3/9/23
We started our last full day in Tucson by heading to Southside Presbyterian Church to listen to a presentation about sanctuary movements in the United States. We were given some history of the sanctuary movement in the 1980s, which was started after many people from El Salvador and Guatemala fled their country due to their repressive government. Many churches like ones in Nogales, Mexico & Arizona, and others near the southwest border provided support for those at risk for deportation just like Southside Presbyterian Church. These churches networked and united by lending hands to those in need by providing shelter, food, legal assistance, and other support they needed. We learned about how the U.S. enacted a law that allowed people fleeing to qualify for asylum status, but they failed to comply to their own law and deported many back to their country. Many churches that offered sanctuary were threatened, which pushed some churches to go public by inviting the media, so the victims at risk of deportation could tell their story. These sanctuary churches were safe havens for many needing assistance, in which the US failed to do. Today, there are over 100 places of worship in the U.S. declared as public or private sanctuaries dedicated to help those at risk of deportation. Not to mention, there was universities, states, and cities dedicated as sanctuaries too. This presentation showed us how people can come together in the face of adversity.
We headed back to BorderLinks after the Sanctuary Coalition. The next two things in the itinerary were the Solidarity Workshop and Action Planning. We discussed with Josue how to stand in solidarity with people who have different struggles than we do. We also talked how this immersion can be more than just the week we spent in Arizona. This past week, we have been overwhelmed by a wide array of emotions, and it may be easy to feel hopeless against a system that deprives the lives of people that it so depends on. It is through consistent action and having conversations that challenge the status quo that we can hope to change how things are. We spent the last week immersing ourselves in the Tucson community by listening and having conversations with people whose life experiences were different than ours. I am grateful to have been part of this immersion, it has allowed me to experience the Tucson community with the people who call it home. Being the last full day, Josue had one more thing to show us.
Near the end of the day on Thursday, we all got in the van and our delegation leader, Josue, drove us to one of his favorite spots in Tucson called Gates Pass. We drove up a winding road that brought us into the hills above the city. The hills were covered in Saguaro Cacti. We got out in a small parking lot that looked out over the desert in front of us . Josue told us that his favorite viewpoint was on a hilltop to the left of the parking lot. We followed him up a steep trail until we reached to the top. The view from there was incredible. You could see in all 360 degrees across the desert and back to Tucson below us. We spent quite a while at the top, taking pictures and joking around. Eventually, the sun started to set and the hills turned orange around us. It was a perfect way to wrap up the immersion together and enjoy the natural beauty of Arizona.
-Yongxin Lin, Eduardo Gonon, and Benjamin Spillman