US-Mexico Border Trip Eastern North Dakota Oct. 28-Nov. 1, 2019      By Paula Mehmel

Day 1 Monday, Oct. 28, 2019

Nothing about the current immigration crisis in our country is simple or easy.

After one day as part of the Abriendo Fronteras/Opening Borders delegation, spending 6 days in El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico exploring issues related to immigration that is my greatest take away.

Our morning began early--6 am.  The group of 16, which includes our two leaders, Vicki Schmidt and Father Bob, of the Columban Mission Center where we are staying,  as well as Bishop Terry Brandt who is leading this delegation, gathered for prayer and reflection. We are all essentially seeking what it means for us to respond to the call to be faithful during these troubled times.

My hope, with what I write in the next six days as the official “group blogger,” is to report on what I saw, heard, and experienced, so that those who read will have a glimpse of actual “facts on the ground’ when so much of what we hear is spin.

We discovered quickly, however, that trying to get away from facts and not spin is easier said than done.

Our first stop, appropriately, was the border.  The border fence to be exact, constructed in the urban area of El Paso in 2008. We met at the area that used to be Fort Bliss, before it relocated, with two border patrol officers who spoke to our group.  We are fortunate that El Paso is the only sector of the US Border Patrol that agrees to meet and speak with groups who visit.

The two officers started by talking about the fence, which is not new or high tech, but works effectively as a tool for them in enforcement in an urban area, since what preceded it was a chain link fence that was easy for bandits to scale. In rural environments they rely on an X style blockade that prevents cars from crossing over, and with the other tools that they use, including  cameras and tech equipment, they are able to effectively fulfill their mission.

They shared how their jobs have changed over the past 10 years. Ten years ago, most of the people they apprehended were bandits, men with criminal backgrounds who were here to wreak havoc and flee to the other side of the border. Ninety eight percent of  the undocumented people they deported were Mexicans and the ones that were deported were tagged because of criminal activity and moral turpitude.

Today they said ninety eight percent of the people they apprehend are coming from Central America, largely families with children and unaccompanied minors.  Among them are individuals who are refugees from the climate change crisis because the farms that have been in their families for five or six generations are dry and barren due to drought conditions.  Many are also fleeing concerns because of gang violence or threats from corrupt governments or police. Often there are mothers with daughters who they fear will be raped and taken as sex slaves for the gang or unaccompanied young boys who either flee or are forced to join the gang.

These guards assured us that they are human beings who want to be kind to those they stop, even as they enforce the rule of law.  They donate clothing their children have outgrown or that they no longer use to provide warmth to those who arrive after the long walk ill prepared  for the weather and freezing.

The agents shared how the changes in the job have had a profound effect on them.  In the past, they used to simply process people, but now, they spend a good 75 percent off their job in the hospitals, transporting sick kids, taking care of people who are in a desperate situation. In 2018 they processed 32,000 people and this year, that number has ballooned to 180,000--many who are families with children who present themselves for asylum.  

The vast majority of the stories are legitimate, and in the past, most would have been released to relatives to await their asylum hearing.  They would bus or fly to their relatives and be assigned to one of the immigtation courts that span the country. But now, almoone they stop are being put in detention centers, where they need to stay or else return to Mexico to await a hearing.  On a rare occasion they do find people like a man, wanted for a sexual felony, who had a child with him. He was likely a sex trafficker, and they made it clear that when they makes these kinds of stops, it makes a lot of the pain and heart ache worth in.

The story of one of the border patrol officers fascinated me. His family came in without documents  and they were able to get amnesty, which was provided from 1986-January 2001 to immigrants who had been living in the US and had not committed any crimes and had a clean record if they paid a $1000 fine. He was a living example of the positive change that could occur if such a possibility existed for so many living in the shadows today--a law abiding, tax paying contributing member of society.

After a visit to a museum where there was an exhibition of art that children in  a detention center created, “Encaged Hearts”, with displays that showed pictures of the culture they left behind but held in their hearts, we headed to Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services, where Anna Hay spoke to us.

Anna, a lawyer, shared with us the complexity of the immigration system. I have to admit, I thought I had some grasp of immigration before she started to talk and by the end, my head ached.  To say that the system is complex is an understatement. Even for those who work with it day in and day out, it is at times almost if not impossible to navigate.

The biggest takeaways for me is that when people say “I am fine with legal immigration, but they should wait in line to take their turn”  is that for many that means waiting for over 30 years. She showed us a list of when they are processing people waiting for asylum and their countries, and the list included both Russia and the Soviet Union. I was raised by hand to clarify the confusion but there was not no confusion. In 2018 they were still processing claims from people who came in seeking asylum from the former Soviet Union. That is how broken the system is.

So when we tell people to “wait their turn” I will now envision the young Honduran woman who was apprehended by the female border patrol officer, Sarah, after she finished speaking with us. Kevin Wallevand, the reporter with our delegation,  did a ride along with the officers and they picked up this woman, standing by the side of the road, her clothes wet and muddy from crossing the river, clutching her seven month old baby. She had paid money to be transported to the border but was being kept in a house in Juarez.  One cannot know what transpired either in Honduras or in Juarez or during her journey, but I can’t imagine anything less than something horrific that would lead her to escape the house and cross the river clutching her baby to her breast as she presented herself for asylum in the US.  This young woman and her baby--these are the real faces of the humanitarian crisis at the border. 

She talked to us about the facts, like there have been 8000 children who have been reported separated from their families at the border--a number she expects to rise, since an additional 1500 were just added last week and factual reports come in slowly.  

She told us that an unaccompanied minor can’t  be sent back to their home country if a parent isn’t waiting for them and that there are 350 unaccompanied minors in area shelters but it should go up to 900 by the end of the year. In the past they were released to relatives but that has changed.  Because of the strict rules at the shelter there is no human contact with the care providers so they receive no care or nurturing. They get meals but in refugee resettlement they don’t have to provide any educational services, because if they did they would become subject to the rules of protective services, giving them more rights and better treatment. 

She shared with us just how broken the system is. The only reform made to the US immigration system since 1986 was to criminalize entering the country without documents. Previously it was a civil offense. By making it a misdemeanor politicians can refer to all those making passage outside of the border and presenting themselves for asylum as criminals. Other than that change to make it a crime,  nothing has been done to the system in over 30 years.

The strongest takeaway I had from our time with Anna was how the immigration problem has become largely a money making proposition for for-profit prisons and providers. The law that was passed to address what was happening at the border guaranteed these for profit detention centers a minimum of 39,000 beds per day to fill their centers. 

The costs guaranteed for the providers are $134 per day for an adult in a detention center, $319 for family detention center, and  between $800-1000 a day for centers for each unaccompanied minor. 

It doesn’t take a lot of brain power to figure out that the detention of families and those crossing the border, rather than catching and releasing those who don’t have a criminal record or outstanding warrants, as was down previously, is big business. 

Follow the money and you can figure out who has a lot to gain from this $2.6 billion dollar (and rising) industry. There is a strong political lobby that encourages the US to invest in these detention centers rather than allowing people to go to family members and report to immigration courts where they live. 

Just imagine what a difference it would make if we invested that money in building up the countries of Central America so that people could get decent paying jobs and there would be alternatives to the gangs. That would reduce the influx of refugees and instead of spending money detaining people in reprehensible conditions we could be develop support for American democracy and values.

 The bottom line is that our immigration system is broken and there is a strong push to keep it broken to enrich people who benefit from detention centers. John Kelly, former Chief of Staff and the secretary of homeland security, recently joined the board of one such company after leaving the Trump administration. If one looks at who serves on these boards and who benefits it is clear why there is no political will to make a change.

Want to find the reason for this crisis that has ballooned in the last few years and the roadblocks to solving it?  Follow the money. 

After leaving DRMS and having lunch, we drove by the memorial for the El Paso Walmart Massacre. There was a huge line of items left to honor the dead and as the day of the dead approached families were arriving to leave things. We encountered  a group who had come to honor their abuella, who had died. 

We gathered in a circle to pray and say the names, giving voice to the victims of a man driven by hate and spouting white supremist anti-immigrant rhetoric. To be shocked that this happened is to fail to pay attention to what is unfolding with the dehumanizing language used by the current administration. They sowed the wind and this is reaping the whirlwind. 

We returned to the mission where we are staying to hear a presentation from Molly Molloy about the violence in Mexico. 

She began by reiterating what Anna had shared with us, that the detention center problem is self created, since we used to release people until they presented themselves for asylum and they appear in the court wherever their relatives lived.  So some would go to New York or San Francisco and appear there. Those immigration courts have a higher rate of acceptance of asylum, some as high as 85 percent whereas 2 percent are accepted at El Paso. 

She detailed the situation with the private prison corporations providing asylum, making money, and letting people essentially rot in cell like dorms that were filled with snakes, scorpions, rats and other vermin. The prison industrial complex at its very worst. 

She went on to describe the violent situation in Mexico, particularly Juarez, where the murder rate is more than 4 times greater than anywhere in the US. It has come down from a height around 2010 but has spiked in the last few years as cartels battle for control and power, especially with the rise in opportunities for trafficking. As asylum seekers are forced to return to Mexico to wait, where they know no one, instead of going to family in the US, they become easy targets.  She told us 20 people were killed just the previous weekend. 

She shared stories of massacres in drug treatment facilities where everyone was mowed down by assault weapons and random violence that killed bystanders. The accompanying photos were gut wrenching.  Real people and real grieving families. Not statistics.

The stories she shared were made real bu the story we heard from the undocumented immigrants who prepared our amazing evening meal. The wife’s son had seen a murder and he reported it to the police. The police tipped the cartel off and they came and shot up the family home, killing her brother, sister in law and cousin and leaving her full of bullets. She went to the hospital in Juarez and then was transported to the US  due to an infection with a short term visa. When the time came for them to return they didn’t qualify for a humanitarian visa so they remained in El Paso with their family without documents. They were afraid they would be targeted and killed by the cartel and this was their only recourse.  

The husband had worked in agriculture until a crack down by ICE, so now they do odd jobs and survive in the shadows.

By the end of the day as we gathered to share our thoughts about the day I was not alone in being overwhelmed. We talked about Jacob wrestling with God and I too was wrestling with putting together all I learned. 

Anyone who thinks this is easy doesn’t get it, but I hope to spend the next few days learning and sharing more, so we won’t forget those in the shadows and help develop a system that allows us to have more success stories like the border patrol officer who benefited from amnesty.  Our country is better off if people are paying taxes, not paying our tax money to enrich corporations that detain people.


Day 2-- Tuesday Oct 29, 2019 

Today we crossed the border and entered into the reality of the struggles of those who live in Juarez and those who are forced to wait there as they seek asylum. It was a short trip across the river and a long journey into the depths of human pain. 

It was hard to comprehend that the squalor in Juarez was a matter of a few miles from El Paso. El Paso is a beautiful metropolis and one of the safest cities in America.  Juarez has huge barrios, dirt streets and is one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Truly there is a great divide broader than the river.

Our first stop was at the Biblioteca Infantil, a children’s library. There we met Christina Estrada, who began this place of learning  after a terrible accident at the factory where she worked. There was an explosion that left her hands so burned that the lab gloves were melded to her flesh. When she was rushed to the hospital, the General Manager of the factory met her there. Before she was allowed to get help for her injuries he said she needed to sign a form. She was still in shock and overcome by pain so she could not read the paper but he told her it said that the company would cover her medical bills, unemployment until she could return to work, and that they would take care of her completely. She trusted him and signed it.   However, when she got out of the hospital and went to collect unemployment she was told that what she signed was a voluntary termination paper and she had no right to anything.  

After this happened, she spiraled downward. When a priest came to try to get her to volunteer with children at the church because they couldn’t read  she said she would do it at her house but not at the church because she was angry at God. So the Children’s Library began.

She wanted to do more than help kids learn to read. Most of them came from homes where they had at best one or two books to read, if they were lucky  She dreamed of ways to educate the children, instill a love of reading and provide them a future with hope. So in the small house where we visited she has classes set up to help kids read or get tutoring-2 groups a day, as well as providing breakfast and  social services when possible. 

She explained to us that getting an education in Mexico is hard. One of the challenges is getting a birth certificate. To go to school you need to have one and to get one you need to first pay a fine that increase every year you didn’t have one. That is a challenge to people who have no money. She said she knew the project was blessed by God when the first group she tried to get birth certificates for them without having to pay a fine.

Beyond that, it is hard to convince parents that their children should go to school,  Most parents, many of whom struggle with alcoholism and other addictions, want their kids to go to work as soon as they can at the factories to make money for the family  She has to convince them it is worthwhile and then help them find scholarships for their kids.

Although education is supposedly free in Mexico, all the government provides is a classroom and teachers. Kids must pay for the registration fees, uniforms, and any materials they may need, which is $400 a year just for kindergarten. Christina so far has helped 374 kids with scholarships, through the work of her church, including 67 kids who have graduated from university, some of whom come back and help her with her program. It was an honor for our group to contribute $500 from the funds we raised to her work. She said she would use it to help three girls who cannot see to read get glasses.

She feels that God has worked through her every step of the way--from her accident to the program she continues to build.  Christina is a powerful example of someone who took what others did for evil and used it for good. She refused to let the negativity define her life and said that every morning she wakes up and says the same thing to God.  “God, you put me here and you will get me through.  

From the Children’s Library we crossed the street to the Clinica Santo Nino de Atocha, a special needs clinic operated by the Sisters of Charity, Cincinatti, Ohio. The sisters whose motto is ‘Do What Presents Itself” started the clinic 18 years ago after a parent came to them with a baby who had Down’s Syndrome, and they discovered that there was no care for special needs children.  So they did what presented itself and tried to help. And the clinic was born.

As soon as you walked in, you could tell it was a place of joy.  The mothers gathered there every day with their children, who have special needs and no place to take them to educate them.  Most of them are single mothers and they work together sharing their gifts, pitching in to help with the kids in any way possible. It felt like a large extended family, with some moms making dinner, others playing games or teaching the kids or helping with therapy.  They firmly believe that you don't look at what’s wrong but rather at what is possible. And what they have done is make it possible to find community and support for a group of women who were walking through life alone.

There was one child, with Down’s Syndrome, named Raina who defined the joy of this special place.  She came to the clinic when she was 1 week old, with a 15 year old homeless mom and the Sisters are now her extended family. I will never forget the joy she had as she came and read a book to us--she had just learned to read.  And then she decided that all of the women needed lipstick so she very adeptly applied lipstick on all of us. We left with bright pink lips and full hearts.

Our next stop was at the Casa de Largo Estancia, a long term residency house that shelters refugee families. The home, which was a gift from one of the faith community members when he died, provides a safe space for women and children who are seeking asylum.  Currently there are 20,000 asylum seekers in Juarez and space for only 3,000 in shelters. That means the remaining 17,000 are vulnerable to narco cartels who are looking to either kidnap them to demand ransom from families in America or to traffic them as sex slaves.

Because of the new Remain in Mexico policy invoked by the Trump Administration, once people are released from the holding cells after they present themselves for asylum they are brought back to Mexico to await a hearing. They are dropped off and if they are lucky they go to a shelter, or else they must live on the street.  They await an uncertain future. Plan A is to get asylum in the US and join relatives there. Plan B is to remain in Mexico. Plan C is to go back to their country, but as we learned, Plan C likely means certain death for many of the people.

In the past, they would present themselves for asylum, they would get an ankle bracelet, and be released to relatives in the US.   They would get a court date at the closest immigration court to where they were going. But with the new Migrant Protection Protocol, a draconian policy, they now are forced to forge a way in Mexico, trying to avoid all of the perils of life on the streets in Juarez.

The six women in this home are fortunate--they have a place that is safe but they need to remain inside so the place is not identified as a refugee by the Cartels so that it would become a target for attack. Women and children are literally grabbed and forced in vans while waiting to cross the street at a stop light.

When we walked in, they greeted us with joy--hugs and kisses on the cheek for each person who entered.  We came bearing fruit--one should never show up empty handed--but they had made us lunch. We were the guests. They served us a soup with vegetables and meat as well as tortillas. While I initially felt uncomfortable being served, as I wanted to be serving them, I also know the power of hospitality.  These women found a joy in serving and sharing what they made. It was grace to receive it.

After the meal they shared their stories. I am not going to use their real names because of the risk to them, but because I want to humanize them I will create names because having a name matters--an identity. These are not stories in a book.  These are real people who have carried these loads.

Carmen’s story began when she saw a police officer kill someone in public.  He knew that she saw the murder and followed her and threatened her. The man he killed was connected to a cartel so she knew she was caught between a rock and a hard place. She knew she needed to flee from Honduras or she would be killed but she could only take one of her four children, leaving the others with her family. 

She didn’t go into the details of the journey across Mexico because it was too fresh and raw, but she detailed what it was like in the “ice box”, the holding cell where she had to stay with her 17 month old child for 30 days. It’s called the Ice box because the US Government deliberately keeps it cold to make it uncomfortable. At the facility thirty women and in some cases, their children, including babies, were held in a room that should only hold twelve and they were forced to sleep on the floor with only a Mylar blanket and they all shared an open toilet with no privacy. No human dignity. They were given food 2 or 3 times a day— some water and a burrito, often still frozen when it was handed to them.

When she got out she was dropped off in Juarez with no shoe laces, no personal care items, nothing. She was grateful the sisters found her and took her in.

Marisol fled Nicaragua because she had supported a group that was protesting the government for cutting the pensions of senior citizens. She said the government silenced people with bullets and her crime was supporting the protesters, providing them with food She was threatened and stayed but when her children were threatened she had to flee with her two sons in tow.  

She said that she wants to live freely in her country but she can’t  The most difficult decision she ever made was to make the journey. The walk from Nicaragua was hard.  She left Nicaragua in June, not knowing where she and her children would sleep or where they would find food. She received many threats, but she also found angels along the way who helped her. 

After 3 months, she arrived at the border on Sept. 8 and she was told she had to wait to seek asylum.  She was then deposited in Juarez, a dangerous city where she knew no one who she could trust. Thankfully, Christiana, the woman who helped find residents for the house, found her and she could wait until her first court date on Nov. 8, uncertain what the future held, but knowing she could not go back or she and her kids would die.

Ximena was also from Nicaragua and was 17 when she took part in an anti government march.  She wasn’t allowed to continue to study and so she didn’t graduate. She was considered a threat and she saw her friends killed.  Government agents sat outside her house, waiting to kill her, just as they killed her grandfather in the 1970’s.   

Ximena traveled to the US with her mom and her sister. They were released to  relatives in the US but she was separated from them--put on a different bus and detained in The Ice Box until she was brought to Juarez.  She has documents of what she was doing and the danger that she faces but she is doubtful that will help her case, which will be decided on Dec. 8.

Yolanda came from Honduras. She didn’t detail her story--the pain was too overwhelming to retell.  But she told us she and her daughter were kidnapped when they were in Mexico and that now her daughter is afraid to be left alone, even if she goes to the restroom  Her daughter cannot leave her side because of the trauma.

