BorderLinks

They’re coming to simply survive.


In preparation for Justice GA in Phoenix, Ariz., (June 20-24, 2012) the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) have jointly organized three Service Learning trips to the U.S.-Mexico border with our partner organization,BorderLinks. The most recent trip took place from May 25-28. In this blogpost trip participant Julie Amery reflects on the experiences the delegation had, and how they relate to our country’s self-understanding. The BorderLinks service learning trips are made possible through the generous contributions of UUA and UUSC donors.

Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

Julie overlooking Nogales, Sonora from HEPAC.

I was in fifth grade, I was required to memorize “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, the words engraved at the base of the Statue of Liberty. It was part of our unit on immigration, when we learned about America as the great melting pot of cultures, a land that offered hope to people who needed it.

Though I have for some time been aware of the complications and injustices around current immigration issues, I guess a part of me still held these words close to my heart and somewhere inside, I still clung to the belief that we’re a nation where the oppressed can find some comfort and relief. Crazy to believe, considering what I had read and heard. But it was only when I saw the wall right in front of me—the wall that keeps Mexicans and people further south from entering our country—that it really sunk in. The beautiful words of Emma Lazarus speak of a drastically different America.

That’s so often the case, though. We can be aware of a bad or unjust situation, but until we have some personal connection to it or an experience with it, it’s intellectualized. We can be angry or frustrated, we can even fight effectively to stop it, but I think until it somehow becomes personal, our hearts aren’t completely engaged. At least, that’s how it is with me.

Walking along the wall, on both sides of the border, was just one of the many such experiences on my recent trip to Tucson as part of the UUA’s delegation to Borderlinks.

We also sat in a US District Courtroom in Tucson and watched as 70 men and women were sentenced—all within a span of 45 minutes—for illegally entering the country and led out in shackles. Some would be heading to prison, others to a detention center and others dropped back at the border.

We sat in the home of Celeste and her four children in the poor, filthy and crime-ridden city of Nogales, Mexico, where we ate belly-warming chicken soup and heard about how she and her family had gone to the US for a few years, just so that they could save to buy this tiny structure that sits in a slum. Yet her warmth and hospitality trumped the surroundings.

We talked with Jeanette Pazos, the passionate and compassionate executive director of Hogar de Esperanza y Paz (Home of Hope and Peace) which provides meals to children in Nogales who wouldn’t otherwise eat, and helps poor women build skills so that they can earn a little money as well as some dignity.

We walked in the Arizona desert, finding jackets, backpacks, and worn out shoes—one of which would fit a child of about eight years.

We spoke with migrants who had just been sent back across the border, and with the people who help them with medical and transportation needs. We worshiped in a Mexican Presbyterian church, where we were welcomed like old friends. We spoke with undocumented students in the US—bright students, top in their respective classes—who can’t get financial aid for college without social security numbers. We learned about how NAFTA helped to create the severe poverty that drives people here.

Over and over, one simple idea was reinforced from nearly everyone we met.  People come to our country from the south for really one sole purpose: to feed and shelter their families. People in Mexico are starving. Children are starving. They aren’t coming here to achieve the American dream. They’re coming to simply survive.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

At the Border Wall in Nogales: Marshall and Carolyn
At the Border Wall in Nogales
Children in Nogales
Nogales, Sonora
Julie overlooking Nogales, Sonora from Hogar de Esperanza y Paz.
Items found in the desert near Nogales
Items found in the desert near Nogales
Items found in the desert near Nogales
Delegation participants: Cat, Julie, and Gay Ann.

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May BorderLinks trip begins

In preparation for Justice GA in Phoenix, Ariz., (June 20-24, 2012) the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) have jointly organized three Service Learning trips to the U.S.-Mexico border with our partner organization, BorderLinks. In this blogpost Rev. Eric Cherry, the Director of the UUA’s International Office, describes what is planned for the third trip which will begin on May 25th. The BorderLinks service learning trips are made possible through the generous contributions of UUA and UUSC donors.

It was a privilege to journey with Unitarian Universalists who are engaged in a diverse array of ministries during the BorderLinks delegation last January.  And last month (April) a second UUA/UUSC delegation had an equally powerful experience. Together the people on these delegations grew in understanding the complex justice issues related to the US/Mexico border.  They also found room for theological reflection about those matters.  And, through the eye-to-eye and heart-to-heart connections with people living in this context, each returned deeply committed to the ongoing religious work for immigration justice.

The participants in this third UUA/UUSC delegation are also faith leaders engaged in diverse ministries: lay and ordained, in both parish and community settings.  And, they are sure to have  a deep and rich experience that will include visits with:

  • Scholarships A-Z: A network of students and advisors working to make education accessible for all students. They help connect students to available resources and train them to be their own advocates.
  • Grupos Beta: A Federal Mexican Organization that has offices along the northern and southern borders of Mexico and one in D.F.  There mission is to protect the migrant.
  • The Green Valley Samaritans: Volunteers who to into the desert on water runs and searches  Their goal is to help protect any migrants they come across in the desert, in an effort to prevent deaths along the border region.
  • Hogar de Esperanza y Paz (HEPAC): HEPAC is a sister organization to BorderLinks and a community center in Nogales, Sonora. Programs offered at HEPAC include adult education and training classes, and the Child Food Security Program, which provides lunch to children and education for their families on nutrition and gardening. HEPAC also is home to a women’s cooperative that produces jewelry that raises awareness about deaths in the desert.
  • Observing Operation Streamline and analyzing its injustices with legal professionals who confront it constantly.

Further stories from the journey will be posted  after the trip.  Please come back to see the reflections of the participants.

 

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BorderLinks: Putting a Human Face on the Border Crisis

In preparation for Justice GA in Phoenix, Ariz., (June 20-24, 2012) the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) have jointly organized three Service Learning trips to the U.S.-Mexico border with our partner organization, BorderLinks. The most recent trip took place from April 20th – 23rd. In this blogpost trip participant Chris Rothbauer reflects on the various forms of oppression he observed, and the optimism that prevails, along the border. The BorderLinks service learning trips are made possible through the generous contributions of UUA and UUSC donors.

A major focus of my social justice work has been on anti-racism and anti-oppression. During my first year of seminary, I’ve worked at Fairness Campaign in Louisville, Kentucky, an anti-oppression organization which focuses on LGBT and race issues. I am chair of the Welcoming Congregation committee at my church. And I’ve marched in solidarity with the Egyptian people as they demanded their freedom. So, when I saw the UUA and UUSC co-sponsored BorderLinks trip advertised, it was a no-brainer that I should go and witness to the inhumane treatment of undocumented workers along the border. Little did I know how much the trip would challenge me.

It’s easy to read about border issues in abstract, but this trip has put a very human face on the people directly affected by the crisis on the border. I was able to talk with recently released detainees staying in Tucson, listen to deported migrants in Nogales, Mexico who are seeking medical attention after their arduous trip and trying to figure out what to do next, and take a pilgrimage through the Sonora Desert, retracing the steps of countless migrants who have travelled through, seeking a better life for themselves and their families. Unfortunately, some were not successful, and this point is driven home by a shrine to a deceased migrant.

Along the way, I loved that I was able to encounter the humanity in those I encountered. While having lunch in the home of a Mexican family, I realized the conditions some families have to endure everyday: Dirt floors, corrugated metal roofs with holes, and steps made out of old tires. Yet, this family was optimistic: Their daughter is going to college and they were rejoicing the birth of their first great-grandchild. And, along the way, I saw both smiles embracing life and frowns weary of the arduous nature of their trek. Yet I saw hope in both sets: A hope for a future that would somehow be easier. Even those who had just been deported expressed hope they could make the crossing again and rejoin their families.

It is my sincere belief that it is impossible to address one form of oppression without addressing every other. The oppression I witnessed against those on the border is intimately tied to racial, class, gender, and even LGBT issues (we met a transgendered migrant who is afraid to return to Mexico for her own safety). The women and men I met are each being oppressed at the systematic level for a variety of reasons. My previous experience in anti-racism and anti-oppression work gave me a solid foundation for recognizing the oppression at work in the lives of undocumented workers, but could not prepare me to experience, face-to-face, the oppression these people suffer just for the chance of a better life.

BIOGRAPHY: Chris Rothbauer is a first year MDiv student at Meadville Lombard Theological School. He has worked with anti-oppression agencies such as Fairness Campaign in Louisville, Kentucky, Showing Up for Racial Justice, and Amnesty International. Chris is a member of Clifton Universalist Unitarian Church in Louisville, Kentucky and will be the Intern Minister of First Unitarian Church in Louisville starting in the Fall of 2012.

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April BorderLinks Delegation Prepares to Begin

In preparation for Justice GA in Phoenix, Ariz., (June 20-24, 2012) the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) have jointly organized three Service Learning trips to the U.S.-Mexico border with our partner organization, BorderLinks. In this blogpost Rev. Eric Cherry, the Director of the UUA’s International Office, describes what is planned for the second trip which will begin on April 20th. The BorderLinks service learning trips are made possible through the generous contributions of UUA and UUSC donors.

It was a privilege to journey with Unitarian Universalists who are engaged in a diverse array of ministries during the BorderLinks delegation last January.  Together we grew in our understanding of the complex justice issues related to the US/Mexico border.  We also found room for theological reflection about those matters.  And, through the eye-to-eye and heart-to-heart connections with people living in this context, we returned deeply committed to the ongoing religious work for immigration justice.

The participants in the upcoming delegation are also faith leaders engaged in diverse ministries: lay and ordained, in both parish and community settings.  And, they are sure to have  a deep and rich experience that will include visits with:

  • Scholarships A-Z: A network of students and advisors working to make education accessible for all students. They help connect students to available resources and train them to be their own advocates.
  • The Restoration Project: An intentional ecumenical community that blends faith and action through social justice work. They sponsor the Greyhound Bus Project, giving hospitality to recently released immigration detainees and providing them with information and resources.
  • Samaritan Patrol (a.k.a. Samaritans): People of faith and conscience who patrol the desert at the U.S.-Mexico border on a daily basis during the hot months. At least one member of each patrol is a fluent Spanish speaker, and one is, ideally, a medical professional. Patrols carry water, food, emergency medical supplies, communication equipment, maps, and packs for travelers containing items necessary to survive in the desert.
  • Hogar de Esperanza y Paz (HEPAC): HEPAC is a sister organization to BorderLinks and a community center in Nogales, Sonora. Programs offered at HEPAC include adult education and training classes, and the Child Food Security Program, which provides lunch to children and education for their families on nutrition and gardening. HEPAC also is home to a women’s cooperative that produces jewelry that raises awareness about deaths in the desert.
  • Observing Operation Streamline and analyzing its injustices with legal professionals who confront it constantly.

Stories from the journey will be posted here during and after the trip.  Please come back to see the reflections of the participants.

 

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From the Road: Nogales

In preparation for Justice GA in Phoenix, Ariz., (June 20-24, 2012) the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) have jointly organized three Service Learning trips to the U.S.-Mexico border with our partner organization, BorderLinks. The first trip began on Tuesday, Jan. 24, and continued until Jan. 27. The delegation was led by UUA President, the Rev. Peter Morales, who encourages UUs throughout the country to participate in one of the Service Learning trips planned for April and May with BorderLinks. Below, Rev. Morales shares his reflections on a broken immigration system and glimmers of respite along the border for those deported. 

Speaking with Father Pete (yellow hat) in the comedor.

Father Pete greets our small delegation with a big smile and a loud voice. We arrive at the “comedor” (dining room) in the early afternoon to help serve a meal to people who have just been deported. The comedor is a simple room with a tiny kitchen (we Americans wouldn’t want an apartment with a kitchen that size). It is a simple ministry. They serve a meal to people who have been apprehended. The comedor, supported by Kino Border Initiative, is a short walk from the border.

We help serve meals to 70 people. The numbers are down from the peak a couple of years ago, but the migrants still come. Funny, the word “migrant” utterly fails to convey the reality of these Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, and Salvadorans. These are desperate people. It would be more accurate to call them economic refugees.

One man I see has his feet heavily bandaged and can barely walk. Having just seen the rugged mountain desert trails these people attempt to cross, I wonder that anyone makes it. I spoke with a man who had not been caught crossing, but had been deported after 18 years in the U. S. He leaves behind two children, both U. S. citizens. He was stopped for allegedly not wearing a seatbelt and taken into custody when he did not have a driver’s license.

Every day the comedor feeds them, offers a prayer and a smile. It treats these dejected people with respect. Father Pete, who has been at this for years, wonders when it will end.

Joining in prayer before the meal.

Back in Tuscon the following day we visit the federal courtroom that is processing around 70 undocumented immigrants as part of “Operation Streamline.” The scene is surreal after the comedor. Here is a vast, opulent, courtroom larger than most church sanctuaries. The immigrants are processed in a procedure no more personal than a transaction with an ATM. Each deportee has a court appointed attorney who stands there and does absolutely nothing–but collects $125 an hour. Operation Streamline is in a number of cities and costs about $3.5 billion a year. It was touted as an anti-terrorism measure. Last year 327,000 were arrested. Not a single terrorist has been caught. Not one in the seven years of the program.

If they have been caught before, the detainees are given prison sentences. Most of these prison terms will be served in for-profit prisons run by the CCA (Corrections Corporation of America). Prisoners appear handcuffed and shackled with chains dangling. As they shuffle up to the front of the courtroom the chains rattle. They clink again as they hobble out of the room. This happens every day.

The federal prosecutors and public defenders hate the process. The magistrate hates it. The marshals hate it. They are caught in a system they see as insane and a system they cannot control or even influence.

What has become of us as a people that we tolerate this?

Cross-posted from President Morales’s blog, Beyond Belief.

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From the Road: On the Border

In preparation for Justice GA in Phoenix, Ariz., (June 20-24, 2012) the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) have jointly organized three Service Learning trips to the U.S.-Mexico border with our partner organization, BorderLinks. The first trip began on Tuesday, Jan. 24, and continued until Jan. 27. The delegation was led by UUA President, the Rev. Peter Morales, who encourages UUs throughout the country to participate in one of the Service Learning trips planned for April and May with BorderLinks. Below, Rev. Morales shares his reflections on walking in the same desert where thousands of migrants traverse, often at the cost of their own lives, in the hopes of crossing the border each year.

Picking grapefruit and oranges. Walking in the desert where migrants die by the thousands. Dinner with a small intentional community that devotes itself to helping migrants who are released and have nowhere to go. Not a typical day at the office. This was the second day of our BorderLinks delegation learning trip to Tucson and the U.S.-Mexico border.

The morning began with picking two pickup truck loads full of grapefruit and oranges that will be donated to a refugee group. They will sell much of it. I know I will feel the effects of actual physical labor tomorrow, yet it felt good and satisfying to see the bins fill.

The afternoon was much tougher. It was a trip to a site where No More Deaths leaves water for migrants. The terrain is amazingly rugged. As enforcement gets tougher, migrants try more and more remote and arduous routes. Hundreds die in this southern Arizona desert every year. We see a rough memorial at a place where migrants were found dead. Far off in the distance are other mountains they would have to cross before getting this far. This land is hard to walk in broad daylight; migrants walk it at night with no lights to guide them. When I was young and fit I might have had a chance. Perhaps. Today it would be certain death for me as it is for the young, the old, and those who simply get disoriented.

In the evening we met a young woman from the Dominican Republic who had just been released from detention after something like six months. Her family had paid $10,000 for her to attempt to get to New York via Guatemala, Mexico, and the Arizona dessert. She was caught in the desert. She is 22. Her reports of mistreatment in the for-profit detention center are disgusting. The detention center is run by a corporation that supports laws like the infamous SB 1070.

On the walls of Casa Mariposa, hundreds of butterflies record the names (if known) of those found dead in the desert.

This bright and charming young woman is staying at Casa Mariposa (Butterfly House), run by dedicated young people. They go to the bus station at midnight to offer a place to stay to anyone who arrives from a detention center. We learn that these centers often hold people for several years. There is no time limit. The law, such as it is, works very slowly. The profits pile up.

Yet we leave inspired. There are so many people doing such good work—BorderLinks, No More Deaths, Casa Mariposa, and so many more. They do the work of compassion day after day, year after year. If the arc of the universe does bend toward justice, it is because of the stubborn, loving resolve of people like this. And, I trust, people like us.

Cross-posted from President Morales’s blog, Beyond Belief.

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From the Road: Tucson

In preparation for Justice GA in Phoenix, Ariz., (June 20-24, 2012) the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) have jointly organized three Service Learning trips to the U.S.-Mexico border with our partner organization, BorderLinks. The first trip began on Tuesday, Jan. 24, and continues until Jan. 27. The delegation is led by UUA President, the Rev. Peter Morales, who encourages UUs throughout the country to participate in one of the Service Learning trips planned for April and May with BorderLinks. Below, Rev. Morales shares his reflections on meeting with undocumented students along the Arizona border and the challenges they face.

I find it painful to listen to their stories. We all do. We heard the stories of six Tucson area Latino and Latina students who were either seniors in high school or recent graduates. They were all near the top of their class, taking advanced placement and honors courses. They dream of college majors in everything from engineering to psychology. They speak fluent English and Spanish—and are wonderfully articulate in both.

I sit and listen with other UUs who are part of a study group visiting Tucson and the Arizona border. The BorderLinks nonprofit is making the arrangements. These students are receiving support from and working for an organization called ScholarshipsA-Z.

Their stories are painful to hear because none of these young people can go to college. Each one of them is undocumented. They came to the United States some years ago with their families. They entered school, studied hard, and did well. They are the kinds of young people colleges are dying to get, the kind that get scholarships to excellent colleges and universities. Now they are trapped. They can’t even get a job, for they have no social security number.

They watch as classmates who have poorer grades and lower test scores head off to colleges. These students have to fend off questions about where they are going to go to school next fall, because most of their teachers and classmates do not know they are undocumented.  At worst, they face deportation.

On a personal level, I am struck by how close I came to being one of them. I was a Latino high school kid with good grades and good test scores. I dreamed of higher education, but could not afford it. But I was born on this side of the border. So I was given a full tuition scholarship, then another, then another. I received an education at a private university my family could never have paid for. It shaped my entire life. Doors opened—a graduate fellowship, a Fulbright lecturership. I have been blessed with the gift of doing wonderfully fulfilling work. None of this would have happened if I did not have that birth certificate.

What madness! What human waste! I find myself wanting to scream. I find myself feeling as powerless as they are feeling. But I know that I am not powerless, that we are not powerless.

How very beautiful these young people are. How stubborn and yet fragile their hope is. What madness.

Cross-posted from President Morales’s blog, Beyond Belief.

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