Today, we met some
larger-than-life characters who inspired each and every one of us. We started,
as always, with a delicious breakfast made by the lovely Sara. We then made our
way to the Sherman Heights Community Center, where we met the first
inspiration. Enrique Morones, founder of Border Angels, spoke with us for a
while about individuals who have lost their lives crossing the desert areas of
the border, about the work that Border Angels does to prevent those deaths, and
what he continues to do to change public policy. He name-dropped the entire
time, but it gave us all the more respect for him; by working with such
important figures, he has found a way to make a tangible difference in his
community.
After our talk, Enrique took us out to the desert.
We stopped at a strip of fence that marked the border. For those of us from UP,
we had seen a similar sight only two days before on our Border Patrol tour, but
to be able to reach across at this particular stretch, to see the boy herding
sheep on the other side, and to see the enormous gap in the fence just over the
mountains, we all realized exactly how ludicrous the issue has become. Only 5
feet would have changed our citizenship, and yet these 5 feet are causing
people to die every
day.
Enrique took us farther into the desert, to a place
with fewer houses on either side and more open space. Under the bushes, we
placed gallon jugs of water, not necessarily hidden from view. This is one of
the Border Angels main projects. Our guide told us that approximately two
people die every day from dehydration while crossing the border. The wall isn’t
necessarily making it harder to cross; it’s only making things more dangerous.
This morning, we had the ability to make a difference. While we might not have
saved every life, at least we were able to help one person, and that meant the
world.
This evening, after a quick dinner, we were whisked
away to the University of San Diego. There we met professor Alberto Pulido, who
teaches a course on ethnic relations at the university. We discussed the border
and what that word really means. We discussed borders in our own lives and
examined their value: are we really building walls to keep ourselves safe, or is
there a deeper motivation? Are we really benefitting anyone by building these
borders?
We then watched Rory Kennedy’s short documentary The
Fence, in which she discusses the merits (or lack thereof) of the fence and
the history of the border as it exists today. She examines various groups that
claim to keep the border “safe,” including Border Patrol and the Minutemen. In
one particularly interesting segment, she looks at the incidents of terrorism
in the United States since the fence went up. It is interesting to realize that
not a single one of those incidents have occurred due to an immigrant crossing
the U.S.-Mexico border. And yet we take such precautions to distance ourselves
from those people that are supposedly trying to harm
us.
In the end, today was a great day. We all learned so much about the real
issues surrounding immigration. Yet it’s interesting to think about how much we
still don’t know. We hear things all the time on the news, read headlines in
the newspaper, but do we really have an understanding of what’s going on at our
southern border? Today was another reminder of how important it is for us to
keep learning, especially once we get back to the Pacific Northwest, and how
even 22 of us can make a dramatic change, if only for one person. But one
person is worth it.
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