After sharing their stories they showed us the embroidery they were working on, with the hope to sell them and provide some means of making a living.  They laughingly shared with us their new brand name. Niconsaua. From the letters of their countries. NICaragua, HONduras, El SAlavador, and GUAemala.  Unity in the midst of shared grief.

The joy they exuded, even after tearfully telling their stories, showed that they were still filled with light in the midst of darkness. By serving, caring, and sharing they reflected the light of God who offers hope in a hopeless place.

After the long return to Mexico, where we waited 1 ½ at the US border, which we understood was not as bad as it could have been, we ended the evening at The Pizza Joint, sharing pizza and beer and reflecting on the power of the day.

One of the entertainers that night was a violinist who layered his music, playing a line, recording it, and then adding to it, until it came together in the fullness of sound and harmony. It was a fitting ending to this day, a true juxtaposition. 

 Instead of a soaring melody,  as we uncovered the layers upon layers of the humanitarian crisis, each building upon the other, it resulted in a cacophony of pain and suffering beyond human imagining.  

Yet even in the midst of the discordant melody it revealed, there were still lines of joy that rose above the noise that refused to be silenced.


An additional blog post

I cannot show you any photos of the women whose stories we heard today because their lives are at risk. But it broke me.

We heard from five of the six women living in a safe house in Juarez, Mexico. They all fled their native Central American countries with their children because they were facing death threats from the police or government, walking through deserts and facing bandits and wild animals and vermin. Some were kidnapped. Others couldn’t bear to tell what happened to them.

This picture, drawn by one of the women, tells the story of the wall, the river where people died crossing and the train called the Beast, that is the fastest but most dangerous route, with threat of capture and violence.

But the part the broke me is the one in the upper right quadrant. That is her depiction of “The freezer” or “The ice box,” the initial holding cell in the US where people are placed after they come to the border and legally present themselves for asylum. This woman was held there for 30 days. It’s called the Freezer because the US Government deliberately keeps it cold to make it uncomfortable. At the facility thirty women and in some cases, their children, including babies, were held in a room that should only hold twelve and they were forced to sleep on the floor with only a Mylar blanket and they all shared an open toilet with no privacy. No human dignity. They were given food 2 or 3 times a day— some water and a burrito, often still frozen when it was handed to them.

This is not what happened to them in a foreign country. This is what the US did when they legally presented themselves for asylum. This is not fake news. The consistency of the stories bears out their truth. This is official US policy. This is America. They were held for 30 days. God help us all.

I knew it was happening but hearing it as the women wept as they shared their traumatic stories of abuse and threats of death broke me. Only a heartless monster could think this is an acceptable way to treat innocent people seeking asylum. And anyone who does deserves to receive the same refuge when they seek asylum in heaven.


Day 3--Wednesday Oct. 30, 2019

What would you do if, all of a sudden,  your city was overwhelmed with desperate people? They gave everything they had to get to your city  to legally claim asylum, fleeing violence and government oppression and starvation due to climate change. But after claiming asylum and being held in the “ice box”  detention center for up to thirty days before being released, they were dropped off on the street with no guidance or direction, traumatized by the violence of their trip and their treatment when they entered the US. They have relatives and family here, but no way to move on to the next step in the journey.

If you are the city of El Paso, you respond with love, decency and compassion.  

On the third day of our visit to the border, we had a chance to meet Bishop Mark Seitz, the Catholic Bishop of El Paso, a humble, kind and faithful man of God.

He began his conversation with us by remarking about the difference between the border community he serves in El Paso and the border community served by our group leader, Bishop Terry Brandt, of the Eastern North Dakota Synod of the ELCA.   His diocese borders Mexico, where there is a drive to build a huge wall and Bishop Brandt’s synod borders Canada, where there is no call for a wall. Bishop Seitz said that the difference between these locations reveals so much about the borders and barriers in our minds that we need to break down--the fear of the other and those who don’t look like us.

Bishop Seitz has served as Bishop for six years and he shared the changes that occurred during his tenure.  When he started, he said most of the undocumented people were young males who came across the border under the radar and worked in the US with the goal of sending money home to help support their families.
Things changed in 2014, when the violence in Central America increased. In the years prior to that, there was actually negative migration, with more people returning to Mexico than crossing to the US.

The struggles in Central America center around the gangs, who are more powerful than the government.  But he said that the focus of the US in dealing with the issues in the last few years has been completely off base. 

Rather than focus on solving the problem at their root, and supporting the Central American countries' economic development, we have poured US dollars into stopping people from crossing the border and providing a military presence at the border.  By neglecting to attend to the root issues, the border crisis grows broader and deeper, as more people flee untenable violence.

The crisis truly ballooned in November, 2018, when the number of people crossing the border rose to 800 people a day. The bishop said that in a matter of days the church had to figure out what to do about this humanitarian crisis, as people were literally being dropped off in El Paso with nothing.

The church responded with an act of faith.  They turned a classroom retreat center in a shelter at the pastoral center which housed the bishop’s office.  He literally opened up his home to asylum seekers. The bishop said that he trusted that El Paso was a place of welcome and that is what they were. 

The people of El Paso saw the need, heard the call, and showed up.  They felt that God was asking them to take care of asylum seekers, so they provided them with food, clothing, and lodging. Volunteers came forward and helped do what they could to be the hands and feel of Christ to these people who literally had nothing.

Things have changed since June.  Numbers have dropped from 1000-1200 a day to perhaps 200 a day.  Now they meter how many people can come across in a day. The numbers are often related to how many detention beds they need to fill for the for profit corporations that contract with the US government to house asylum seekers or to detain unaccompanied minors..  

When the quota of beds is filled, the numbers allowed to enter the US are cut off. 

The bishop said they were overwhelmed by the number of migrants, but added that when things changed the people were sad because they wanted to help people who were seeking asylum to get a better life.  He now said his main concern is the 20,000 people being forced to stay in Juarez until they had their asylum hearing. He described Juarez as one of the most chair and dangerous places in the world. His hope is to work with nuns to find more people to go to Juarez to live and support those seeking asylum.

Bishop Seitz went on to talk about about the dangers of the rhetoric that buys into the primal fear of “the other.” He said that the August 3 massacre clarified for anyone with eyes to see that the anti immigrant sentiment is racism.  People who claim “we are for legal immigration” are really racist and use that statement as a shield. It is a cover for their racist sentiments.  

He told us that after the massacre it was apparent to everyone that the  simple truth is the system is designed to keep brown skinned people out of the US. What has transpired in the US in the past few years is that people have been given licence to act with cruelty because of the anti-immigtation political  screeds. The man who shot those people in Walmart had his hatred justified by people who made hate acceptable.

But  Bishop Seitz assured us, El Paso won’t let the acts of August 3 define them. Instead, they will be defined by their response to strangers in their midst and their willingness to reach out and care.  El Paso is a town who shows up to care and no one can take that identity away from them.

An Additional Blog Post —Ruben Garcia

“Don’t come here asking what you can do at the border to help.  The work that must be done is where you came from.” So began Ruben Garcia, advocate for asylum seekers and the founder of Annunciation House, a place of refuge that houses those who have come to the El Paso border seeking asylum.  

He told our delegation, where many are from North Dakota,  that our presence here is because we have failed back home.  Challenging us, he wondered what we had done to stop the xenophobia and the anti immigrant rhetoric during the presidential election. How did we allow a man to get elected who is fulfilling campaign promises to treat those seeking asylum like criminals and openly calling them subhuman words comparing them to vermin?

Garcia claimed that stopping Trump is not a political imperative.  This is not about politics or partisanship. It is a justice and moral imperative.  This isn’t about the policies of the current administration. It goes deeper. What is happening is about human rights and our core values--about becoming a nation that finds it acceptable to treat human beings with a lack of dignity and a cruelty that has become enshrined in US policies.

He said no one who is truly pro life could support this administration.  It’s actions and policies are anti life, supporting actions that seek to destroy precious children of God. Being pro-life means supporting those who are already born.

He went on to describe the lies that have been perpetrated by the US Government with regards to border policies. Things like denying that they were separating children or claiming treatment was not inhumane or lying to those seeking asylum that they can’t ask for asylum  when they have a legal right to claim asylum in the US. 

Garcia said we need to ask people if they think it is OK if politicians lie.  For example, if the principal calls and tells you your child was caught lying in school, would you reply “Well, in this day and age, lying is fine. I don’t have a problem with that. The president lies so why can’t my kid”  Bullying and lying are either right or wrong. If we think that it is wrong we can’t support this administration and the lies with which they surround themselves. 

He then described what happened with child separation, stories he heard from the refugees he housed—the same story repeated time and again by those he sheltered.

One father described what happened  to him. He and his twelve year old son were taken into a big room. Then his son was told to go into another room. He knew his son was being taken from him. The son refused to go, begging his father to stay. But his father told him he needed to do what the guard said. He told his that it would all be OK, knowing he was lying to his son. Then the father was told to face the wall so he wouldn’t have to watch his son being dragged away.   

We were told that currently the Border Patrol are actively seeking to separate 17 year old girls from their families, to drop them off at the bridge alone in Juarez. There they are at risk of rape and assault or being trafficked or murdered  The only reason they separate these girls from their parents is because it causes terror for the family, wrecked with fear at what will happen to their child. Officers are ordered to do this simply because it is cruel and serves as a deterrent. 

Garcia shared a story of how a room would be filled with five and six year olds clinging to their parents legs, screaming and crying. He described how the Custom and Border Patrol agents grabbed the children by their shoulders, pried them away from their parents and dragged them across the floor kicking and screaming for their parents. 

These Border Patrol officers didn’t sign up for this. They signed up to serve and protect the United States. They wanted to protect their country from terrorists and drug dealers. Pulling screaming  children away from their parents was not In their job description. They are following the policies of a heartless, cruel and callous government. 

So the question we were asked is what are we going to do to change US policy.What are we going to do to change a regime that thinks this is morally acceptable. 

I heard the challenge loud and clear. I can come and serve here but anything we do is a band aid. Job one for anyone with a moral conscience is engaging with others to share what is happening and ask “How is this Ok?  How can you live with this being the values of your country.”   

It isn’t fake news. It has happened and it continues to happen.  Get anyone who supports this administration to defend it and ask why, as a human being, they think this is acceptable.  Because you promote what you permit. 

The only reason this is happening is because we failed and elected a leader without  a moral conscience. We need to get people to put their vote where their values are. We can’t afford to fail again. 

Day 4  Oct. 31, 2019

Who are the people who are willing to stand in the gap?  In the midst of the attack on the people of Juarez from a corrupt government, the poverty that surrounds so many people, and refugees who are victims of unjust systems, who will stand in the gap to help protect them?

On Thursday, as we returned to Juarez, we met some of the men and women who are the unsung heroes, dedicating their lives to standing up for the last, the lost, and the least and seeking to protect those who hide in the shadows.

Our first stop was to meet Father Bill Morton, a Columban priest who first came to Juarez in 1996, left for a while under falsified deportation orders because of his advocacy for the poor he served, and returned 2 ½ years ago to continue his commitment to the people of Juarez through his call to Corpus Christi Church..

Father Bill shared with us several stories about the level of corruption in Mexico. He came under scrutiny when he sided with a group of  350 poor families who settled in some unclaimed land in the mesa area surrounding Juarez and established a community, according to Mexican laws.  If after 5 years, no one claims the land and the squatters improve it, they can take ownership.

However, one of the richest men in Juarez claimed, without proof, that he owned the land and he sent his bandits to destroy the homes and property. They knocked down Father Bill’s church, they burned children in their houses, murdered people and rained holy hell down upon these impoverished people trying to find a place to live.

Father Bill was warned to stay away from the squatters, since the man who was attacking them was a powerful and wealthy man who gave a lot of money to the Catholic Church but Father Bill stood in the gap for them, putting his call to serve the poor above all else, even at great personal risk. He could not be bought.

He shared with us how corrupt Mexico is.  The drug cartels hold the government at gunpoint and rob the country blind.  They have “fake” teachers who don’t show up at school except to be paid and no one can say anything or they will be targeted.  When elected officials leave office, most of them do so by emptying the treasury.

He said in the midst of it, the church is one of the few places where there is not corruption. Although they try to buy them off too, most don’t give in to that temptation.  He believes the church is one of the few places that will be able to effect change in Mexico,  

Father Bill said that he wanted the church to be a place where they build up community, as he attempts to combat the endemic problems caused by alcoholism.  He wants to focus on how they can work together finding strength as they grow as disciples with a commitment to the poor.  

Father Bill is a man who doesn’t see the world as “us and them” but rather as a place where we are all called to work together to build each other up in acts of compassion, as we stand in the gap together.

From there we ventured to the clinic run by Dr. SanJuana Mendoza, who is the closest person I have ever met to Mother Teresa. She runs a “medical dispensary” where she and her partner, a dentist, offer their services for practically nothing to the impoverished people that surround her.  They can’t call it a clinic or what they would be able to do would be limited by regulations. 

They charge 30 pesos (about $1.50) for her medical services and a dental appointment, 50 pesos for an extraction and 100 for a filling.  If the patient can’t pay, she takes whatever they can afford and if they have meds, they provide them for free. She refuses to charge migrants.  She firmly believes that no one should profit from human pain and health care should be a right not a privilege.

Her career began working as a physician in the ER, but one day a young girl came in who was pregnant. She had no prenatal care and the baby had died in utero and was decomposing.  They needed to do a complete hysterectomy. The next day, a person came in with a foot that stank so much it was unbearable. When she unwrapped it, she saw that the foot and leg would be lost to gangrene because the person had no knowledge of diabetes or how to care for it.

Dr. Mendoza wondered why she was in the ER. People needed more care before they reached that point. One day she saw this dispensary and she knew that was what she was called to do.  Her role there is to do the basic things--teach people not to try to clean their ears with nails, how to try to take care of yourself if you are pregnant or have diabetes. How to get birth control.  She is working on the margins, trying to do what she can to lessen the suffering where it is possible.

They don’t advertise--otherwise they would be overrun.  Instead, people come by word of mouth. They come in malnourished and desperate and seeking a place of compassion and solidarity.  She sees a lot of young girls who are pregnant and have been rejected by their families and a lot of migrants as well. A person cannot migrate if they are not healthy, so she does what she can to help them show that they can be ready to work when they seek asylum.

She told us her clinic has many needs. One is finding “virtual volunteers.’  She is an excellent doctor but would relish other medical professionals to whom she could send photos of rashes and the like to share “ideas” for treatment.  Her clinic can also use pretty much anything in terms of supplies--from hoodies to jeans to walking shoes, footie pajamas, and fleece in any form. The people with whom she works have nothing, so something makes a difference.

Living and working and standing in the gap in such a hopeless place is hard work, but Dr. Mendoaza emanates joy. She told us she cannot be at peace if she knows someone is hungering or in pain. She said  she keeps her joy because she lives in the present. One day at a time, trusting in divine providence.  
For her, the past does not exist. The future is not yet. You have just today. After telling us that, Dr Mendoaza  left us with a reminder. You have just one life to live. Use it well. 

After visiting Dr. Mendoza we stopped in the park where many of the migrants are camping as they await their chance to claim asylum.  While there we distributed many of the hats, mittens, and personal care items that many of us had brought to share The temp had dipped to just above freezing the night before and they were ill prepared for it.  

 We had to literally “smuggle” them across the border since the authorities don’t want items like this distributed. We hid them in our backpacks. Kind of ironic that we had to “smuggle” toothpaste, feminine hygiene products, and soap to care for those who have so little.  It was a small way to stand in the gap in solidarity.  

The people we encountered did not swarm us or overwhelm us, but had a quiet dignity as we distributed the items. It felt awkward but I know what we brought provided some knowledge that they were not forgotten. Some games of soccer and volleyball broke out as well, so we made the human connection, which is so vital for all to remember our shared humanity.

From there we went to Casa del Migrante, which was currently housing 336 refugees awaiting the opportunity to claim asylum in the US.  We were hosted with tea and cookies by Sisters Catherine and Virginia, two “retired” nuns.

Sister Catherine had returned from years in South America to her native  Ireland when she says the Time magazine with the cover of Trump facing down a crying migrant child being separated from her parents.  When she saw that, she knew she needed to leave Ireland and come to Mexico to serve and do what she could. “You can’t retire if you have your health,” she told us.

Because of the anonymity that is required for the people living at Casa del Migrante, they shared with us some of the stories so we could learn more about the realities of the lives of those seeking asylum.  They told us stories of people who came there who had been deported after living in the US for over thirty years. They were arrested for minor traffic issues, like driving without a light in their car, handcuffed, taken away in chains and put on a plane to return to a home they hadn’t seen in over thirty years.

The violence people were fleeing was unbelievable they told us. People are struck down by rocks being thrown to their heads by the gangs and then they chop up their bodies in pieces to burn them.

Sister Catherine shared the story of a 16 year old Guatemalan girl who faced the threat of becoming a gang girlfriend--which meant she would be gang raped and likely left for dead at some point. Her family paids a coyote $4000 with the assurance that she would make it to the US.  But she was subjected to horrors on the trip to Juarez and abandoned, being dumped in an unsafe house in Juarez that she escaped. The people who run Casa del Migrante found her and she ended up returning to Guatemala, $4000 lost and the danger the same as when she left.

The also told us about a family where the husband was told he must either join the gang in El Salvador or they would kill their 6 year old daughter.  He had written threats to prove that their lives were at risk. They walked from El Salvador and his daughter had contracted severe bronchial spasms along the way. They had been at Casa del Migrante for 3 months and were waiting on a court date to plead their case.

Sister Catherine and Sister Virginia shared with us that it was challenging work as they sought to share the burdens of those with whom they ministered.  But they were also overwhelmed by the generosity and support they received. People keep providing what they need to be a place of support and sustenance in the midst of violence and despair. They also emphasised that they needed quiet time with God to keep working and serving. 

They concluded our visit with what I took away as the greatest hope in this hopeless place. In the midst of squalor, violence and pain, they have chosen to be present and stand in the gap for those who have nowhere to go and need advocates and support. And they closed our visit by reminding us--people united will never be overcome.  

An Additional Blog Post 

Imagine you have walked for months from El Salvador to the United States with your family, fleeing threats of death from where you came and untold horrors on the journey.

You finally arrive in Juarez and legally present yourself for asylum.

Then the US Custom and Border Patrol Agent takes your family into a room and they take your 17 year old daughter aside. They take her from the room and let the rest of your family enter the US but your daughter is not there when you arrive to begin the asylum process.

Instead, they have taken your daughter back across the bridge you crossed and dropped her, alone, on the bridge. She has to walk back to a seedy area in one of the most dangerous cities in the world, knowing no one and having no idea what to do.

In a place where women are routinely grabbed by drug cartels to be raped, trafficked or kept as sex slaves.

And you can do nothing to stop this from happening.

This is the official policy of the US Border and Custom Patrol.

That happened to a family yesterday.

We heard it directly from the man who was running the center for asylum seekers where the family was taken. We were told it happens every day.

When we asked why this happened we were told because they can and because it is cruel. It terrifies people and serves as a deterrent from people legally seeking asylum.

