NO BORDER WALL

The team is in Washington D.C. on Monday July 30, preparing for a public witness and action. We have a banner that came with us from Brownsville Texas, covered with signatures, and saying "No Border Wall". We have a letter from an 11-year-old girl to President Bush, saying "No Border Wall". That is the message we are bringing. This poem was used in our liturgy this morning.

NO BORDER WALL

In Douglas Arizona, on a starry night,

Four blocks from our house loomed a painful sight.

The border wall, what is its name?

The closest description is the Wall of Shame..

U.S. Americans in nice houses to the north;

Central Americans and Mexicans in shacks to the south.

The sign on the border says we don’t want you here;

But there are jobs and employers who say “nothing to fear”.

What to do now, the migrants all ask

To go home with nothing is a losing task

Crossing the desert is dangerous they say,

But you risk your life and do it, there is no other way.

Two hundred die there every single year,

The wall is their killer, that’s perfectly clear

And their families back home,

Will have one more loss to moan.

The Rio Grande Valley shows other dimensions

The families who live there belong to two nations

People have crossed freely for many generations

Now a wall is proposed that will harm their relations.

The wall will hurt families like a knife through the heart;

Mothers and children wll be left far apart.

Fathers with work can only send money;

They cannot go home to be with their family..

And what sort of message does the wall send?

Would you slam a door in the face of a friend?

Keep our Latino neighbors from our land of freedom?

Is that, our dear nation, what we’ve become?

That wall is shameful, you could call it a sin;

Dividing up families, killing women and men.

Locking the river kills the animals too,

While rotting the hearts of both me and you.

Save your conscience.

Save your soul.

Just say no.

To the border wall..

By Haven, Washington DC, 30 July, 2007

From the interior borderlands to the belly of the beast

The Borderlands Witness Drive arrived inside the beltway on Wednesday evening, July 25th. The 110th Congress is scurrying to wrap up the current session and depart this steamy city. The ground is still fresh on the interred remains of the comprehensive immigration reform bill, sidelined in the Senate just a few weeks ago. Members of both parties are carrying wounds of dissatisfaction and disappointment at their failure to enact this desperately needed legislation.

For our initial day of meetings with congressional staffers this past Friday, we prepared the following handout to help in the discussion:

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Christian Peacemaker Teams
Borderlands Witness Drive
Proposals for Humane Immigration Reform

The Borderlands Witness Drive traveled the length of the United States border with Mexico beginning in Tucson, Arizona, continuing to Brownsville, Texas during July 2007. We met many individuals, communities and organizations that shared stories of life in border communities. We bring these perspectives to help inform the current debate on immigration. Beginning with the framework set forth by Arizona’s No More Deaths Coalition, we have the following observations:

1. Current policy has failed. It has not stemmed the flow of immigration; rather, it forces people to cross in more dangerous areas. Deaths in the desert have reached an all-time high.
2. Additional construction of border walls as authorized by the Secure Fence Act of 2006 will further divide families and local communities without providing an effective solution.
3. Any responsible immigration reform must address the status of the 12 million undocumented people currently living in the U.S. Many families include both documented and undocumented members—there is a dire need to keep these families together.
4. The vast majority of immigrants come to work. We must ensure humane working and living conditions for temporary guest workers.
5. A just policy must address the root causes of immigration. Many Mexican and Central Americans have been forced out of their communities by crippling global economic policies.

Initiatives we support:

• DREAM Act
• AgJOBS bill
• Congressional visits to border cities to include those most directly affected in policy debates and decisions

Initiatives we consider harmful:

• Costly and ineffective efforts to secure the border by means of walls and virtual walls
• Detention of undocumented immigrants with no other criminal record

Borderlands Witness Drive team members: John Heid, Wisconsin; Sarah Shirk, Illinois; Haven Whiteside, Florida; Brian Young, Indiana

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As mentioned in the handout, the five points at the beginning are based on the Faith Based Principles for Immigration Reform provided on No More Deaths' site.

Looking back on Louisiana

...as we left the border and entered the interior last week.

ENTERING LOUISIANA
by Haven, July 16, 2007

Entering Louisiana, what will we find?
Immigrants of another kind.
Here they live, here they work;
Hot and sweaty, they do not shirk.

In the cane fields oh so sweet,
With snakes and skeeters round your feet.
On the rooftops in the blazing sun,
Repairing the wreckage Katrina has done.

Gas and oil wells, what about them?
Are they jobs for migrants, or poor white men?
Survival the key while they feed the machine,
Of economic progress, huge and obscene.

Lake Charles Beach, three people in sight,
On a late Monday morning, though the sun is so bright.
Time off is a privilege, like money in the bank
Only the rich have enough; do they thank
The migrants who make it possible?

