Day 1, February 23, 2020
Thank you to Karen Ehrens for sharing her reflections of her border experience through these posts
Opening Borders/Abriendo Fornteras Border Trip February 23-29, 2020
Post 1
Dateline: El Paso
Our intrepid group of explorers began our journeys Sunday, February 23 to El Paso-Ciudad Juarez area to witness, learn, feel, reflect and share experiences of immersion. Twelve of us have come here from near the Northern border of the United States, North Dakota and Minnesota, to the Southern border. We have been brought together through the efforts of Vicki Schmidt, founder of “Opening Borders/Abriendo Fronteras” http://www.openingborders.com/ . The “program educates participants about border issues through shared learning, experience, work, and prayer.”
We gather at the beginning of this journey and start and end each day of the week in the same way, by coming together. We are hosted here by Father Bob in a common dwelling house that welcomes travelers nearly every week, the Columban Mission Center https://columban.org/columban-mission-center-el-paso-texas
Our learning begins first thing Monday morning, February 24, with grounding in the layers of history of this “in-between” region. It is a history that starts with the people indigenous to the El Paso area, the itinerant tribal people of the Chihuahua Desert, whose routes of travel flow north through Central America. After thousands of years, Spanish conquerors arrive, claiming land for Spain. Then arrive settlers churning along the routes of westward expansion, again claiming title to the land. Waves of change continue today despite attempts from the 1800’s and forward to stop the flow of people across lands drawn in sand and/or water with barriers of fences and walls and force.
Our morning briefing by Hope Border Institute https://www.hopeborder.org , through a social justice lens, grounds us in history to better grasp the state of affairs at the U.S.- Mexican border. Center director, Dylan Corbett, names this period as a human rights crisis. Seven children have died in the custody of the U.S. government since May, 2019. Policies such as zero tolerance, family separation, and Remain in Mexico are enacted by the U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Corbett points out that throughout the past two centuries of U.S. history, themes have emerged to describe and cause fear of people who come from elsewhere, to build support for keeping people out and moving people out. In the past three years the methods have honed in on two themes: the criminalization of existing as a person without required government documents and the militarization of border and immigration agencies.
Article 14 of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights declares that
“Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.”
Opening Borders/Abriendo Fornteras Border Trip February 23-29, 2020
Post 1
Dateline: El Paso
Our intrepid group of explorers began our journeys Sunday, February 23 to El Paso-Ciudad Juarez area to witness, learn, feel, reflect and share experiences of immersion. Twelve of us have come here from near the Northern border of the United States, North Dakota and Minnesota, to the Southern border. We have been brought together through the efforts of Vicki Schmidt, founder of “Opening Borders/Abriendo Fronteras” http://www.openingborders.com/ . The “program educates participants about border issues through shared learning, experience, work, and prayer.”
We gather at the beginning of this journey and start and end each day of the week in the same way, by coming together. We are hosted here by Father Bob in a common dwelling house that welcomes travelers nearly every week, the Columban Mission Center https://columban.org/columban-mission-center-el-paso-texas
Our learning begins first thing Monday morning, February 24, with grounding in the layers of history of this “in-between” region. It is a history that starts with the people indigenous to the El Paso area, the itinerant tribal people of the Chihuahua Desert, whose routes of travel flow north through Central America. After thousands of years, Spanish conquerors arrive, claiming land for Spain. Then arrive settlers churning along the routes of westward expansion, again claiming title to the land. Waves of change continue today despite attempts from the 1800’s and forward to stop the flow of people across lands drawn in sand and/or water with barriers of fences and walls and force.
Our morning briefing by Hope Border Institute https://www.hopeborder.org , through a social justice lens, grounds us in history to better grasp the state of affairs at the U.S.- Mexican border. Center director, Dylan Corbett, names this period as a human rights crisis. Seven children have died in the custody of the U.S. government since May, 2019. Policies such as zero tolerance, family separation, and Remain in Mexico are enacted by the U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Corbett points out that throughout the past two centuries of U.S. history, themes have emerged to describe and cause fear of people who come from elsewhere, to build support for keeping people out and moving people out. In the past three years the methods have honed in on two themes: the criminalization of existing as a person without required government documents and the militarization of border and immigration agencies.
Article 14 of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights declares that
“Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.”
Border Post 3
Sanctuary
Dateline Mesilla Park, NM
Later Monday, we travel west to Mesilla Park, New Mexico to meet a man whose family was ripped apart by the enactment of policy. Along the way, we cruise past large dairy cattle operations and wakening groves of pecan trees. Arriving at the Holy Cross Retreat Center, we find where sanctuary, or safe space in a religious institution, is offered as Franciscan Hospitality.
Jorge, his wife and young son immigrated from Colombia 19 years ago due to extreme violence and threats there. He was a previously a university professor, and though he could not do the same work here in the states, was provided a social security number and continued to work and pay taxes. He and his wife gave birth to another son here in this country. He was also a volunteer for the American Red Cross, serving 19 calls of duty that voluntary organization, and was recognized for his service. His request for asylum was denied, but stayed here rather than return to the situation in Columbia.
In May, 2017, Jorge’s wife was taken from their home and deported back to Colombia. Agents attempted to apprehend Jorge and his younger son. The two were followed by, and car rammed by ICE agents, as he drove from a hospital where his son was undergoing therapy to a Catholic Church where he was a member and was provided sanctuary.
The moment Jorge steps off church property, he could be apprehended and deported. He and others working on his behalf have reached out to local and national immigration officials, state and federal government elected leaders to remedy his case, but he remains in place.
He keeps a positive and grateful attitude, giving thanks for the many angels who have appeared in his life to help him and his family. Despite the claims of the current administration that they are deporting “bad guys,” this man, a father, worker, and volunteer lives confined and without the opportunity to move freely about.
Later Monday, we travel west to Mesilla Park, New Mexico to meet a man whose family was ripped apart by the enactment of policy. Along the way, we cruise past large dairy cattle operations and wakening groves of pecan trees. Arriving at the Holy Cross Retreat Center, we find where sanctuary, or safe space in a religious institution, is offered as Franciscan Hospitality.
Jorge, his wife and young son immigrated from Colombia 19 years ago due to extreme violence and threats there. He was a previously a university professor, and though he could not do the same work here in the states, was provided a social security number and continued to work and pay taxes. He and his wife gave birth to another son here in this country. He was also a volunteer for the American Red Cross, serving 19 calls of duty that voluntary organization, and was recognized for his service. His request for asylum was denied, but stayed here rather than return to the situation in Columbia.
In May, 2017, Jorge’s wife was taken from their home and deported back to Colombia. Agents attempted to apprehend Jorge and his younger son. The two were followed by, and car rammed by ICE agents, as he drove from a hospital where his son was undergoing therapy to a Catholic Church where he was a member and was provided sanctuary.
The moment Jorge steps off church property, he could be apprehended and deported. He and others working on his behalf have reached out to local and national immigration officials, state and federal government elected leaders to remedy his case, but he remains in place.
He keeps a positive and grateful attitude, giving thanks for the many angels who have appeared in his life to help him and his family. Despite the claims of the current administration that they are deporting “bad guys,” this man, a father, worker, and volunteer lives confined and without the opportunity to move freely about.
Border Post 3
Women, Violence, and the Traveler Poem
Dateline El Paso
Our evening meal was prepared by a woman who now lives in the US after surviving a brutal shooting that killed three of her family members in her front yard in Ciudad Juarez. This woman had at least 5 bullets enter her body, and she spent at least 5 months in hospitals on both sides of the border. She and her husband crossed the border to the U.S. legally with a visitor visa.
If she and her family were to return to Mexico, they would most certainly be the targets of the gang members who are believed to have committed the murders and shootings. They remain in a state of limbo, trying to guess if the capricious decision-makers will allow for her to begin a life of freedom outside the shadows, always looking over their shoulders. Or will they arbitrarily force them to return to almost certain death back in Mexico? Their lives hang in the balance.
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/violence-against-women-driving-migration-from-the-northern-triangle/
At this the beginning of our journey, we share in and reflect on a poem by the late John O’Donohue, The Traveler https://www.awakin.org/read/view.php?tid=2191 We share how the lines of the poetry bring to mind our own circle of family and friends that play such important roles in anchoring, supporting and nurturing us. We are challenged to imagine enlarging our circle to include those friends and family we have not yet met. How could that bring us all closer to a just and peaceable world?
Border Post 4
El Paso Strong
Dateline El Paso
We observe the golden memorial. On August 3rd, 2019, Walmart in El Paso was the scene of a massacre that left 22 people dead, dozens injured, and left its marks on a community that spans two nations.
The memorial marker is a post constructed of stamped metal with 22 sections, one for each person who was killed the day that “hate come in from the outside.” Those were the words that were used to describe that day by a young Walmart worker who was staffing the site at the far end of the parking lot.
We learned the man who killed and injured drove from 8 hours away in Dallas, leaving behind evidence in a hate-filled racist manifesto. It was pointed out that the words used in the document were some of the same words that the person holding the office of President of the United States has used.
Still we seek hope. We find it in the stories of an interfaith service attended by over 3000 people held the day after the shooting. We find it in signs across town, some 6 months later, with words that still speak #ElPasoStrong. We find hope in the fact that we and other groups come here to seek understanding, peace and ways to move forward in the world.
We observe the golden memorial. On August 3rd, 2019, Walmart in El Paso was the scene of a massacre that left 22 people dead, dozens injured, and left its marks on a community that spans two nations.
The memorial marker is a post constructed of stamped metal with 22 sections, one for each person who was killed the day that “hate come in from the outside.” Those were the words that were used to describe that day by a young Walmart worker who was staffing the site at the far end of the parking lot.
We learned the man who killed and injured drove from 8 hours away in Dallas, leaving behind evidence in a hate-filled racist manifesto. It was pointed out that the words used in the document were some of the same words that the person holding the office of President of the United States has used.
Still we seek hope. We find it in the stories of an interfaith service attended by over 3000 people held the day after the shooting. We find it in signs across town, some 6 months later, with words that still speak #ElPasoStrong. We find hope in the fact that we and other groups come here to seek understanding, peace and ways to move forward in the world.
Border Post 5
Farm Workers
Wednesday, February 26
Dateline: El Paso
The People Who Grow Our Food: Farm Workers
When is the last time you thought about how the onion on your sandwich got there? Or how the chili peppers in that hot sauce came to be there? We encourage you think of the hands that plant the seeds, weed the rows, harvest the crops, and carry heavy loads across the fields. These are the hands of farm workers who are paid very little, far below the official poverty rate.
Carlos Marentes, Director, La Frontera Farmworkers’ Center (Centro de los Trabajadores Agrículturas Fronterizos) spoke to us today. The farm workers’ center is near 9th Avenue in El Paso, where farm workers meet up with contractors to find field work. Carlos explains that during harvest time of chili or onions, workers are picked up to work at midnight. Prior to the Center’s opening in 1996, farm workers were sleeping on the streets of El Paso while waiting for work. With the Center, they have a place to sleep and keep their things, a place to shower, food to eat, and to find education.
Across the street from the Center is a Customs and Border Protection Office. As we stand on the Center’s balcony, we see a group of people moving under guard from building to building. We watch a caravan of vehicles pull out of the parking lot to an unknown destination, most likely with the lives of people hanging in the balance.
