Wednesday, March 27, 2013

A Visit to the Desert


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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