Who's Imprisoned? Who profits? Who pays?

On July 22, the Burlington, NC Times-News front page headlines read: "Detainees help keep jail full". 319 undocumented people have been detained in the county jail since May when local sheriff's deputies adopted immigration enforcement roles.

In January North Carolina passed legislation whereby local sheriff's departments are mandated to carry out Homeland Security's ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) tasks. On any given day since May, 80-90 undocumented people are held in the Burlington jail. The facility is filled well beyond capacity and pulling in $61 per day per ICE detainee. "ICE detainees have already brought in more than $183,000-about $152,622 in June."

"It's a perpetual door, but that's the way it's designed when you are having a turnover of individuals but no change in numbers," a Sheriff spokesman commented. The article reports that ICE officials have been hesitant to talk to the media about the program and that "operating largely in secret, ICE has 10 immigration deputies working at the Alamance County jail. The sheriff's department has no control over when ICE detainees are brought in, or how many. No one knows when ICE vans come and go, and there is no set schedule."

Of the 319 ICE detainees held in May, 149 lived in Alamance county. The article closed with a sheriff's department spokesman comment:"Residents are not citizens."

The Perfect Storm

The Borderlands Witness Drive has entered the southeast, a region historically familiar with storms both natural and socio-political. For the migrant laborer the region is fraught with hazards, both institutional and random, communal and governmental. For the first time in the Drive we are hearing accounts of a climate of hate crimes directed against Latinos. Fueled by inflammatory, racialist local media, talk show radio and small town newspapers, random acts of violence are more the rule than the exception in the so called "deep south."

A series of state and local laws have further complicated and criminalized the lives of undocumented residents. A driver's license is now required in Georgia in order to register a motor vehicle. Some county sheriff's departments are trained and charged to carry out federal Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) tasks. Legislative initiatives have been proposed to make 3 citations for undocumented entry (currently a civil offense) into a felony. Local police routinely set up check points and stop traffic at intersections near factories where large numbers of migrants work.

Meanwhile, ICE raids and deportations continue apace. The middle of the night is not an uncommon time for such raids here. As elsewhere in our travels, talk of more detention centers is frequently heard in the background.

In short, we are witnessing, in the southeast, a collision of forces designed to intimidate, abuse and criminalize the Latino community... from vigilante to police, from media to legislative. A perfect storm of hate and dehumanization.

This community under siege is rising with creative nonviolent responses. Marches have been organized. Monies are being raised to initiate English language talk radio programs to put a human voice on the Latino community which has borne the brunt of vitriolic, racialist talk radio. Volunteer cross city trash pick-up drives have begun in Charlotte, NC. Some churches are stepping forward in advocacy roles. Latino workers and families are being educated about their legal rights when ICE raids occur.

The southeast is woven with a fabric of white, black and Latino histories. The economy is an integrated one. Small towns and large cities are dependent on Latino labor and Latino buying power. These communities are richer for this cultural diversity, and Latinos here, despite all, are seeking to raise community awareness to this reality.

Stewart "Detention Center"

Stewart Detention Center, Lumpkin GA

July 19, 2007

We drove to Lumpkin GA, intending to visit Stewart Detention Center. On the way we carefully avoided Ft Benning, where John is permanently banned. Our advance information, that we could just show up and get a tour of Stewart was incorrect. So, we spent several hours waiting at the 4-Way BBQ, while Sarah exchanged inconclusive phone calls with Warden Vance Laughlin. Late in the afternoon, after checking CPT's record, and getting assurance that we would not chain ourselves to the fence, he offered us Friday or Monday, but our schedule did not allow us to stay. So we simply drove around the facility. It is about 1 ½ miles east of Lumpkin, with the usual double chain link fence, razor wire, and patrol road around it.

According to the May/June newsletter of Prison & Jail Project (pjp@sowega.net, contact John Cole Vodicka ) the prison is nearly full, with 1500 men locked inside. This is more than the population of Lumpkin itself (1284)! It is operated by Corrrections Corporation of America (CCA), and was opened Oct. 1, 2006. Shortly afterwards the ICE raids of workplaces around the country increased, and Stewart was soon filled. Like Raymondville, Stewart holds many people who have immigration violations that could be handled in less restrictive and less expensive ways. This is an emerging, widespread problem that we have observed on the CPT Border Witness Drive.

Walls

“Walls don’t work” is a theme we heard many times during our time in the Rio Grande Valley. Laredo Community College sits in a bend of the Rio Grande near a point where migrants often cross from Nuevo Laredo. At a cost of close to 1 million dollars in Homeland Security funds, the college erected a ten-foot-high wrought iron fence all the way across the southern edge of its campus. This has not stopped the people from coming. An art teacher at the college who lives in faculty housing just inside the fence told us that once the fence was built, migrants began prying the bars apart to make it through. The college welded a crosspiece to the bars to hold them together; people began to use this piece as a step to make it over the top. Others have tunnelled underneath. The teacher told us that when it first was put up, he thought the fence was a good idea, but he’s since seen its ineffectiveness. People will always find a way over, under, or through.

