put their own privileges on the line for one another.

We ended our day watching the almost full moon glow above the setting sun as we participated in a vigil and helped lay down crosses of people who have died crossing the desert to the United States. Each cross was laid down on the side of the road just before the entrance to Mexico. Each person shouted the name on the cross or title of "no identificado" as they laid it down over the sound of traffic slowly passing by watching and the rest of the vigil yelled "presente."

Day One by Sarah and Casey

We arrived in Tucson last night after a 16 hour journey. After a good night's rest we all piled into the van and headed over to a local immigration defense attorney's office. There we discussed the complicated process of defending undocumented people. In the worst case scenerio, which unfortunately is most of the time, these attorneys buy people more time with their families before imminent deportation.  We also met with someone from the Florence Project, a nonprofit organization that provides legal counsel to detained, undocumented people.  This is such an important organization as immigrants do not have the same right to a public defender as a US citizen.  Just another reminder of how complex and drawn out the process of documentation is. 

We then visited the vigil for Congresswoman Giffords and the victims of last Saturday's shootings at University Hospital. Even a week later, many people were present to pay their respects and show their support. It's sad that a tragedy like this is the only thing that can bring our partisan country together, and it was inspiring to see hope even in the face of such an event.

After the vigil we headed to Douglas, making a stop at "historic" Tombstone where leather clad men toting moustaches run wild like the wilder days of the old west. Douglas, a small town right on the border, is no different than any other small American town. The only difference is three massive walls seperating the US and Mexico.

We're staying with one of Eliza's friends who she worked with at Border Action Network over the summer. We discussed some of the troubling consequences of increased militarization of the border. Our host told us about a specific injustice in which a documented Mexican family was assaulted by customs officers on their way to Mexico. The man is now facing possible deportation, his son's shoulder was dislocated, and his wife's existing medical condition was aggravated. We also discussed corruption in law enforcement and the overpaid, underachieving Border Patrol. Often times border patrol officers can be found sleeping on the job all the while earning $80,000--and that's entry level salary.

Already, we have found it difficult to organize the acronyms and legal jargon of immigration, and we are becoming far more aware of how complex and multi-faceted this issue really is.  We have already met so many interesting people who have remained so positive and optimistic despite the significance of this issue in their lives.  We are looking forward to another packed and inspiring day tomorrow.

Immigration and US-Mexico Border trip

Friends, Family, and Folks,

This blog will follow our week long journey through southern Arizona.  Over the course of this up coming week the ten of us will jump into one of the most relevant regions in the discussion of immigration politics.  We will explore immigration topics and the border situation from a number of perspectives--including immigration lawyers, community organizers, the border patrol, environmentalists, and more. Coupled with the geographic relevance, we are also entering the immigration field in an incredibly timely manner.  With the passage of SB1070 last summer and the horrifying events of last Saturday, it is needless to say that immigration is at the forefront of the Arizonan political reality.   

We will use this blog as a space for reflection and story telling.  Please feel free to comment or ask questions and we'll do our best to respond. 

Thank you,

Eliza Wicks-Arshack
Trip Leader