Welcome to Immigration Week!

Margaret Treichler

For this week’s main blog post I have chosen to focus on my recent experience with the Kino Border Initiative. It is hard to choose exactly what to focus on from this trip, and so I will write this post in the form of an agenda/schedule.

Day 1:

On our first full day in Nogales, Arizona we woke up at 9am and hopped in a van to Arivaca with Father Pete S. J., our tour guide for the day. Once in Arivaca Father Pete sat us down at a picnic table in the desert and pulled out a backpack. The desert we were in was one that almost all those immigrating into Arizona cross through illegally. He began emptying the contents of the backpack. Inside was a large jug painted black, a small bible with a few pages bookmarked, some letters that a young girl had written to her godfather, a photo album, a rosary, and a baby bottle (I think that was everything…) It was then explained to us that each of these items were real artifacts which Father Pete had found during different trips through the desert. Those attempting to illegally cross the border had left all of these items behind and now here they were, in our hands. We all sat there in silence for a moment or two, taking it all in; reflecting on the fact that we will never know the significance of the bible verses that had been underlined, or if that little girl was ever reunited with her godfather. It was an interesting reminder of the humanity of Immigrants. The fact that when choosing to cross through the dessert many people migrants keep their bibles and rosaries with them. The fact that whoever had left behind that baby bottle had chosen to cross through the hot and dangerous desert with their baby, because the hot and dangerous desert was somehow still safer than wherever they were fleeing. It was a sobering and humbling experience.

Day 2:

We began day 2 with a trip to the Comedor- which I will touch more on later.

On this day, aside from serving at the Comedor, we had the chance to visit a women’s shelter in Nogales, Mexico where women who had attempted to cross (or successfully crossed and were deported) spoke to us about their unique experiences. These stories were horrific. We were told about the dangers of crossing as a female with a group of men. The way the men in the group often sexually abuse the women. And the way the women choose not to say or do anything because they don’t have any other choice. I asked a question about experiencing the border while menstruating (menstruation is something so often overlooked when female experiences are taken into account) and was told a nauseating story of one of the women beginning her period the same day she was detained. She told us that while on her period (which was particularly heavy while this was happening) she was given only one pad a day- no matter how many times she asked. She talked about the pain she felt, caused by a combination of menstrual cramps and being locked up in shackles.

Day 3:

Our third day in Mexico left our team feeling frustrated and, honestly, a bit helpless. Day 3 brought us to a border patrol facility, where we received a tour and watched a presentation by a group of border patrol agents. They treated this tour/presentation as more of a recruitment tactic than anything else and so we got to see all the perks of being an agent that really don’t match up with the pathetic way in which detained migrants were being treated. We were told by one agent, a man probably between 25-30, that he was making $110,000 a year (as if that isn’t already a crazy amount of money take into account the low cost of living in Arizona…) We were shown around to 2 or 3 different break rooms (why did they need so many?) and then were told about the Ju Jitsu studio and private gym in the back, for when the agents are feeling like taking a load off. Meanwhile, when I asked an agent to show us into the detention facilities, I was informed that “they don’t do that” because last time they showed a group their detention facilities they ended up being sued by the ACLU.

After this we attended an Operation Streamline court processing. Essentially this means that our group when to immigration court and watch as 75 migrants were heard in front of a judge and then deported. They were released 7 at a time, and as groups would transition in and out you could hear their shackles being removed. Some of the people we saw were sentenced to just a few weeks before being deported, while others were sentenced as much as 180 days.

Day 4:

We spent most of this day at the Comedor, a small soup kitchen for recently deported migrants located right over the border. To cross the border into Mexico we didn’t need to show anyone our passports, we didn’t need to speak to any agents; we just walked right through from Arizona to Mexico. In the Comedor each day is started with a brief message and prayer given by one of the women in charge. The message given to the migrants each day was one of hope. They are told their rights and they are reminded that they matter. Every single morning.

On this particular morning I wasn’t paying close attention to the prayer, as I don’t speak Spanish. My eyes were wandering and I was taking everything in.

As I was looking around my eyes met with those of a man at the table next to mine. He was a middle-aged man named Cesar with tears falling down his face. I was (yet again) reminded of the fact that I will never know even half of what it means to be a migrant. I will never be able to understand the pain Cesar felt and so I got up and I sat across from him, taking his hands in mine. We sat there in silence for a few minutes crying together before he was finally able to tell me his story. He had lived in the states for nearly 30 years. He has a wife and 2 kids who he fears he will never see again. While in the states Cesar worked for both a roofing company and as a minister at his church.

These short anecdotes don’t do justice to the experiences my team and I shared during this week. The system of immigration in the United States is really broken, but only for those who need it. For the people making these laws and putting these regulations and policies in place, the system is working perfectly fine.

I hope that after reading this you all will feel the fire in your belly that I feel in mine. This is people’s humanity. People’s dignity. And an issue that all of us living in this country need to work on understanding.

To do more, sign up for a service trip through Canisius's Campus Ministry Office. Email buehlmak@canisius.edu for more information.