Walls don’t work—a Cameron County judge speaking at a rally in Brownsville echoes the refrain. Judge Cascos is typical of many in this majority Mexican-American community: a son of immigrants who has worked hard and is committed to his community. He is also typical of most public officials in the Rio Grande Valley in his opposition to a wall that would separate the U.S. and Mexico along the river. He has just returned from a visit to Washington, D.C., where he advocated with federal officials for alternatives to the wall.

There are, however, walls in the borderlands that are far more effective than any physical structures that the U.S. government might seek to erect. Many young people growing up in the Rio Grande Valley find their opportunities severely limited because their undocumented status prevents them from obtaining financial aid for college. One community leader says, “There are so many talented youths who want to go to school, but their education is truncated.” Graduating from high school is like hitting a wall for many here. Others are walled in by fear of being detained by the Border Patrol and losing everything—family members, community, homes—that they have worked so hard for over so many years.

And within the hearts of those of us who do not have to live these borderland realities,
there are also walls, walls built of fear and indifference. May God grant us grace to make it over, under, or through these walls, that we might see more clearly the faces of our sisters and brothers struggling in the Rio Grande Valley, and that we might join their struggle for a humane immigration policy.

--Brian Young

Laredo to Raymondville

Excerpts from the team's daily log for the second full week of the Borderlands Witness Drive:

9 July-- Monday

We used most of the morning to make phone calls, post blog entries, and generally catch up on things. We departed Laredo around noon for Monterrey, Mexico. After crossing the bridge into Nuevo Laredo, we spent 2 hours getting visas, a permit to drive the car in Mexico, and temporary car insurance. Consensus after this lengthy and expensive process is that CPT should either go to Mexico for longer periods of time, or take the bus. Driving into the interior for only a one day visit is not worth the time and cost required.

We arrived in Monterrey around 5 pm after the exciting (harrowing?) experience of rush hour in Mexico's 3rd largest city. We met Meliton and Diego at the FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing Committee) office, a happy reunion for Sarah and Meliton. The FLOC offices re-opened on 30 June 2007 after completing the renovations following the murder of Santiago Rafael Cruz, a former FLOC Monterrey worker. Sarah enjoyed the chance to return and follow up on CPT's previous work with FLOC in May/June 2007. We discussed plans for the next day and wrote and translated questions for Meliton to prepare for the next morning. After we settled in at the Casa del Migrante down the street, we wandered the booths of artisan vendors in the park down the street and got supper with Meliton and Diego.

10 July-- Tuesday

BWD met with Meliton this morning. He responded to the list of 15 queries the team had drafted. Meliton provided a background history to the 30-year-old program, which also has offices in Toledo, OH and Charlotte, NC, the latter of which we will visit in two weeks. FLOC, a committee of the AFL-CIO, offers Mexicans who are seasonal agricultural workers representation with the NCGA (North Carolina Growers Association). The historic agreement between FLOC and the NCGA means that the growers pay for the workers’ H2A visas, travel monies and housing. FLOC provides the workers advocacy regarding working conditions. FLOC is a viable alternative to workers trying to fill agricultural positions in the US without having to cross the border undocumented or pay exorbitant prices to contractors to facilitate the immigration process.

We departed Monterrey after lunch and drove to Brownsville, TX, arriving in time to meet CPTer Elizabeth Garcia and attend an organizing meeting for the vigil against the border wall this coming Saturday, the 14^th.

11 July-- Wednesday

Team day off in Brownsville started with catching up on e-mail, writing logs, doing laundry and other errands. By noontime, we were headed to the beach on South Padre Island for a wonderful afternoon of sun, surf and sand, plus birdwatching. John also led thoughtful devotions on the beach. Dinner on the way home, and the opening of Harry Potter #5, finished a much-needed day of renewal.

12 July-- Thursday

The day began with the weekly call with Mark, then preparations for a press conference with local media about the BWD and this coming Saturday's vigil opposing the wall. Elizabeth has good contacts with the local media and set this up for us. Two local TV stations and two print journalists from Matamoros showed up (see our earlier post for a link).

Our first afternoon appointment was lunch with Annaken Toews, who works with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) as an advocate for unaccompanied undocumented minors. Children get into this system when they are apprehended by the Border Patrol and not in the presence of an adult. There are currently somewhere around 360 to 380 such minors in institutions in the RGV. Some of them are in foster care, and some in dormitory-like settings. This program is administered by the Office of Refugees and Resettlement (ORR), which is a division of the Dep't of Health and Human Services, rather than Homeland Security. Annaken's program advocates for the best interests of the child, which often means reunification with documented relatives in the U.S. Ironically, minors in this program are substantially better off than their counterparts imprisoned at the T. Don Hutto detention center, even though the latter group are with their families. LIRS has published a report which recommends that Hutto be shut down.

