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.