Border Immersion 2017

A reflection by Angie Bustos and Dannise Matarlo:

“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives” -Audrey Lorde

Today, was really about learning how to transition from being bystanders to begin standing in solidarity with people marginalized by the immigration system of the United States. As we begin to wrap up our learning experience here in Tucson, Arizona we begin to question, what now? We started to embark on different ideas that address this social issue of immigration. When we began this transition we found it very difficult to find a way in which we can have a realistic approach to reforming the current standing of immigration. As conversations continued within the community we have built during our time here, we brought to attention the importance of education and advocacy.

Keeping our conversation of education and advocacy in mind, we defined key ideas that are important to understand and continuing our conversation outside our immersion community to the university and Portland community. As our experiences here in Tuscon begin to conclude, our journey and more importantly our dialogue about this immigration issue is only beginning. With that in mind it is urged that the issue of immigration continues to be seen as an issue and NOT simply a topic of discussion.

Another important aspect that arose from our action planning was the struggle to have the ability to continue being committed to the lifelong issue of immigration. It is understood that tackling social issues like immigration can be discouraging since many times results are not tangible.  The lack of visible policy changes can be frustrating and cause people to burn out. Understanding these different aspects it is important to be reminded why one decided to commit to this issue and focusing on the positives that can be found in the darkness.

One particular story that struck our minds was from Deborah with the Tuscon Water Protectors. She had been an advocate in many immigration solidarity projects and there was a point where she found herself question whether her actions were really making a difference. This really resonated with us since we are only beginning our journey. One of her positions of solidarity, she answered phone calls in a 24/7 Hotline center, she recalled a phone call in which a man was lost in the desert but he was still in Mexico. She told us she was able to find this man rescuers and how moments like these, where a person lives, makes all the handwork worth it.

With stories like Deborah’s and conversations of immigration fueling our thoughts, we have come to the decision that social issues like immigration and others are intersectional. Their ability to interconnect is due to the lack of recognition of basic human rights that accompanies different social issues. With this in mind it is important to address our society’s understanding of human rights. Additionally, we must also keep in mind that there is more than one perspective to all social issues and to keep that in the back of our minds as we begin educating our communities and advocating for those the marginalized.

Itinerary:

Thursday, March 16th

8:30am: Walk to Southside Presbyterian

9:00am: Meeting about Sanctuary Movement with at Southside Presbyterian

12:00pm: Lunch at Borderlinks

1:00pm: Meeting with Florence Project in Tucson

2:30pm: Meeting with Josue

4:00pm: Action Planning Journal Prompt

6:00pm: Dinner with Chukson Water Protectors

***Pack. Fill Out Simple Evaluation. Be ready to walk out the door in the morning

Southside Presbyterian is rooted in the sanctuary movement of the 1980’s and is a leader in the new current sanctuary movement. It started as a mission to the Tohono O’odham people. In the 1980s the congregation became one of the key churches in the Sanctuary Movement, helping refugees fleeing terror in El Salvador and Guatemala. The Southside congregation continues to work with immigrant community members around human right, poverty and food justice.

Florence Project is a nonprofit legal service organization that provides free legal services to men, women and children detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), formerly known as the INS. Although the government assists indigent criminal defendants and civil litigants through public defenders and legal aid attorneys, it does not provide attorneys for people facing deportation charges. As a result, 90 percent of the detained people go unrepresented due to poverty. The Florence Project strives to address this inequity both locally and nationally.

Josue is a community leader who, among his many organizing roles, has worked on the topic of healthcare and undocumented immigration.

Reflection by Diana Salgado Huicochea:

We heard a story today from the woman who, throughout this week has been preparing the most delicious Mexican food for us, from lunch until dinner. We always see her in the kitchen cutting vegetables when we come back from our trips. Today, we met with Mariposas Sin Fronteras (Butterflies Without Borders), this organization provides support and aid to the LGBT people held in immigration centers. She told us about her experience of leaving El Salvador, her home country, because of the discrimination, rape, and abuse. She crossed through Mexico by climbing up a train to reach the Mexico-U.S Border where she got lost in the desert for 3 days and 2 nights. When she got detained by ICE she was physically abused and was kept in “the freezer” until her bruises were gone so she could be transported into a detention center. At the end of this month she will have her final court date where she will find out if she will be deported or granted a withholding of removal.

Listening to her story, I could not help my eyes getting watery and a feeling of a tight sensation in my throat. Her story reflected the many immigrants that have to do this every day, every night, walking in the dessert with a feeling of unknown-ness. Being an immigrant, you live with constant fear, discrimination and racism, that closes the door to opportunities and raises oppressors. Being an immigrant makes you aware that you are less than everybody else because of documentation. The safety of people should be placed above laws, not laws placed above people’s safety. Her experience is one of the many injustices that we do not realize is happening to people surrounding us every day.

Itinerary:

Wednesday, March 15th:

9:00am: Sierra Club Presentations

11:00am: Meeting with representative of Southside Worker Center

12:00pm: Pupusa Lunch

1:30pm: Mariposas Presentation

2:30pm: Detention Letter Writing

4:00pm: Solidarity v. Charity + Raining Rocks activities

6:00pm: Dinner

7:00pm: Reflection

Dan Millis is from Sierra Club Borderlands. He discusses the environmental impact of border militarization. “More than 600 miles of border walls and barriers have been constructed in all four southern border states. The authority given to the Secretary of Homeland Security by the Real ID Act has been used to waive federal laws along the border so that walls, roads, and other harmful infrastructure are built without regard to environmental protection or public health and safety.” – http://vault.sierraclub.org/borderlands/overview.aspx

Southside Worker Center is a day-labor center, member of the National Day Labor Organizing Network, a protection network and member of the Coalition of Protection Networks here in Tucson. Eleazar is the parking lot coordinator and advocate for immigrant rights.

Mariposas Sin Fronteras (MSF) is a Tucson, AZ based group that seeks to end the systemic violence and abuse of LGBTQ people held in prison and immigration detention. MSF envisions a society that no longer finds solutions in the system of immigration detention or the prison industrial complex. MSF works toward that goal, supporting LGBTQ people currently detained in Eloy and Florence, AZ through visits, letters, bond support, advocacy, and housing upon freedom from detention. Due to the high rate of systemic abuse and discrimination towards LGBTQ detainees, support and solidarity are critical to ending the plight LGBTQ prisoners face in immigration detention. MSF leadership consists largely of LGBTQ immigrants, many of whom have been detained. MSF actively organizes towards a society based on the principles of equality, justice, respect, and liberation for all.

By Gabriela

This is a poem we heard while in the desert.

A los Caídos en los Desiertos de la Muerte

En memoria de aquellos que por buscar una mejor
vida,
Lo único que encontraron fue la muerte,
En recuerdo de aquellos que todo lo arriesgaron y
todo lo perdieron,
Se fueron con la esperanza en los ojos
Y el desafío en el alma.
El sol los calcinó, el desierto los devoró,
Y el polvo borró su nombre y su mirada.

En recuerdo de aquellos que nunca más regresarán
Ofrecemos estas flores…
A ellos con respeto los decimos:
Su sed, es  nuestra sed.
Su hambre, es nuestra hambre.
Su dolor es nuestro dolor.
Su angustia, su amargura, y su agonía,
También son nuestras.

Somos un grito que demanda justicia…
Para que nadie, nunca más tenga que abandonar
su tierra,
Sus creencias, sus muertos, sus hijos, sus padres, su
familia,
Sus raíces, su cultura, su identidad…

Somos un silencio que se hace voz…
Para que nadie tenga que ir a buscar un destino en
otras tierras.
Para que nadie tenga que ir al destierro
Y consumirse en soledad.

Somos una vos en el desierto que clama:
¡Educación para todos!
¡Oportunidad para todos!
¡Trabajo para todos!
¡Pan para todos!
¡Libertad para todos!
¡Justicia para todos…

Somos una voz que el desierto no puede ahogar…
Para exigir que la patria les dé por igual a todos su
hijos
La oportunidad de una vida digna y decorosa…

Here is the translation

To The Fallen in the Deserts of Death:

In memory of those who, when seeking a better life,
found only death,
In memory of those who risked risked everything and lost it,
Who went with hope in their eyes and challenge in their souls.

The sun calcified them, the desert devoured them,
and the dust erased their name and their face.

In memory of those who will never return
we offer these flowers . . .
To them, with respect, we say:
Your thirst, is our thirst.
Your hunger, is our hunger.
Your pain, is our pain.
Your discomfort, your bitterness, your agony
Are also ours.

We are a shout that demands justice. . .
In order that No One, ever again, will have to
Abandon their lands, their beliefs, their dead, their children
their parents, their family, their race, their culture, their identity. . .

We are a silence that has a voice . . .
In order that no one will have to look for their destiny in other lands.
In order that no one will have to go to the desert and be consumed by loneliness.

We are a voice in the desert that cries out:
Education for all!
Opportunity for all!
Work for all!
Bread for all!
Liberty for all!
Justice for all!. . .

We are a voice that the desert cannot drown. . .
In order that the country offers equality to all its children
The opportunity for a decorous and dignified life. . .

“For the right to live in Peace”
Mexico, Winter – 2004
Othon Perez (Poet)

 

These are pictures I took during our experience near the border wall. Starting and ending with surveillance towers to show the fact that They are always watching.

 

Today’s Itinerary:

Tuesday, March 14th

Border Militarization and Policies of Death

7:00am: Breakfast

8:00am: Drive to Nogales; Border wall infrastructure and Jose Antonio memorial reflection

10: 00am: Drive to Arivaca

11:30: Picnic Lunch in Arivaca

12:30pm: Chat with People Helping People in the Border Zone

2:00pm: Desert Walk with Tucson Samaritan volunteer and Reflection

4:00pm: Drive to Tucson

7:00pm: Dinner

8:00pm: Reflection

People Helping People in the Border Zone is a rural community organization that was formed in 2012 by a group of Arivaca residents involved in providing humanitarian aid in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. PHPBZ grows community support for borderlands residents giving humanitarian aid to those crossing and dealing with Border Patrol encounters. Arivaca is a small rural community located in the militarized border zone. With a population of about 700, Arivaca is a small yet vibrant rural community. As with many border communities, residential life in Arivaca has been deeply impacted by mass migration and the arrival of thousands of US Border Patrol agents and infrastructure to the area. All residents and visitors to the area must pass through an immigration checkpoint to confirm their citizenship in order to enter and leave town.

A reflection by Molly and Lillian:

Sitting around two long tables, covered in cloths of traditional Mexican pattern, a distinct silence fell over our meek group of 19 traveling in Southern Arizona. Not realizing that we had fallen into a concentrated silence, each of us sat, eating our lunches, completely immersed in the chilaquiles that lay before us. The voice of one of our leaders perked up to rouse each of us from our exhausted stupor, calling and inviting us to reflect on our day so far.

What a day it had been. We woke up and collected ourselves preposterously early (meet time 4am), embittered by the lack of sleep for daylight savings time. Traveling to the airport, we checked in as a group of individuals, not yet having cultivated the sense of community that would surely come later. We traveled together, ate breakfast, sipped our coffee, fell asleep and complained about overhead storage together. We began developing a team, laying a crucial foundation for the work that would await us in the desert land of Arizona.

We arrived in Tucson and were immediately immersed in the culture of BorderLinks, learning about the history of immigration and its relationships with inequity throughout our country’s history. We reflected and were thoughtful, engaging in some of the sad realities forced to unfold by an unjust history of prejudice and capital interest. Frankly, we were exhausted in both a literal and figurative sense. Many of us felt the weight and magnitude of the issue of immigration, as well as the depth of its roots in our society.

But, despite this, as we gathered again for dinner, a whopping 15 hours since we first met this morning, we shared a lively conversation that reflected both our hopefulness and passion for this cause, ready and excited to move forward tomorrow (after some sleep of course).

Today’s Itinerary:

Sunday, March 12th

3:45am: Initiate phone tree

4:00am: Arrive on Campus

6:00am: First of two flights

12:28pm: Arrive at Borderlinks

1:15pm Lunch & Clean up

2:00pm: Orientation

· Welcome and Introduction to BorderLinks/ Border History and Vision

· Popular Education Spiral

· Acuerdos/ Itinerary Review and Roles

· Lluvia de ideas/ Little Questions, Big Questions

4:00pm: Legal Immigration Simulation Reflection

5:00pm:  Border History

7:00pm: Dinner out of kitchen

Border History – Learn about the evolution of the U.S./Mexico border—how has it been shaped by government policies and social realities.