Next we went to Harlingen to discuss the Raymondville detention center with Jodi Goodwin, an immigration lawyer. Jodi currently represents several clients who are detained in "Ritmo," and she is one of the few outsiders who has been inside. This prison houses undocumented immigrants from countries other than Mexico.

In the evening, John accompanied Elizabeth across to Matamoros to invite residents there to sign the banner opposing the wall. The rest of us stayed behind to catch up on various things; Sarah and her hosts managed to see one of the station's coverage of the press conference on the nine o'clock news.

13 July-- Friday

The day began with a morning meeting in San Benito with Alfredo Hernandez of Proyecto Libertad, and Jose Luis Vasquez and Elia Garcia from El Movimiento del Valle. We learned of El Movimiento's unique agreement with Cameron County law enforcement officials, which includes a commitment from police and the sheriff not to call Border Patrol or ICE agents when they stop people for traffic violations. Legally, they aren't supposed to call BP or ICE in those circumstances in the first place, but it's been happening a lot. We heard more about the DREAM Act, which would provide financial means and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented college students. However, as Jose Luis noted, it also starts to divide the family, when certain individuals in the family have one status and some have another.

After a brief picnic lunch, we continued on to visit the LUPE offices. LUPE, "La Union del Pueblo Entero," continues in the tradition of the United Farm Workers and Cesar Chavez. Olga Cardoso detailed LUPE's work organizing immigrants in the Rio Grande Valley. We also spent some time with Marta and Carlos, from one of LUPE's outlying offices. They took us to visit some of the colonias on the outskirts of Alton, TX. Lots in the colonias sell for $20-25,000, often with up to 18% interest. Families spend 15 years paying off the lot, and then begin to put money towards a house. They usually can't afford to pay towards both at the same time, so much of the hosuing is substandard.

14 July-- Saturday

The morning was consumed by errands and paperwork. Afternoon devotions commemorated the life of a Guatemalan woman whose body was found in the Arizona desert this week by No More Deaths volunteers. A similar commemoration was held today in Arizona. We prepared for tomorrow’s presence at Raymondville detention camp, including a banner reading, “Close Ritmo Now”.

The evening's focus was the rally against the border wall organized by Elizabeth Garcia and other local activists. Events began with a pachanga at San Felipe de Jesus church. After a press conference, the group of 50 to 100 folks proceeded to a city park on the border, where we were joined by others for a rally, the formation of a symbolic wall of people hand-in-hand broken by the borderlands litany, and a procession through downtown Brownsville to Ft. Brown.

The grand finale at the end of the walk was a wall-shaped piñata smashed open by children. Our last sunset in Brownsville was highlighted by the laughter of children sorting through candy (and those of a few adults, too). See Elizabeth's blog for pictures of the event.

15 July-- Sunday

After Mass (our second one in Spanish in as many weeks) and breakfast at San Felipe de Jesus in Brownsville, we headed to Raymondville for the “Close Ritmo Now” vigil. See Haven's earlier post for details.

After the vigil we drove on towards New Orleans, stopping for the night in Beaumont, TX.

A Visit To Raymondville

Everybody does not love Raymondville, a federal detention facility 40 miles north of the Mexican border, near Brownsville, Texas. Constructed in the summer of 2006 to hold persons suspected of immigration violations of various kinds, Raymondville now holds 2000 prisoners awaiting processing. They are brought from all over the United States, so most of them are far away from family or any other support.

According to attorney Jodi Goodwin, who works with these persons, processing can take from weeks to many many months: you never can predict. And the only inmates to receive legal advice are those with money to hire a private attorney, or lucky enough to find one pro bono. There is no legal aid service to help them through the morass of documents and regulations in a typical immigration case.

Raymondville is run by Management Training Corporation (MTC) of Utah, under contract with the Department of Homeland Security. Some call them part of the prison-industrial complex that has a strong financial interest in such facilities.

What are the conditions under which these immigration prisoners are held? Jay Johnson Castro, a border activist from Del Rio, Texas, calls it a “concentration camp” (albeit without the ovens). Elizabeth Garcia (CPT-Brownsville) and others have nicknamed it “RITMO” because they see it as similar to Guantanamo (GITMO), where prisoner maltreatment has been documented.

The facility is also called “Tent City”, because it consists of ten huge tents of Kevlar-like material, holding 200 people each. In the middle of each are the toilets, with no privacy. Dining tables are next, and bunks are around the edges. Food is inadequate and does not meet the nutritional needs of people from the many different countries and cultures there. And people are held in the windowless tents 23 hours a day.

This facility is surrounded by two 14-foot chain-link fences, with double coils of razor wire on top and in between. Security at the camp appears to be as heavy as at the adjacent state and federal prisons. But most of these prisoners are only accused of various immigration violations and are not required under the law to be detained while being processed. Yet, here they are.

On Sunday morning, after Mass and breakfast at San Felipe de Jesus in Brownsville, the CPT Borderlands Witness team headed to Raymondville for a vigil. We parked in the lot out front and got out our banner, saying “Close RITMO Now”. We then proceeded to walk around the facility on the west side of the fence. To our surprise there were no restrictive signs. But it was not long before two guards driving the perimeter road stopped and told us to go back. We did and while walking at a moderate pace towards the front, were able to show our banner to some young men in the yard inside. They excitedly peered through a hole in the screening and gave us thumbs up signs. The guards walked respectfully behind us, just making sure we kept going until we reached the front corner of the administrative building.

There they said we could hold our prayer vigil on the sidewalk, which we proceeded to do for the next half hour. Sarah led us in the beautiful Litany of Resistance from the CPT worship book, with a few additions to fit the border situation. Meanwhile, the duty officer from MTC arrived with one of his assistants. After asking a few questions they hung out and observed the liturgy from afar.

Later, apparently on word from above, he directed us to the parking lot, where we continued our vigil. The only audience was the guards. When invited, they declined to join us, but it appeared that some were listening.

Then the duty officer approached and asked our names, which we gave. He also identified our car and went inside, presumably to check it out. As the hour drew to an end, a county official came out with him and said the sheriff was on his way. Not sure of the implications, but apparently free to go, we packed up our banner, got in the car, and headed down the road. On the way out we passed a Willacy County sheriff on his way in, but he showed no interest in us.

In retrospect, we both got what we wanted: CPT saw the Raymondville Detention Center, and held a prayerful vigil for nearly an hour, right there, in full view of the guards—and for a few minutes, of some of the prisoners. The guards managed the situation in a way that caused no problems for them and got us out of there before noontime, on a quiet Texas Sunday.

Did this help the condition of the prisoners? Did this help close this distasteful facility? Time will tell. We hope readers of this blog will learn more about Raymondville and ask our political leaders to close Raymondville, or at least improve the conditions there.

--Haven Whiteside

"We couldn't have done it without them."

Nearly two years after Katrina, recovery efforts here in New Orleans proceed at a bureaucratic pace. Hurricane stories are so vivid that you get the sense the mighty storm blew through last week. Many houses, particularly in the lower Ninth Ward, still bear the the bold black spray- painted acronym "TFW" near the front door: Toxic Flood Water. A shrill reminder of the lethal impact of the catastrophe.

Some memories leave an indelible imprint. A refugee services coordinator stated emphatically, "We couldn't have done it without them." Even before evacuation orders were officially lifted, undocumented Latino workers began arriving in New Orleans. They were among the first wave of workers to deal with TFW, decomposed animal bodies, fungus, mold and miles of rotting garbage. They cleared out hospitals, public buildings and homes chock full of waterlogged furniture and destroyed appliances. Undocumented workers did some of the filthiest tasks, paving the way for the massive reconstruction efforts to follow.

While this city recovers, what's become of its earliest responders?

Soon after the grittiest work was done, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids began. Sites where day Latino day laborers gather each morning were targeted. Round up and "removal" (read detention or deportation) of workers without papers began. The Greyhound bus station has become another site for these raids. ICE officials routinely single out Latino passengers. The three regional ICE detention centers are being filled so fast that another 1,200 bunk facility is slated to open this fall in rural Jena, LA.

Contractor abuse of migrants is rampant. Non-payment of wages is common. Many workers are not afforded adequate safety equipment. The infamous "Katrina cough", the result of exposure to toxic substances, is common among these workers. Contractors are routinely denying access to worker compensation for on-the-job injuries. Living conditions for laborers are often overcrowded and unsanitary. Frequently the cost for this housing is deducted from the wage. Complaints regarding these conditions are reportedly met with contractor threats to report workers to ICE.

In short, the BWD's first off-border stop was met with evidence of the wholesale abuse of migrants in the work place even as some locals acknowledge that New Orleans would not be as far along in its recovery efforts today without the early, risky and dedicated efforts of these workers.

Adios a la Frontera... hola Borderlands.

The actual physical borderland that I’m dealing with in this book is the Texas-U.S. Southwest/Mexican border. The psychological borderlands,the sexual borderlands and the spiritual borderlands are not particular to the Southwest. In fact, the Borderlands are physically present wherever two or more cultures edge each other, where people of different races occupy the same territory, where lower, middle and upper classes touch, where the space between two individuals shrinks with intimacy.

