Week 9: Borderland Delegation

No going into the office this week. Our house joined the Presbyterian Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs) from Tucson and Albuquerque for an immersive learning experience about immigration and the borderlands between the U.S. and Mexico. We hosted the two YAVs from Albuquerque at our house on Saturday night before heading to Douglas on Sunday after church. We met with Frontera de Cristo, the organization that helped coordinate our learning experiences. After a wonderful dinner of soup and pumpkin pie, we traveled across the U.S./Mexico border for the first of several times in our trip. It was highly anticlimactic to drive from the U.S. to Mexico: no one stopped us to check our passports or examine our vehicle. We stayed at a church in Agua Prieta, the city just on the other side of the border from Douglas. The next day we crossed back into the U.S. where our passports were scanned and we were asked questions about our time in Mexico and what we were planning to do in the U.S. Much more involved than entering Mexico.

In Douglas, we joined a group doing a cross-planting for Heriberto, a migrant who died while trying to reach the U.S., and then returned to Agua Prieta to learn about Cafe Justo, a coffee cooperative that helps provide fair wages to coffee farmers in the south Mexican state of Chiapas.

That evening we had a chance to share a meal with migrants staying with an organization in Agua Prieta. I asked one of them what they would want me to share with others about their story. They responded, "My story is not unique. The hardships that I faced at home and on my journey are not special. I'm only here by the will of God. I've seen many of my brothers and sisters die during their journey for a better life."

The next day we drove out into the desert (and our van only got stuck once) to experience the harsh conditions migrants face in the desert. We made it to the border wall and learned that border patrol definitely knew that we were there but we didn't have to worry about them since we were on the Mexican side of the wall. Our guides talked about ways that people get around the wall once they reach it. After a bit of time exploring the area around the wall, we returned to our van covered in scratches and seed pods.

That evening we returned to Douglas once again for a vigil remembering migrants who died in transit. This vigil has happened every Tuesday night for more than 20 years, even during COVID. While there were many of us in person, there was also a group on Zoom saying names. For those of us in Douglas, we lined up, grabbed a few crosses and made a rotating line down the street. When we reached the front of the line, we would step off of the curb and face the oncoming traffic, shouting the name on the cross we were holding up. The rest of the group would respond, "Presente!" or "present," in English. We continued this line until we reached a point near the border where we gathered together in a circle to remember three people specifically; a man, woman, and unidentified person.

Wednesday morning we participated in a bible study with Frontera de Cristo's binational staff before heading to visit a few more organizations working in Agua Prieta and Douglas. That afternoon we drove back to Tucson, making a brief detour in Tombstone (yes, like the movie). Thursday and Friday included more group conversations about NAFTA, the immigration process overall (from departure to options for legal entry into the U.S.), what kinds of ideologies support the policies that we learned about in Douglas-Agua Prieta, and the border wall's environmental impact.

On Thursday night, to begin moving from seeing, thinking, and reflecting into action, we wrote Christmas cards to detained immigrants that will be sent out later in the year. Normally, I'm not one for Christmas music before December but I did make an exception for this one evening.

While this week was full of witnessing, thinking, and reflecting about heavy topics, it was also a week full of connecting, worshiping, sharing meals, and enjoying each other's company. I have a lot to continue thinking about as I head back to the office this week and continue to work with people whose stories I learned more about over the last week. I wish I could say that I know how to fix this wicked problem but I don't. What I am leaving this week with is this: we have a responsibility to do the work that we're called to do, but the work is not ours to do alone. I am encouraged by the people I got to know better this week and thankful for the stories and conversations shared with them.