There IS a connection between immigration and farm workers that goes back years. Carlos begins his talk by showing a photo of Mexican Braceros being sprayed with DDT, a toxic chemical later banned in the U.S.
http://objectofhistory.org/o…/extendedtour/shorthandledhoe/…
Martha in our group was a farm worker, came from a family of farm workers, and had a grandfather who was a Bracero. Braceros were Mexican farmworkers who were hired by contract to work in the U.S. during WWII and up to 1964. After their contracts expired, however, the war, the Braceros were expected to return to Mexico and sometimes even rounded up and sent back. Learn more: http://braceroarchive.org/teaching
The LaFrontera Farm workers’ Center is a place that brings human dignity to the workers who help get many of us food. It is a place for workers to gather, reflect on their reality, and determine what they can do together. Carlos has been organizing since 1980, urging workers to organize to improve rather than wait for someone to do it for them. The Center offers GED classes, citizenship classes in Spanish, Zumba classes, worship classes, economics courses, and addressing violence against women who work in agriculture.
As we are gathering in our circle in a great room, music drifts in from the kitchen. Maria and volunteers prepare noon meals, and believes that there is no way to cook a good meal without good music!
Carlos shows us the scissor tool used to cut and pluck onions in the field and a bucket used to collect chilis from the field. Pickers start when it’s still dark, picking chilis and filling buckets, often done from a squatting position. Each bucket full of chili peppers will net 65-75 cents. To earn the U.S. minimum wage, a worker would have to pick 100 buckets in a day! An average income for chili pickers is less than $7000/year; the federal poverty guideline for a family of 4 is $26,200.
As a group we discussed the reasons why farm work is so little valued and came up with reasons including farmworkers are invisible; our country started with slavery; there exists classism and racism; the U.S. for years has had a “cheap food policy”; people farm for profit; global indifference, and that as a society, we don’t value food.
The concepts that motivate Carlos are that food is sacred, and provides us humans with a connection with Mother Nature and to our common home. Carlos connects eating and food to the part of a mass is that communion. He recommends two things for all to read:
Laudato Si: the encyclical by Pope Francis for our common home:
www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html
and “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson.
In solidarity.
Border Post 6
Medical and Dental Clinic, Dr Mendoza
February 2020
Dateline: Anapra, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico
Medical and dental clinic and Education for Vulnerable Groups of People
Primary care center (Una Familia por Mexico A.C.)
Dr. San Juana Mendoza practices healthcare as human right serving everyone regardless of status in a small cinderblock building in the barrio of Anapra in the Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. She dedicates her life to helping others.
We found Dr. Mendoza to be welcoming and efficient, a long braid of salt-and-pepper colored hair hanging down her back. She was happy to have a group of visitors to share interest in and support of her work.
In 2019, the clinic served 581 patients. The greatest number of patients were children under age 5 years; the ailment most often reported for visits was diabetes. The clinic charges a symbolic fee of 30 pesos (less than $2), but no one is turned away if they cannot pay. The clinic is mostly supported through donations from individuals and churches.
Patient education is a large part of the practice starting with the most basic information like how to brush teeth, health information for females entering puberty, how to breastfeed, prenatal care and more. Dr. Mendoza is very proud to be starting a home hospice program (hospicio) to teach family members to care for their aging relatives. Hand-drawn posters with health messages fill the waiting room walls. Most of the office furniture has been donated, and Dr. Mendoza’s husband is the primary fixer-upper and handyman for the space.
A positive for the healthcare system in Mexico, according to Dr. Mendoza, is that there is free prenatal care for mothers expecting children and also insulin at no charge for people with diabetes. This “free” clinic screens for those conditions and will refer people to care at government health facilities. However, there is no care provided for those who are not citizens nor for those who do not have citizenship documents beginning with a birth certificate. Birth certificates are not easy to come by for those who deliver babies outside hospitals or in very rural areas.
What we take for granted in the U.S. is not easy to come by in parts of this city. In some areas, tap water is not suitable for drinking. People need to fill large water jugs at water stations and carry the jugs home. We hold our breath as we watch an older gentleman hauling a water jug balancing on his bicycle handlebars as he bumps down a dirt road.
Lack of potable water also impacts parents who mix infant formula at home. We learned that not a lot of mothers breastfeed their children. One factor that plays a large role in the decision to use formula rather than breastfeed is that many young mothers need to return to work in the factories (maquiladoras) in short order after giving birth to continue to support their families. When the average pay rate is $55-65/WEEK, it takes both parents working just to scrape by.
Dr. Mendoza’s been very preoccupied the past 6 months in advocating for twins who were born prematurely. While at hospital, they were placed in incubators where the oxygen level was too high. As a result, they have detached retinas, and will face total blindness without treatment from a specialist in the U.S. Dr. Mendoza is working hard to put all the pieces together to make travel for mother and babies, lodging, food and treatment happen.
The clinic so appreciates and gets by with donations of supplies and funds to assist. Some of the items they are most eager to receive are toothbrushes and toothpaste, dental floss, books in Spanish that stimulate and promote infant development and social skills, children’s underwear and stockings that are new and still in wrapped packages, and special shoes for people with diabetes. She is also seeking partners in telemedicine to help with diagnoses of patients. Dr. Mendoza appreciates people contacting her to let her know of planned shipments.
Monetary donations are also gratefully accepted and may be mailed to
Cristo Rey Lutheran Church 1010 E. Yandell Dr., El Paso, TX 79902
Please note “Medical and Dental Clinic Donation” in the memo line.
Dateline: Anapra, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico
Medical and dental clinic and Education for Vulnerable Groups of People
Primary care center (Una Familia por Mexico A.C.)
Dr. San Juana Mendoza practices healthcare as human right serving everyone regardless of status in a small cinderblock building in the barrio of Anapra in the Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. She dedicates her life to helping others.
We found Dr. Mendoza to be welcoming and efficient, a long braid of salt-and-pepper colored hair hanging down her back. She was happy to have a group of visitors to share interest in and support of her work.
In 2019, the clinic served 581 patients. The greatest number of patients were children under age 5 years; the ailment most often reported for visits was diabetes. The clinic charges a symbolic fee of 30 pesos (less than $2), but no one is turned away if they cannot pay. The clinic is mostly supported through donations from individuals and churches.
Patient education is a large part of the practice starting with the most basic information like how to brush teeth, health information for females entering puberty, how to breastfeed, prenatal care and more. Dr. Mendoza is very proud to be starting a home hospice program (hospicio) to teach family members to care for their aging relatives. Hand-drawn posters with health messages fill the waiting room walls. Most of the office furniture has been donated, and Dr. Mendoza’s husband is the primary fixer-upper and handyman for the space.
A positive for the healthcare system in Mexico, according to Dr. Mendoza, is that there is free prenatal care for mothers expecting children and also insulin at no charge for people with diabetes. This “free” clinic screens for those conditions and will refer people to care at government health facilities. However, there is no care provided for those who are not citizens nor for those who do not have citizenship documents beginning with a birth certificate. Birth certificates are not easy to come by for those who deliver babies outside hospitals or in very rural areas.
What we take for granted in the U.S. is not easy to come by in parts of this city. In some areas, tap water is not suitable for drinking. People need to fill large water jugs at water stations and carry the jugs home. We hold our breath as we watch an older gentleman hauling a water jug balancing on his bicycle handlebars as he bumps down a dirt road.
Lack of potable water also impacts parents who mix infant formula at home. We learned that not a lot of mothers breastfeed their children. One factor that plays a large role in the decision to use formula rather than breastfeed is that many young mothers need to return to work in the factories (maquiladoras) in short order after giving birth to continue to support their families. When the average pay rate is $55-65/WEEK, it takes both parents working just to scrape by.
Dr. Mendoza’s been very preoccupied the past 6 months in advocating for twins who were born prematurely. While at hospital, they were placed in incubators where the oxygen level was too high. As a result, they have detached retinas, and will face total blindness without treatment from a specialist in the U.S. Dr. Mendoza is working hard to put all the pieces together to make travel for mother and babies, lodging, food and treatment happen.
The clinic so appreciates and gets by with donations of supplies and funds to assist. Some of the items they are most eager to receive are toothbrushes and toothpaste, dental floss, books in Spanish that stimulate and promote infant development and social skills, children’s underwear and stockings that are new and still in wrapped packages, and special shoes for people with diabetes. She is also seeking partners in telemedicine to help with diagnoses of patients. Dr. Mendoza appreciates people contacting her to let her know of planned shipments.
Monetary donations are also gratefully accepted and may be mailed to
Cristo Rey Lutheran Church 1010 E. Yandell Dr., El Paso, TX 79902
Please note “Medical and Dental Clinic Donation” in the memo line.
Border Post 7
Women and Children
Dateline: Ciudad Juarez
These stories of women and children are the most difficult to tell, but also the most important. Our group of 12 travelers this week has been entrusted with, and asked to share the stories by the women we meet. It is our responsibility. We ask that you read and listen...lives hang in the balance. (Names used in this narrative are not the real names of people we have met, hugged, cried and laughed with, but have been changed to protect their identities.)
Over the course of two days, we visited two migrant shelters in Ciudad Juarez, one large and one very small. The shelters are supported by the nuns and priests of orders in the Catholic Church.
Casa del Migrante is a shelter that this week was supporting around 325 refugees, male and female, adults and children. The people come from Mexico, Central American countries including Nicaragua, Salvador, Honduras, and most recently also from Chile. As of February, 2020, 15,000 MPP migrants are currently living in Ciudad Juarez according to that city’s human rights office. People who have sought asylum in the United States over land through Mexico must “Remain in Mexico” due to the policy of the current presidential administration known as the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP). MPP has been in effect for about one year and permits those seeking refuge in the U.S. to cross back over our border only for court dates after their initial asylum claim until the courts determine that we as a country accept or deny their claim for asylum.
We meet with children first, ages 5-13. They have a small room to gather, draw and color. They are not in school. They have beautiful smiles and bright eyes. Some girls draw colorful flowers, rainbows, butterflies, and beach scenes with markers and crayons. I awkwardly try to remember the Spanish words for the colors: rojo, azule, verde, amarillo, violete, and we share our favorite colors and things to do: draw, play, dance, exercise. Just like all our children and grandchildren. A big difference between North Dakota children and these precious ones is that these children sitting with us today have been through incredibly long, difficult and dangerous journeys with a parent.
One group of children draws a train; some of them have taken part of their journeys north on trains. One of the boys draws a likeness of himself with a sad face until Christina in our group inserts a likeness of herself in the art work and draws her arm around the boy. He erases the sad expression and replaces it with a small smile. They have seen and experienced things that will stay with them for the rest of their lives, and their journeys are not over.
Most of them are with only one parent; the other has stayed behind or has already made it to the U.S. They have also had to leave behind sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers and their homes. Why? Why do they leave their homes and families behind?!
We hear from “Mariana” from Columbia in a room with 8 beds in bunk bed style. All of these families’ possessions fit in small rolls or piles at the ends of their beds. She has been in Mexico for 6 months after a harrowing journey of 4-5 weeks. She is here with one son who is 14 years old. Her son doesn’t sleep in the same room here with the other women and children because of his age, but sleeps on a mat on the floor in an auditorium with adult men. Maria worries about him because he is so young, and is not sure about the other men in that large sleeping area. She dreams of a better life in the U.S.
We hear from “Anna” from Guatemala who sits cross-legged on a top bunk and crochets beautiful doilies from maroon-colored thread. She tells how she left a husband who abused her, and even had her kidnapped. She left Guatemala with her little daughter on December 15, 2019, and is to appear in front of an immigration judge in El Paso in March, 2020. She likes to crochet to fill the days, to give her something productive to do, to keep her mind off her past, and toward the future. The worry and strain show on her face; tears trickle from her eyes as she remembers the past and fears for her future.
It is now mid-morning and our group gathers in the cafeteria near the kitchen. Large kettles simmer on a stove attended by the one paid cook and 4-5 volunteers. The kitchen is quite warm already although it’s only the end of February. We wonder how hot it will be in the summer when temperatures can reach 110 degrees F. Today the lunch meal includes liver and potatoes, rice, beans and tortillas.
Much of the food is donated, including the tortillas; 40 kg (88 pounds) of them are eaten daily, and a woman who owns a tortilla shop in town donates them twice a week. The preparation and storage space seems too small to produce 325 meals three times a day. Some of the fruit is recovered from a grocery store donation, and sometimes part of it is no longer fit to eat. With a small budget, some of the meat is purchased. There is not usually food left over, and yesterday, there was not enough of the main dish to serve the volunteers, who ate only tortillas. Those staying at the shelter go through the line to take their plates and sit at cafeteria tables, and help wash up the dishes and silverware.
The cook is a no-nonsense woman who has worked in foodservice in El Paso. She uses a whistle to start the meal service and during the meal if the room gets too loud or the rules are not followed. She is proud of this work, though, which she feels is much needed work to feed people who have very little and uncertain futures.
The shelter is quite clean, but it is evident that many people live there. There are outdoor spaces, enclosed by a fence topped with razor wire. At least the trees are beginning to bud…a sign of hope for the future?
Just the day before, our group participated in an Ash Wednesday service. We are reminded that Lent is a time of new beginning. A time to watch. To listen. To remain ever mindful. This is what we have been doing all week. But more than that, we are encouraged to dare to love and to commit acts of love. We have started here.
These stories of women and children are the most difficult to tell, but also the most important. Our group of 12 travelers this week has been entrusted with, and asked to share the stories by the women we meet. It is our responsibility. We ask that you read and listen...lives hang in the balance. (Names used in this narrative are not the real names of people we have met, hugged, cried and laughed with, but have been changed to protect their identities.)
Over the course of two days, we visited two migrant shelters in Ciudad Juarez, one large and one very small. The shelters are supported by the nuns and priests of orders in the Catholic Church.
Casa del Migrante is a shelter that this week was supporting around 325 refugees, male and female, adults and children. The people come from Mexico, Central American countries including Nicaragua, Salvador, Honduras, and most recently also from Chile. As of February, 2020, 15,000 MPP migrants are currently living in Ciudad Juarez according to that city’s human rights office. People who have sought asylum in the United States over land through Mexico must “Remain in Mexico” due to the policy of the current presidential administration known as the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP). MPP has been in effect for about one year and permits those seeking refuge in the U.S. to cross back over our border only for court dates after their initial asylum claim until the courts determine that we as a country accept or deny their claim for asylum.
We meet with children first, ages 5-13. They have a small room to gather, draw and color. They are not in school. They have beautiful smiles and bright eyes. Some girls draw colorful flowers, rainbows, butterflies, and beach scenes with markers and crayons. I awkwardly try to remember the Spanish words for the colors: rojo, azule, verde, amarillo, violete, and we share our favorite colors and things to do: draw, play, dance, exercise. Just like all our children and grandchildren. A big difference between North Dakota children and these precious ones is that these children sitting with us today have been through incredibly long, difficult and dangerous journeys with a parent.
One group of children draws a train; some of them have taken part of their journeys north on trains. One of the boys draws a likeness of himself with a sad face until Christina in our group inserts a likeness of herself in the art work and draws her arm around the boy. He erases the sad expression and replaces it with a small smile. They have seen and experienced things that will stay with them for the rest of their lives, and their journeys are not over.
Most of them are with only one parent; the other has stayed behind or has already made it to the U.S. They have also had to leave behind sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers and their homes. Why? Why do they leave their homes and families behind?!
We hear from “Mariana” from Columbia in a room with 8 beds in bunk bed style. All of these families’ possessions fit in small rolls or piles at the ends of their beds. She has been in Mexico for 6 months after a harrowing journey of 4-5 weeks. She is here with one son who is 14 years old. Her son doesn’t sleep in the same room here with the other women and children because of his age, but sleeps on a mat on the floor in an auditorium with adult men. Maria worries about him because he is so young, and is not sure about the other men in that large sleeping area. She dreams of a better life in the U.S.
We hear from “Anna” from Guatemala who sits cross-legged on a top bunk and crochets beautiful doilies from maroon-colored thread. She tells how she left a husband who abused her, and even had her kidnapped. She left Guatemala with her little daughter on December 15, 2019, and is to appear in front of an immigration judge in El Paso in March, 2020. She likes to crochet to fill the days, to give her something productive to do, to keep her mind off her past, and toward the future. The worry and strain show on her face; tears trickle from her eyes as she remembers the past and fears for her future.
It is now mid-morning and our group gathers in the cafeteria near the kitchen. Large kettles simmer on a stove attended by the one paid cook and 4-5 volunteers. The kitchen is quite warm already although it’s only the end of February. We wonder how hot it will be in the summer when temperatures can reach 110 degrees F. Today the lunch meal includes liver and potatoes, rice, beans and tortillas.
Much of the food is donated, including the tortillas; 40 kg (88 pounds) of them are eaten daily, and a woman who owns a tortilla shop in town donates them twice a week. The preparation and storage space seems too small to produce 325 meals three times a day. Some of the fruit is recovered from a grocery store donation, and sometimes part of it is no longer fit to eat. With a small budget, some of the meat is purchased. There is not usually food left over, and yesterday, there was not enough of the main dish to serve the volunteers, who ate only tortillas. Those staying at the shelter go through the line to take their plates and sit at cafeteria tables, and help wash up the dishes and silverware.
The cook is a no-nonsense woman who has worked in foodservice in El Paso. She uses a whistle to start the meal service and during the meal if the room gets too loud or the rules are not followed. She is proud of this work, though, which she feels is much needed work to feed people who have very little and uncertain futures.
The shelter is quite clean, but it is evident that many people live there. There are outdoor spaces, enclosed by a fence topped with razor wire. At least the trees are beginning to bud…a sign of hope for the future?
Just the day before, our group participated in an Ash Wednesday service. We are reminded that Lent is a time of new beginning. A time to watch. To listen. To remain ever mindful. This is what we have been doing all week. But more than that, we are encouraged to dare to love and to commit acts of love. We have started here.
Border Post 8
Sisters, Hermanas (Women & children, Part II)
Dateline: Ciudad Juarez, February, 2020
These stories of women and children are the most difficult to tell, but also the most important. Our group of 12 travelers this week has been entrusted with, and asked to share the stories by the women we meet. It is our responsibility. Some of the details of these stories may be traumatizing to those who read them. If you are able to continue, we ask that you read and listen...lives hang in the balance. (Names used in this narrative are not the real names of people we have met, hugged, cried and laughed with, but have been changed to protect their identities.)
El Paso and Ciudad Juarez are known as “sister cities.” For hundreds of years, people freely travelled between the two cities. Families have lived and still live on both sides of the Rio Grande River and share history, food, and culture. It was not until 1848 that the two banks of the river were situated in different countries. Now these cities are a contrast in inequality, with over 50 percent of people in Juarez living at or below poverty levels.
We find sisterhood in the women we meet in a small home in a colonia (neighborhood settlement) near Ciudad Juarez. Behind a locked gate in a small home stay 8 women and 10 of their children. They have come from several Central American countries including the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala and also from Nicaragua. Only two cousins knew each other before they arrived. At the time of processing, the cousins were separated for three months but were able to find each other after some three months. They have come to be in Mexico because of the “Migrant Protection Protocols” (MPP), also known as “Remain in Mexico.” The women have all come from different cultures and customs. They have been brought together through their journeys of seeking safety and better lives. Living in close proximity now, they are getting to know one another, support and care for one another and their children.
We of our travel group join them in a circle of metal folding chairs, in front of a bank of bunk beds where the women and their children sleep. We introduce ourselves to each other and to one of the nuns who is helping bring the women together and in many acts of help and kindness. After a while, we begin to connect and some of the women feel moved to share their stories with us.
Not all the women are able to share the unspeakable acts they endured before they left their situations or encountered on the journey from their homes to this place. They tell us they share so that the truth can come out and in the hopes of putting an end to the injustice. For these women, sharing their stories is like re-opening a wound, so we listen gently and carefully.
“Alejandra” left her home in El Salvador with her only son because of threats from criminal gangs. She cannot return, even though it was very painful to leave. Her story comes to us as a litany of anguish. Her experience with U.S. government border personnel has been poor; she relates that she has been “touched all over.” For seeking a better life, she has been treated like a criminal. In the shelter where she stayed previously for three months, her son was sick, but received no medical treatment. She has no lawyer, but does have a final court date in March.
“Blanca” and her daughter left Guatemala in July, 2019. It took them a month to get here. She described that on that journey, she was kidnapped and thrown into the street, but can tell no more other than she and her daughter were in a life and death situation.
Many of the women related these multiple experiences that are like a roller coaster ride with hopes rising, rising, and then quickly dashed. Blanca had court dates in August and September. At that time in her previous shelter, she had limited access to adequate shower facilities and developed dandruff. At her November court date, a security official examined her and because of the dandruff thought she had lice. He told her she could not enter the court. So she was assigned another date to appear before a judge in April. Blanca says there are thousands of women like her who are not in shelters, but are hidden in Mexico, and that they should at least have the chance to have their voices heard.
“Dorena” of El Salvador simply says that to remember is to relive. But also states that “if we don’t speak, then people will not know.”
Women were in dangerous situation where they lived, and in Mexico they remain in danger. The Atlantic Council reports that “Sexual and gender-based violence is a primary factor forcing women and girls to migrate” from the Northern Triangle. “A 2017 study on migration from these countries by the University of Washington found that the increase of violence between 2011 and 2016 coincided with a doubling of total respondents listing ‘fleeing violence’ as their main reason for migration.”[i]
These stories corroborate documented human rights violations including “murder, torture, rape, persecution against migrants, and enforced disappearance of persons” that have been confirmed in interviews with migrants by human rights organizations.[ii] These stories are present up and down the Americas from Canada to South America; in Canada and the U.S., the term used is “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.” These are all examples of how indigenous women are “systematically undervalued, left unprotected, and hurt” as described by the he National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center. And yet their survival and presence is testament to their strength and resilience! As is the presence of North Dakota Representative Ruth Buffalo as part of our group and able to provide important insights to these issues.
We find sisterhood in the uplifting by other sisters. We meet and learn of efforts by Catholic nuns from a number of backgrounds who are working to find these hidden women, help them find safe shelter when U.S. policies force them to remain in Mexico, supply some food and clothing, and even arrange for acupuncture therapy to reduce the stress of migrants in Mexico. Sisters affiliated with the Jesuit order are working to provide legal assistance twice weekly. One young nun with a joyful and giving spirit shares how being born just a few miles north of the imaginary line we call the border provided her with so many more opportunities than those who were born further south. She shares how crossing the border easily every day is a privilege she earned only by virtue of where she was born.
