Today was our second full day at the Borderlinks facility and it was spent learning the background and context for what we will be doing for the remainder of our time here. The first activity of the day walked us through the the United States’ history of citizenship, immigration, and borders. From it’s conception, the US has had shifting, but clear, stances on who is and is not an American. From the erasure and genocide of the Indigenous peoples that existed long before Europeans arrived, to enslavement of Africans, exclusion of Chinese, up to present day quotas and limits from particular countries, there have always been strict limitations on who qualifies for citizenship.
From there, we watched short docuseries by No Mas Muertes, a humanitarian organization based in southern Arizona dedicated to stepping up efforts to stop the deaths of migrants in the desert. The series, Disappeared: How Border-Enforcement Agencies Are Fueling a Missing-Persons Crisis, focuses on three different Border Patrol practices that increase the likelihood of someone dying or disappearing while crossing the border. Part 1, Deadly Apprehension Methods, documents how Border Patrol agents chase groups and individuals causing them to scatter in remote terrain, where these border crossers are more likely to become lost, injured, or to disappear. Part 2, Interference with Humanitarian Ais, details the intentional destruction of over 3,000 gallons of water left out for border crossers, implicating the US Border Patrol in the majority of this destruction. They documented how Border Patrol agents engage in the widespread vandalism of gallons of water left for border crossers and routinely interfere with other humanitarian aid efforts in rugged and remote areas of the borderlands. Part 3, Left to Die: Border Patrol, Search and Rescue, and the Crisis of Disappearance, focuses on a discriminatory and deadly emergency response system in the borderlands. The series brought to light the many challenges that migrants face when attempting to cross the US-Mexico border, and how societal beliefs and US policy have fueled the crisis.
After lunch, we attended a panel discussion about relationships to the earth and to each other at the Ethnic, Gender, and Transborder Studies Sociology Summit. Two of the panelist spoke to issues that were very inline with the content of the immersion; Amber Ortega, a local Indigenous activist, and Blake Gentry, with Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras. Their presentations both touched on how US policy has caused great harm to indigineous peoples domestically and abroad. The summit’s overarching theme was around climate change, and the discussion spoke to these topics with that lens. Gentry’s presention included data from his research around climate migration and through interviews with migrants found that the majority of them were relocating due to the impacts of a changing climate. Unfortunately however, US policy does not include these as a legitimate reason to immigrate here.
The day was wrapped up with an incredible discussion with one of the Borderlinks staff, Wendy. She told us about her immigration experience with harrowing details about the challenges she and her family faced trying to access a better life than her home country of El Salvador. Afterwards, she taught us how to make pupusas and we shared a meal with her.
- Nicole Rooney