This is our government policy. This is who we are. If you support the current administration this is what you support. Look in the mirror and ask yourself if this is what you want America to be. Because you promote what you permit.

I am sickened and ashamed. 

Day 5, Friday, Nov. 1, 2019

If I were at home, I would probably take the day off. I woke up achy and miserable, after hacking all night with a cold our group seems to be sharing. 

At first, I was feeling sorry for myself knowing I couldn't take a break.  I needed to charge through. But then I thought of all of the people we saw in the tent city, without proper clothing and blankets, waking up in 32 degree weather. They can’t take a day off.  Who am I to let a little cold keep me from witnessing to their story.

Our day began at the Farm Workers Center,  the director, Carlo Marentes, started by taking us up to the roof so that we could see the place across the street from the Center where people were kept in a pen as they awaited admission to the building to ask for asylum.

The US policy used to allow people to cross over the bridge between the US and Mexico to ask for asylum.  That is the law as well as what the UN says is the proper way to seek asylum. But the Trump administration has now changed this to a military strategy. We were able to see Army officers and vehicles at the Border Protection Office.  The US approach to asylum seekers is now a strategy of war.    

The policy has changed to limit the number of asylum seekers.  If there are beds available in detention centers they allow more people to cross to fill them for the for-profit companies that run the detention centers, but if not, they limit the number requesting asylum.  

Father Bob, our host, told us that during the summer he saw people kept in this waiting pen, to enter the building, for 4-11 days at a time.  The people were packed in like sardines, without hats to cover their heads in an uncovered pen in heat over 100 degrees. They had to stand there and wait until their names were called to enter the building.  People were treated like prisoners, but they didn’t even get the same rights as prisoners are afforded by the Geneva Convention.

After witnessing yet another outrageous policy in action, we had a chance to learn about the Farm Workers Center, which opened in 1995.  Their purpose is to advocate for the migrant farmers who immigrate to the US. He said many of them come here to flee violence, but also to provide economic security.

One of the most egregious assumptions about the migrants is that they are poor because they are lazy or stupid, but the reality is that they are exploited.  He told us that most of the chili workers in the area make less than $7000 a year, working whenever they are able to harvest.

Carlos shared with us the way they earned their money.  They were given a bucket to fill. After filling a bucket, the harvesters give it to the man who empties the bucket and they are given a chip. 

Most buckets net you 70 cents a bucket. If you are harvesting habaneros you get $2 a bucket. However, they are much harder to harvest, they cause breathing issues, and the pain it causes makes the harvester feel like they have a fever in their hands.  

The farm does not provide masks or gloves for the workers. They need to provide those.  They are not allowed to bring any food or water with them. They have to purchase it from the farm.  They also sell them alcohol. It costs $1.50 for a burrito and $2 for a beer. The farm charges for the ride to the fields.

In order to earn minimum wage for an 8 hour day picking pecans, a worker would need fill 100 buckets a day. On a realistic day, which begins early in the morning with the drive to the farm and ends late in the day, a healthy worker may make $45, even though they are gone for over 12 hours. 

Carlos explained to us that the system is rigged against the farm worker, who has no rights. That has been the case since the US government  initiated the Bracero agreement with Mexico, which brought workers from Mexico over during World War 2 and in its aftermath to work in the field  They were needed to harvest the fields, but they sprayed them down with DDT, causing untold medical problems. 

Today, that exploitation continues with undocumented workers who provide an important service but who, because of their status, have no voice and can be treated so terribly. He also pointed out that when ICE cracks down on the workers and deports them, there is no consequence for employers who knowingly hire them.

He explained how vital migrant labor is to three segments of the US economy.  Over eighty percent of all farm workers are migrant laborers. In addition, the construction industry and the service industry, which includes hotels, hospitals and other housekeeping services, are hugely dependent on a migrant labor pool and that the system has been set up to exploit them. 

Cutting off migration will create a myriad of problems for the economy, even as it limits access for people who are fleeing violence in the hopes of finding a better life.

After leaving the Farm Center we returned to the Columban Mission Center to construct their altar for the Day of the Dead, which is celebrated on Nov. 2.  This Mexixan tradition involves remembering the lives of people who have died by constructing a home altar with three levels and placing on items that person loved in life.  The pictures of loved ones are placed on the altar and they are surrounded by food, beverages, music and other things that they cherished, as a way of remembering and honoring them and bringing them closer to their family on this day of remembrance.

Our group worked together to create an altar and then we shared whose picture we brought to remember. I placed the photo of my nephew Joshua, who lost his battle with depression on September 30 and whose celebration of life service I would be leading on November 3.  I placed his favorite food, Saltines, by his photo. It was poignant and powerful--a tradition I wish we shared with our Mexican neighbors.

After finding out that those of us who had planned to be present at the Mass at the Detention Center would be unable to do so due to an administrative error, our group had a quick change of plans and drove to visit Jorge, an undocmented man living in sanctuary with his son at a retreat center run by the Catholic Diocese in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Jorge is a classic case in point in what has gone awry in the determiation by ICE to deport undocumented people.

Jorge was a university professor from Colombia who, with his wife and son fled to the US to seek asylum in 1998 because of their involvement with human rights issues in Colombia and the threat that caused to their lives.

They were hopeful they would receive asylum, but after 9/11 things changed and it became increasingly harder to succeed with an asylum claim.  They were turned down repeatedly but he remained in the US without documents, hoping to eventually win an appeal.

Jorge received a Social Security Card and began working. Although he and his wife never received any benefits from the US, they nonetheless paid taxes and contributed to the economy.  He became a vital member of the community. He was even honored as the National Red Cross Disaster Volunteer of the Year and was recognized by Anderson Cooper on CNN.

But after Trump’s inauguration, things changed. After inquiring about services for his son, who is a US citizen, he and his wife were put under surveillance by ICE. One day, while he was with his son, who has a medical condition, at a doctor’s appointment, his wife and older son, who graduated from a US college, were taken into custody by ICE.

He was confronted by ICE at the medical appointment and told to follow the ICE officers to El Paso. However, they did not have a warrant for his deportation so he knew it was not legally ordered. When he tried to flee and go to his church, the ICE officers hit his car and tried to force Jorge off the road.  

However, he told us through tears that “an angel was at the wheel of the car and not me.  By the grace of God I was able to get away long enough to get into my church and claim sanctuary.”

Now Jorge, who had been a contributing member of society as well as an essential volunteer, with no history of any violation of the laws and awards for his service, is living in this retreat center with his son. He Skypes his wife every day--it has been nearly 18 months that they have been apart.

He told us he still holds out hope that with a new administration he will be able to claim political asylum since his life is at risk if he goes back.  A man of faith, he believes that God’s power is greater than any other world power and he places his trust in that.  

Jorge is the face of the people being deported today--not criminals or bad guys taking from our system.  But people seeking to contribute and make our country a better place.

We ended the day with a trip to a Women’s Cooperative, where we were able to watch as they prepared their altars for the Day of the Dead.  They were poignant and powerful, but the most meaningful one was of seven photos of children.

Darlyn Cristabel, age 10. Juan de Leo Gutierrez, age 16. Jakelin Caal Maquin, age 7. Felipe Gomez Alonzo, age 8. Wilmer Josue Ramirez Vasquez, age 2. Carlose Hernandez Vasques, age 16.

These seven children are all casualties of the US immigration policy, having died in custody of the Border Patrol.  An eighth, a 20 month old girl named Mariee Juarez, died shortly after being released from a family detention camp.  

This is the reality of what is happening in our country today. I’m glad I didn’t let my cold keep me away from all that I heard, and saw, and learned today.

We need to tell these stories and remember the dead. Not just on the Day of the Dead. But every day. Because the situation is getting worse.

Pastor Rosemary

What really happens when someone comes across the border and asks for asylum? That is a question many ask, hearing so many proclaim the stories of abuse as fake news.

Pastor Rose Mary Sanchez, an ELCA pastor serving at Iglesia Luterano Cristo Rey in El Paso, knows.  She serves a small congregation where only 8 of the families that worship there earn over $15,000 a year.  

She said things have gotten worse for her people in recent years.  Although many didn’t have documents, under the Obama administration, most of them had a right to work and were paying taxes, although not benefiting from any government programs.  However in the last few years things have changed. They have retreated into the shadows as the Trump administration seeks to deport not just criminals, but anyone, and is shutting down avenues for them to work. 

She admits that when she came to serve there, from a family of educated Bolivians, she had many of the prejudices privileged people share about the poor.  She believed that many of the people were poor because they were lazy and were drunks, trying to take advantage of the system.  

But she learned, first hand, about the problems that result from a lack of education and a lack of opportunity,  She saw the realities of hard working, noble and honorable people who fought every day to provide for their families,  seeking to make a way when so many walls are put in front of them.

Pastor Rose Mary said we all have walls.  But like the Palestinian Wall and the Berlin Wall, physical walls hurt and divide people.  But even when those come down the walls within our minds remain. We need to address our own barriers, the borders of our mind that keeps us from seeing all people as children of God, worthy of dignity and human rights.

For her and her congregation, pushing those borders has meant that they have needed to reach out to the migrants that are coming to her congregation.  It has not come without a cost. Congregations that previously supported them now refuse to do so because they want to have nothing to do with asylum seekers. 

But for Pastor Rose Mary, there is no question that her congregation is focusing on what they need to do.  She said it all boils down to a simple question. Do you love Jesus? If Jesus was coming would you drop what you were doing and focus your ministry on Jesus?  Well, if that is the case, since Jesus himself came from a family fleeing violence and seeking asylum in a foreigh country, how can we say no to these people who are doing the same.

Her congregation was feeding 400 people who were migrants at the height of the crisis. Now  the Remain in Mexico policy does not allow people to cross the border and ask for asylum until there number comes up. The policy is actually a violation of both US laws and international refugee protocol but it has been effective in reducing the number of asylum seekers.  As a result they are now feeding 400 people a month, and looking for ways to support the people who are waiting in Mexico..  

Her church provides shelter, clothing, helps refugees contact their families and takes them to the airport and the bus station, staying with them until they leave.  She said it is very hard. People come in who are desperately hungry, sick, and they smell bad from their immigrant journey. But the first thing they do when they come to the church is not grab food or clothing, but go to the cross to thank God for being there and being alive.

As she shared her story and the story of the congregation with our group, she wanted us above all else to share with others what happens to these migrants when they enter the care of the Custom and Border Patrol  She wants to people to know what is being done in the name of the US Government. She wants everyone to know about the violation of human rights that has become official US Policy.

She has heard stories from migrant after migrant and they are all the same.  She said that some of the Border Patrol are reasonable people who treat them kindly.  One officer even asked a migrant for forgiveness for what the other did.

But many were cruel, calling the people dogs and vermin.  They were given minimal food--perhaps Ramen 3 meals a day, or cold hot dogs without bun, or most commonly, burritos that were still frozen,  Children were given crackers and juice once in while in the evening as a special treat, but that was it. 

Migrants described begging to send their kids to the hospital when they were sick and burning up from fever. One woman described how a kind border patrol officer finally took her daughter, but when she returned with medicine, one of the cruel officers took the medicine away.

Conditions have gotten precipitously worse this year.  She described how they kept the facility, known as ‘the ice box” deliberately cold and took away all blankets but a thin mylar blanket. She showed us a picture of a toy a five year old girl with cold burns on her hands and lips had shoved in her pocket. It had some tape wrapped around the small toy--she told them that since the officers weren’t going to give her a blanket to stay warm, she wanted to her toy to stay warm.

Pastor Rose Mary said people come for a variety of reasons.  She shared the story of a pastor who fled his homeland in Central America because a gang leader fell in love with his daughter. When she refused his advances, they raped her, so the pastor sent his wife and daughter to the US.  When the gang found out she was gone, they threatened his son that they would kill him.

They fled the country that day and the next day their home was attacked and riddled with bullet holes. They hired a bad coyote to lead them to the border and the pastor had to leave the group when he stopped the coyote from raping a girl in their group.

When the man arrived at the border, he was treated differently by the Custom and Border Patrol.  They gave him food, let him have some privacy, and allowed him dignity because he was able to show he was a pastor. But he verified all of the stories of how others were treated--by being kept cold, given limited food, and without dignity.

Sometimes you learn as much about how badly people are treated by comparing them to those who are treated well. Pastor Rose Mary and her congregation want people to know what is happening--what is really happening--so that  people can’t ignore it. It isn’t Fake News. It is a reality that is done in the name of US Government. 

What really happens when people cross the border?  The truth hurts. It hurts those who cross and it hurts our reputation as a humane country. But  we can only change it if we know the truth and get it out there for others to hear. And that is what our group was convicted to do--to share what he heard, we witnessed and we shared. So others may know what really happens.