Another service this network of Catholic sisters and lay workers provide is the opportunity to engage in handiwork to provide some income and a skill. The women are being taught to embroider colorful designs that are applied to shoulder bags. The time spent with needle and thread also provide time for bonding and building community. Once the women learn the techniques, they proudly pass them along to the next woman who comes along.
A week of immersion in sisterhood has just finished. We live it by staying in El Paso and visiting in sister city Juarez. We live it though staying 6 women to a room in the Columban Mission House and spending hours together in sharing meals and travel time. We feel it by growing in relationship through daily reflection on our shared experiences. We continue to share the stories of our sisters, hermanas to honor their experiences, raise awareness, and bring change.
[i] https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/violence-against-women-driving-migration-from-the-northern-triangle/
[ii] Mills Legal Clinic Stanford Law School International Human Rights & Conflict Resolution Clinic, “Violations of human rights occurring in Mexico as a result of the Remain in Mexico program” accessed 3.1.2020 at https://7dac4932-ebde-4b1a-96f5-fac5c6bec362.filesusr.com/ugd/e07ba9_b0e2d1ff662c41308737555d7d245572.pdf
Border Post 9
Working on the Border
Dateline: U.S.-Mexican Border at El Paso, February, 2020
Our border immersion experience travel group had the opportunity to learn more about the border from border patrol agents and from a Representative to Congress working to improve homeland security and immigration. All are “working on the border.”
Our day began with a presentation by two Border Patrol agents who work in between border points of entry in the El Paso Sector of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
https://www.cbp.gov/border-security/along-us-borders/border-patrol-sectors/el-paso-sector-texas
“The primary duty of the El Paso Station is to conduct linewatch duties at or near the border, 24 hours a day.” This website shares that the overall purpose of CBP is to achieve “operational control of the border.” In this 268-mile sector encompassing 125,500 square miles from El Paso, TX to Las Cruces, NM, there are approximately 2,400 Border Patrol Agents and six permanent vehicle checkpoints. There are agents working in the air, in the water, on all-terrain vehicles and with horse and canine assistants. Our group members point out that CBP agents on the northern border also use snowmobiles. They describe that there are rescue missions happening at all times, even while we speak. They assist those near the border who get lost or do not have the stamina to make a trip across the Chihuahua Desert, most often unprepared with water, food, protective clothing or sturdy footwear.
The agents are dressed in green from head to foot, except for their black gloves, shoes, guns and holsters, which are black. The gold insignia of the CBP badges emblazon their left arm and chest. The two men are clean cut and friendly, part of the CBP communications arm. They both were born in the area and share that they have family on both sides of the border. They share that this is a job for them and want to help those who are working to cross the border “the right way.” I appreciate that they must often feel like they are caught in the middle of cultures, dreams, national dialogues, criminal enterprise, and the flow of money.
In addition to the people crossing the border, there are also guns and drugs and other items that should not, but are, crossing the border. The agents are working with consideration of all these factors, not knowing the motives of people crossing. For every person they meet, it seems they are considering criminal intent as a motive for crossing. But we also learn that the majority of people (it is difficult to find a concrete estimate of this number) are not crossing with criminal intent, but seeking safety and security, refuge and protection.
Behind the agents as they address our group is “the wall.” The wall, or what can be better described as a fence, has become a symbol. This fence of metal, in some places ringed with razor wire, does not constitute the actual border. The actual border in this part of the country is the Rio Grande River, which in Mexico was known as the Rio Bravo. The Rio Grande doesn’t seem so grand here; we have subdued this river into trickle within a concrete channel to definitively mark the border. Alongside the Rio Grande on the U.S. side runs a canal to divert water for irrigation. The water in this channel flows fast with an undertow and can be dangerous to those who would try to cross at other than official border crossing points. More on the Rio Grande, the border zone, and water at:
https://archpaper.com/2018/07/politics-etched-concrete-el-paso-ciudad-juarez-rio-grande-border/
The river channel is not the only danger to those crossing the border. On the Mexican side of the border, cartels control segments of the border. To pass through a segment, a “quota” charge of up to $8000 must be paid to the cartels. Lives are at risk if quotas are not paid. Other threats to life when crossing the border include exposure to elements and violence. Several thousands of people have died in attempts to cross the border; earlier in the week we each had the opportunity to say their names, speak “Presente!” write them on a wall, and together remember their loss in a ceremonial act at the home of religious workers on the outskirts of Juarez.
…..
Our host, Father Robert, made possible the opportunity to meet with the District Director for Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, 16th District of Texas, which encompasses the city of El Paso and most of its surrounding suburban communities. Ms. Byrd shared with us the approach of the Congresswoman to improve the immigration system and the homeland security system by helping to assure that the CBP adds to its strong law enforcement approach by bringing a humanitarian approach separate for those seeking asylum. She has brought forward legislation that has passed the U.S. House and awaits action in the Senate, the Homeland Security Improvement Act, H.R.2203
https://escobar.house.gov/congresswoman-escobar-fighting-ensure-accountability-transparency-and-oversight-dhs
The bill would establish an Ombudsman to give review of claims of asylum, establish a Border Community Liaison in each sector, more closely coordinate CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and bring greater accountability to the Department of Homeland Security.
The District Director speaks knowledgeably, passionately and rationally about Congresswoman Escobar’s drive to humanize the policies and practices of those working on the border and to build a more humane and rational immigration system. As a country, we need to also address the root causes of what is driving large numbers of people to seek asylum and safety outside the countries of their birth. The Congresswoman and her staff are working to help us all recognize the value of immigrants to our economy and communities. As our visit with farmworker organizers illustrated, there is a mismatch between immigration policy and labor market needs. People in the U.S. are NOT lining up to pull weeds between rows of produce, pick peppers, clean homes, or wash dishes. And yet these are jobs that need doing every day.
District Director Byrd also explains that she and staff members are taking up the duty of Congressional oversight. They are visiting detention centers to provide eyes and ears to help determine that the U.S. Government is taking proper care of the people under detention because of policy decisions. She shares that a new processing center has opened this week, and that food offered and conditions appear to be improving. Transparency and accountability are key to ensuring that people are recognized as human and treated as such while they are in our custody…and care.
.............
Our border immersion experience travel group had the opportunity to learn more about the border from border patrol agents and from a Representative to Congress working to improve homeland security and immigration. All are “working on the border.”
Our day began with a presentation by two Border Patrol agents who work in between border points of entry in the El Paso Sector of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
https://www.cbp.gov/border-security/along-us-borders/border-patrol-sectors/el-paso-sector-texas
“The primary duty of the El Paso Station is to conduct linewatch duties at or near the border, 24 hours a day.” This website shares that the overall purpose of CBP is to achieve “operational control of the border.” In this 268-mile sector encompassing 125,500 square miles from El Paso, TX to Las Cruces, NM, there are approximately 2,400 Border Patrol Agents and six permanent vehicle checkpoints. There are agents working in the air, in the water, on all-terrain vehicles and with horse and canine assistants. Our group members point out that CBP agents on the northern border also use snowmobiles. They describe that there are rescue missions happening at all times, even while we speak. They assist those near the border who get lost or do not have the stamina to make a trip across the Chihuahua Desert, most often unprepared with water, food, protective clothing or sturdy footwear.
The agents are dressed in green from head to foot, except for their black gloves, shoes, guns and holsters, which are black. The gold insignia of the CBP badges emblazon their left arm and chest. The two men are clean cut and friendly, part of the CBP communications arm. They both were born in the area and share that they have family on both sides of the border. They share that this is a job for them and want to help those who are working to cross the border “the right way.” I appreciate that they must often feel like they are caught in the middle of cultures, dreams, national dialogues, criminal enterprise, and the flow of money.
In addition to the people crossing the border, there are also guns and drugs and other items that should not, but are, crossing the border. The agents are working with consideration of all these factors, not knowing the motives of people crossing. For every person they meet, it seems they are considering criminal intent as a motive for crossing. But we also learn that the majority of people (it is difficult to find a concrete estimate of this number) are not crossing with criminal intent, but seeking safety and security, refuge and protection.
Behind the agents as they address our group is “the wall.” The wall, or what can be better described as a fence, has become a symbol. This fence of metal, in some places ringed with razor wire, does not constitute the actual border. The actual border in this part of the country is the Rio Grande River, which in Mexico was known as the Rio Bravo. The Rio Grande doesn’t seem so grand here; we have subdued this river into trickle within a concrete channel to definitively mark the border. Alongside the Rio Grande on the U.S. side runs a canal to divert water for irrigation. The water in this channel flows fast with an undertow and can be dangerous to those who would try to cross at other than official border crossing points. More on the Rio Grande, the border zone, and water at:
https://archpaper.com/2018/07/politics-etched-concrete-el-paso-ciudad-juarez-rio-grande-border/
The river channel is not the only danger to those crossing the border. On the Mexican side of the border, cartels control segments of the border. To pass through a segment, a “quota” charge of up to $8000 must be paid to the cartels. Lives are at risk if quotas are not paid. Other threats to life when crossing the border include exposure to elements and violence. Several thousands of people have died in attempts to cross the border; earlier in the week we each had the opportunity to say their names, speak “Presente!” write them on a wall, and together remember their loss in a ceremonial act at the home of religious workers on the outskirts of Juarez.
…..
Our host, Father Robert, made possible the opportunity to meet with the District Director for Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, 16th District of Texas, which encompasses the city of El Paso and most of its surrounding suburban communities. Ms. Byrd shared with us the approach of the Congresswoman to improve the immigration system and the homeland security system by helping to assure that the CBP adds to its strong law enforcement approach by bringing a humanitarian approach separate for those seeking asylum. She has brought forward legislation that has passed the U.S. House and awaits action in the Senate, the Homeland Security Improvement Act, H.R.2203
https://escobar.house.gov/congresswoman-escobar-fighting-ensure-accountability-transparency-and-oversight-dhs
The bill would establish an Ombudsman to give review of claims of asylum, establish a Border Community Liaison in each sector, more closely coordinate CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and bring greater accountability to the Department of Homeland Security.
The District Director speaks knowledgeably, passionately and rationally about Congresswoman Escobar’s drive to humanize the policies and practices of those working on the border and to build a more humane and rational immigration system. As a country, we need to also address the root causes of what is driving large numbers of people to seek asylum and safety outside the countries of their birth. The Congresswoman and her staff are working to help us all recognize the value of immigrants to our economy and communities. As our visit with farmworker organizers illustrated, there is a mismatch between immigration policy and labor market needs. People in the U.S. are NOT lining up to pull weeds between rows of produce, pick peppers, clean homes, or wash dishes. And yet these are jobs that need doing every day.
District Director Byrd also explains that she and staff members are taking up the duty of Congressional oversight. They are visiting detention centers to provide eyes and ears to help determine that the U.S. Government is taking proper care of the people under detention because of policy decisions. She shares that a new processing center has opened this week, and that food offered and conditions appear to be improving. Transparency and accountability are key to ensuring that people are recognized as human and treated as such while they are in our custody…and care.
.............