Gloria Anzaldua, Preface to the First Edition, Borderlands/La Frontera

The Borderlands Witness Drive departed la Frontera this afternoon—a bittersweet passage. The footprints we made from the Arizona desert to the Rio Grande Valley have left a palpable impression on my spirit… even as the pull toward Capitol Hill gains momentum.

Behind us the migrant death toll climbs, as a body a day is being recovered from the torrid Sonoran desert. In Texas the Department of Homeland Security has just announced plans to expand the Raymondville immigrant detention camp—already the largest in the country—by 1,000 bunks.

Ahead await the internal borderlands… migrant communities, labor camps, poultry farms, more detention centers. These are the borderlands that criss-cross the U.S. like the arteries and veins of one large integrated human body…"where the space between individuals shrinks with intimacy." (Anzaldua)

--john heid, Beaumont, TX, 15th July 2007

Itinerary update

Here is the second half of our itinerary as it stands now. We are currently moving north from the border towards Houston, enroute to New Orleans. Places and dates are as follows:

• New Orleans, LA: Monday, 16th July--Tuesday, 17th July
• LaGrange, GA (Alterna Community): Wednesday, 18th July
• Americus, GA (Koinonia Partners): Thursday, 19th July
• Atlanta, GA: Friday, 20th July
• Charlotte, NC: Saturday 21st July
• Dudley, NC: Sunday 22nd July
• Raleigh, NC: Monday 23rd July
• Tarheel, NC (??-- to be confirmed): Tuesday, 24th July
• Washington, DC: Wednesday, 25th July--Tuesday, 31st July

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First part of the itinerary was as follows:

• Tucson, AZ: Thursday, 28th June--Sunday, 1st July
• Las Cruces, NM: Monday, 2nd July
• El Paso/Ciudad Juarez: Tuesday, 3rd July--Friday, 6th July
• Del Rio/Ciudad Acuna: Saturday, 7th July
  
• Laredo/Nuevo Laredo: Sunday, 8th July
• Monterrey, Nuevo Leon: Monday, 9th July
• Brownsville/Matamoros: Tuesday, 10th July--Saturday, 14th July
  

Brownsville/Matamoros press coverage

Elizabeth Garcia arranged a press conference with local media for us here in Brownsville yesterday. We spoke both about the Borderlands Witness Drive and about the upcoming vigil against the border wall. Here is a link to one of the articles, in El Mañana de Matamoros (a Spanish-language paper). There was also one in El Bravo, but it appears to no longer be available via their website.

There were two Spanish-language television stations there as well.

Las Cruces to Laredo

Here are some excerpts from the team's daily log for the first full week of the Borderlands Witness Drive:

2 July-- Monday

Departed Sitting Tree, stopped to assist Rick with a bandage for a wound incurred in the course of his roofing project, refueled the Jetta, then headed east on I-10. Lunch in a public park in Deming, NM.

Arrived in Las Cruces, NM, mid-afternoon, at the home of Sally M, a trauma nurse active in border concerns. Sally works at a hospital in El Paso, where they often treat injured migrants; she reports that the Border Patrol sometimes posts guards in the hospital rooms of migrants to ensure their deportation or detention after their release from the hospital (significantly different from what we were told about one hospital in Tucson, where the nurses will often call NMD or Humane Borders to let them know that migrants are ready to go a day or two before they are scheduled for release...). Sally has previously been involved with a group in New Mexico called Desert Humanitarians, who do similar work to the Samaritans, but currently her efforts are focused on helping at the Mariposa respite station. We had hoped also to visit the New Mexico/Sonora border towns of Columbus/Las Palomas, but our contact there canceled.

3 July-- Tuesday

Arrival in El Paso, TX, midpoint of the border. From EP west the border runs across land; from EP east, it is river, the Rio Grande. We met with Simon Chandler, Annunciation House's Border Awareness Events coordinator. Simon offered us several contacts and his perspective on immigration from an Annunciation House vantage point. We then met with CPT reservist Renee Borsberry for lunch with the Annunciation House community. People were still processing the previous evening's apprehension of a guest of Annunciation House by Border Patrol. While such events are common in the neighborhood, they have been rare at 'A' House. One agent actually entered the community sala before being urged out by a volunteer who demanded to see a warrant (see also our earlier post on this).

West Cosgrove, Maryknoll layman, offered us his perspective of the border and provided another series of options for contacts. West points out that E.P./C.J. is really one city, like many border communities. Furthermore he sees the 2,000 mile border as having 4 distinct characters which he calls:

1. San Diego/Tijuana
   
2. Arizona
   
3. El Paso/Juarez
   
4. The Rio Grande Valley

4 July--Wednesday

The BWD went south of the border for U.S. Independence Day. We visited Betty Campbell of Casa Tabor in Juarez. She offered the insights of one who is U.S. citizen and 6 year resident of Juarez on top of years of residence in Latin America. The conversation focused on the myriad forms violence can take in a border community where grinding poverty dominates daily life and the average salary from work in the city's maquiladoras is $4.50 a day. She offered the creative, faith-filled ways in which those at Casa Tabor live amidst the violence. We drove east along the Rio Grande to San Agustin in search of Professor Manuel Robles, educator/activist. We got an eye full of local history in the museum, though Professor Robles was not available.

The day ended at CPTer Anne Herman's house with a cookout and fireworks visible from both sides of the border.

5 July-- Thursday

We joined a group of women today in Juarez, protesting the unexplained and uninvestigated murders and disappearances of more than 300 women in Juarez over the past decade. Women gathered from many different supporting organizations. Families of the victims carried signs, and some had dresses on crosses representing their lost loved ones, while they walked silently in procession in front of the Juarez Dept. of Justice. Around 100 people gathered for the 1 hour vigil.

We met Jim Weaver, a Maryknoll layman living and working in Juarez, at the vigil and he accompanied us to our meeting with Centro de Derechos Humanos, Paso del Norte (Human Rights Center of North Paso). We met with Fr. Oscar, another Oscar, two Silvias and Cecilia who shared with us the work that the Center does with education, legal defense and women's programs. They also talked with us about Lomas de Poleo, a poor agricultural community on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez where wealthy landowner Zaragoza is using his vast resources to force the 80 families off their land so he can develop it for maquilas. Thanks to the generosity of Jim and Cecilia, we were able to travel up to Lomas de Poleo in the afternoon to see the situation first hand. See this earlier post for more. Our team was struck with the strong resemblance of this situation to many other CPT projects. This looks very much like CPT's work elsewhere, and the community does invite international accompaniment.

6 July-- Friday

Following morning conference call with Mark and Rick, BWD participated in the weekly noon vigil in opposition to the occupation of Iraq in downtown El Paso. We joined a dozen or so local concerned citizens including CPT reservist, Anne Herman in engaging the noontime rush with posters and peace flags. The response was largely supportive.

Following the vigil we had a lunch/meeting with Betty Campbell and Peter Hinde of Casa Tabor. Peter offered an economic analysis of the border. He described a reincarnated "colonial economy" wherein local elites ape the original colonizers and keep intact an oppressive system within the wider global economy. This system is characterized by a marked disparity in income, staggering unemployment and elevated costs of food products. Grocery costs are 25% higher in Mexico than in the U.S. NAFTA did not create this crisis, says Hinde, but rather it "locked into place a neoliberal model" which was already in process. He emphasized that one cannot look at the northward migration of workers both to the maquiladoras and U.S. without seeing the root cause of displacement, i.e. the colonial economy and its latest assault, NAFTA, CAFTA and (so called) free trade.

The team spent the remainder of the day documenting our days in El Paso/Juarez and preparing for Del Rio and the Laredos.

7 July-- Saturday

After an early start from El Paso, we were delayed by a clogged fuel filter. Fortunately we had a spare, and a local garage in Sierra Blanca changed it for us. Then a long drive through the desert brought us to Del Rio, TX, on the Mexican border in this lush part of the Rio Grande valley.

John, Haven, and Brian met Jay Johnson-Castro and his friend Sarah Boone, who run a B&B in Del Rio. We went with them to dinner across the border in the twin city of Ciudad Acuña. He had quite a story: he became so angry about the proposed border wall in their city that he walked in protest all the way from Laredo to Brownsville. That attracted local media, and others joined him from time to time. And then the mayor of Acuna joined him in a second walk, to Piedras Négras, across from Eagle Pass, TX. Jay reports that all the mayors, all the sheriffs, and over 90% of the people in the Rio Grande Valley are opposed to the wall. A third walk took him to the Hutto detention center, near Austin, where he reports that immigrant families, including children, are imprisoned under inhumane conditions. He was outraged. And so are we...

8 July-- Sunday

We began the day with worship at one of the local Catholic churches in Del Rio. The Spanish language Mass made things difficult to understand for everyone but Sarah. This provided us some perspective on the foreign environment in which many immigrants find themselves...

After worship we departed Del Rio for Laredo. We arrived there in the early afternoon and checked in with our hosts, Dora and Carlos Flores, contacts that Betty Campbell had given to us. In the second half of the afternoon, Carlos drove us over into Nuevo Laredo to visit Heriberto Galvan of the Biblioteca Tamaulipan, a community center for children and adults that offers computer classes and other instruction, as well as occasional hospitality to migrants. Heriberto took us to several sites around town that are related to migration (a river crossing, train yards, etc.). He also accompanied us to the Casa Del Migrantes, a Scalabrini-run house of hospitality for migrants. They are currently quite full, and most of their guests appear to be from Central America rather than Mexico. The Scalabrinis maintain a number of such houses in Mexico and elsewhere.

“We are one city.”

The Borderlands Witness Drive has entered the upper Rio Grande valley. Here the national boundary meanders willy-nilly like the river it rides. A muggy lushness prevails, in sharp contrast to the arid Sonoran desert frontier of Arizona and New Mexico.

Cities along the Texas/Mexico stretch of the border appear seamless: El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, Del Rio and Ciudad Acuña, Laredo and Nuevo Laredo. Each duo is a single community. The fabric of two cultures is interwoven with a rough tear down the middle. “We are one city,” is a frequent remark. Many families have members on both sides of the river. Commerce and students go back and forth across the Rio Grande, not unlike my friends back in the Twin Cities who cross the Mississippi each day.

The militarization of their homeland has angered many borderland residents: the round-the-clock check points, the National Guard maneuvers, the surveillance towers, the incessant drone of low flying helicopters, the coming wall. There is a sense of alienation alongside a state of siege deep in the heart of Texas. Policy decisions crafted inside the Washington, DC beltway have tidal wave impact by the time they reach the border.

We hear that local opposition to the wall is high. Word is that no sheriff, judge or mayor along the border (on either side) supports the wall. Lives will be more disrupted. Families more separated. Communities will be split in two. Paradoxically, the borderlands are less safe for all the security they now endure.

--John Heid

Lomas de Poleo

We drove into Lomas de Poleo under darkening skies. The ominous clouds hanging low over the hills seemed symbolic of the struggle mounting against the residents of the tiny agricultural settlement on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez. Despite a wealthy landowner’s hostile takeover of their land, the community remains resolved to stand firm. The colony sits atop a hill overlooking Sunland Park, New Mexico, making it prime real estate for developers who would blanket the land with maquilas and rent factory space to corporations interested in the cheap labor and close proximity to the United States. The land just north of the colony has already been excavated. Plans include opening a new border crossing to facilitate product exportation, indicating complicity at the national and international levels.

Zaragoza, one of the most powerful men in Juarez, began by erecting fences with barbed wire encircling the entire community. Guards man the gate, the only entrance and exit to the community. The electricity was one of the first things to go—Zaragoza’s men entered the community, rolled up all the wire and removed the power. Next they started demolishing homes, striking while families were away at work or late at night when no one was awake. The community fears for their two schoolhouses, which sit empty now during the summer break, and has formed groups of citizens to guard the buildings during the night when they are most likely to be destroyed. Residents re-built their chapel after it was torn down, and CPTers Carol Rose and Kim Lamberty visited the new building during a previous trip to the community two years ago. However building materials are no longer allowed into the colony, so saving existing buildings has become a high priority.

The residents have a legal claim to the land under Mexico’s agricultural laws, which state that settlers who live on agricultural land for 5 years or more gain legal title as long as no disputes arise. The community settled the land over 30 years ago, and has been farming there ever since. Zaragoza holds no claim to the land. Nonetheless, his stranglehold over the colony tightens.

The residents of Lomas de Poleo brought a court case against Zaragoza, which still languishes in court, three long years after being filed. Meanwhile, more houses come down and four residents have been killed as a result. One man attempted to defend his house from destruction and Zaragoza’s men shot and killed him. Two children also died in a house fire, set to destroy their home. Yet the community instinctively knows that their response must be non-violent. Ignacio*, a 25 year resident of Lomas de Poleo, shared with us his staunch commitment to continue this struggle non-violently. He told us that he has had many opportunities to respond with violence but didn’t because this will only give their aggressors license to retaliate even more harshly.

The dark clouds portend trials and suffering to come, but Lomas de Poleo hunkers down, prepared for the worst. As Ignacio reminded us, the residents have truth and the law on their side. And what does Zaragoza have? Only money.


* name changed

Borderlands Litany

Open our eyes and ears. Deepen our understanding of the humanity we share with all peoples and the divinity we share with you.

Break down the walls of fear and indifference.

Widen the doors of our hearts that we might more fully welcome all to the banquet of life.

Break down the walls of fear and indifference.

Guide the feet of our sisters and brothers through the blistering heat of the desert, and our own as we travel the border in witness to their struggle for justice.

Break down the walls of fear and indifference.

We pray for the courage to tear down walls that separate us and transform all that divides us.

Break down the walls of fear and indifference.

Bless the work of all our hands as we seek to build the beloved community.

Amen.

Liberty... for whom?

Y cuando digo: ¡libertad! me dicen: ