WEEK ONE: Our Week at the Border: El Paso, TX /Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
- By Rachel Steel
Our Border Awareness Experience officially began Friday, August 19th. All fourteen students gathered in the living room at 10:00 a.m. when Irasema Coronado, the associate Dean and a professor at the University of Texas came to speak to us at Casa Vides. She grew up on the Southern Arizona side along the border and has been studying the border for about twenty years. She teaches public policy because she “wants to influence future policy makes in Mexico”[1]. Irasema covered many topics and provided us with a great foundation before our week touring the border began.
Irasema explained that people come to the U.S. for a variety of reasons; not all those crossing the border are coming to the U.S. just to live here. People come to El Paso from Mexico to visit family, to shop, for fun, for medical reasons, and to come to school. Similarly, people cross into Juarez from El Paso to party, for medical services, cheaper shopping and for work. Irasema explained that the U.S. and Mexico are very interdependent. El Paso is one of the poorest communities in the U.S. and relies heavily on Mexico. She believes that if everyone stopped crossing the border for a week there would be a tremendous economic impact and the U.S. government would be forced to listen and make changes.
Irasema discussed about a book called Enrique’s Journey, which is about children in detention. In the book, Sonia Nazario talks about the need for cooperation so children in detention are reunited with their parents or other family members. Some children are alone for months before meeting with a judge where they must explain why they came to the U.S. One of Irasema’s lasting thoughts was that we must criticize and question those who generalize. She warned that people who are anti-immigration often capitalize on synedochial generalizations.
A couple days later we visited the Border Patrol Museum for a presentation about the history and purpose of the Border Patrol. The two Border Patrol agents who presented to our group were Michelle Lebouef and Ramiro Cordero. Ramiro did not seem to understand our dependence on Mexico and seemed particularly oblivious to our economic dependence on illegal immigrants. Ramiro felt that illegal immigrants threatened his way of life explaining that he “does not want to pay for everyone”. However, as Professor Irasema pointed out, the opposite is true; we live the way we do because of illegal immigrants. We need illegal immigrants to do the jobs that we do not want to do. Our way of life here in the U.S. is dependent on illegal immigrants working construction, farming, and cleaning for very little money. As Irasema said, “we want the work but not the worker”1.
At the end of the presentation I asked the agents if they were personally invested in the political reforms and legislation regarding immigration. I was shocked when they both answered no. Michelle explained, “I’m just glad I don’t have to make those decisions about what to do with 1 million undocumented” [2] while Ramiro replied, “We’re just here to enforce the laws”3.
During the presentation Ramiro explained that the “Border Patrol does not split up families”[3]. He stated that unaccompanied minors are given to organizations that reunite them with their family which takes about 6-24 hours. Ramiro informed us that we would “be surprised how well we work together with agencies to deal with young children”3. This seemed to contradict the realities portrayed by Professor Irasema and many other sources I have encountered. For example, The Power of Love by Ana Amali Guzman Molina is about a mother’s experience being separated from her children for a whole year while she was detained in an immigration jail[4]. This overwhelming influx of information from all different sources makes deciphering the truth difficult. However, coming to El Paso and participating in the Border Experience Program has allowed us to see first hand the issues and problems that we have read and heard so much about. I agree with Professor Irasema that one of the best things we can do is to continue to question and criticize. Unlike Ramiro and Michelle, I do not just want to sit by and let others decide what happens at our borders and what to do with ‘a million undocumented immigrants’.
[1] Irasema Coronado, Associate Dean, University of Texas, lecture on August 19th, 2007 in El Paso, Texas
[2] Michelle Leboueft, Border Patrol Agent, presentation on August 21st, 2007 in El Paso, Texas
[3] Ramiro Cordero, Border Patrol Agent, presentation on August 21st, 2007 in El Paso, Texas
[4] Ana Amali Guzman Molina, The Power of Love; My Experience in a U.S. Immigration Jail. (Ecumenicral Program, December 2003).
Irasema explained that people come to the U.S. for a variety of reasons; not all those crossing the border are coming to the U.S. just to live here. People come to El Paso from Mexico to visit family, to shop, for fun, for medical reasons, and to come to school. Similarly, people cross into Juarez from El Paso to party, for medical services, cheaper shopping and for work. Irasema explained that the U.S. and Mexico are very interdependent. El Paso is one of the poorest communities in the U.S. and relies heavily on Mexico. She believes that if everyone stopped crossing the border for a week there would be a tremendous economic impact and the U.S. government would be forced to listen and make changes.
Irasema discussed about a book called Enrique’s Journey, which is about children in detention. In the book, Sonia Nazario talks about the need for cooperation so children in detention are reunited with their parents or other family members. Some children are alone for months before meeting with a judge where they must explain why they came to the U.S. One of Irasema’s lasting thoughts was that we must criticize and question those who generalize. She warned that people who are anti-immigration often capitalize on synedochial generalizations.
A couple days later we visited the Border Patrol Museum for a presentation about the history and purpose of the Border Patrol. The two Border Patrol agents who presented to our group were Michelle Lebouef and Ramiro Cordero. Ramiro did not seem to understand our dependence on Mexico and seemed particularly oblivious to our economic dependence on illegal immigrants. Ramiro felt that illegal immigrants threatened his way of life explaining that he “does not want to pay for everyone”. However, as Professor Irasema pointed out, the opposite is true; we live the way we do because of illegal immigrants. We need illegal immigrants to do the jobs that we do not want to do. Our way of life here in the U.S. is dependent on illegal immigrants working construction, farming, and cleaning for very little money. As Irasema said, “we want the work but not the worker”1.
At the end of the presentation I asked the agents if they were personally invested in the political reforms and legislation regarding immigration. I was shocked when they both answered no. Michelle explained, “I’m just glad I don’t have to make those decisions about what to do with 1 million undocumented” [2] while Ramiro replied, “We’re just here to enforce the laws”3.
During the presentation Ramiro explained that the “Border Patrol does not split up families”[3]. He stated that unaccompanied minors are given to organizations that reunite them with their family which takes about 6-24 hours. Ramiro informed us that we would “be surprised how well we work together with agencies to deal with young children”3. This seemed to contradict the realities portrayed by Professor Irasema and many other sources I have encountered. For example, The Power of Love by Ana Amali Guzman Molina is about a mother’s experience being separated from her children for a whole year while she was detained in an immigration jail[4]. This overwhelming influx of information from all different sources makes deciphering the truth difficult. However, coming to El Paso and participating in the Border Experience Program has allowed us to see first hand the issues and problems that we have read and heard so much about. I agree with Professor Irasema that one of the best things we can do is to continue to question and criticize. Unlike Ramiro and Michelle, I do not just want to sit by and let others decide what happens at our borders and what to do with ‘a million undocumented immigrants’.
[1] Irasema Coronado, Associate Dean, University of Texas, lecture on August 19th, 2007 in El Paso, Texas
[2] Michelle Leboueft, Border Patrol Agent, presentation on August 21st, 2007 in El Paso, Texas
[3] Ramiro Cordero, Border Patrol Agent, presentation on August 21st, 2007 in El Paso, Texas
[4] Ana Amali Guzman Molina, The Power of Love; My Experience in a U.S. Immigration Jail. (Ecumenicral Program, December 2003).
Members of our group with guests at the Annunciation House
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-By Emily Shaffer
On our first week abroad we took part in the Border Awareness Experience along the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez border. One thing we examined was the issue of the quality of life that pushes many people out of Mexico, its complexity and how it is rooted in our own consumerism. In our group of 14 students we would love for the maquiladora workers to be paid more, however, we are all guilty of buying products made in these maquilas and other factories similar to them around the world just because of the cheap prices.
On our visit to Pastoral Obrerra, an organization that is set up to inform workers of their rights and fighting cases on behalf of underpaid workers in Ciudad Juarez, one of the lawyers, Victor Hugo, explained that while these workers receive benefits such as transportation, child care, and meals while working, that is not enough to lift them from a cycle of poverty and improve their quality of living. When we took a tour of the ADC maquiladora, we were given a presentation of the factory through the eyes of managers and supervisors. They showed us the facilities and told us about the wonderful daycare center and cafeteria and the facilities were clean and well kept. One of the directors, Jose Vidal, answered our questions about the history and what is manufactured in the factory. Many of the questions we asked were about wages and what the average worker would make. Vidal lives in El Paso so he makes enough money to support this lifestyle, while most of the workers in maquiladoras do not make enough to live in the city where the factory is located. This discrepancy in salaries is one of complaints and possible solutions for improving the lives of workers in Mexico. These issues of employment and standard of living are important in understanding why so many immigrants try and cross the border.
On our first visit to the Annunciation House we heard the story of a young couple and why they had chosen to come to the United States. The couple, Javier and Carmela, had tried crossing five times before and every time they were caught and deported. The reason they kept trying so hard to cross the border was to raise enough money to get married and to send back to their family. In Oaxaca, Javier was making about $50 a week working the fields, but after one day working construction in the US he would make about $40. This comparison of wages explains why so many immigrants are willing to risk their lives to cross the border and work jobs that not many US citizens would want to have.
From this experience I learned that the issue of immigration is not clear cut and there is no one solution to end the debate. On the border I found myself often frustrated trying to think of ways to appease everyone on both sides of this debate. No wall or fence can keep people out when the push factors such as starvation and poverty are so strong and to suggest that one be constructed seems inhumane. This experience made me reconsider how much I take the privileges I have had just by being born to parents who are US citizens on US soil. It also made me aware of the borders I put up between myself and those that I might not agree with or that make me uncomfortable. While these borders are abstract and intangible they can still be just as destructive because they block the path towards positive change and learning from each other.
I took this picture on the border tour on ourfirst full day. The train represents one of the ways that people arewilling to risk their lives while crossing the border. The AnnunciationHouse volunteers told us of a young girl who had stayed with them whohad lost her leg while trying to jump onto a train
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario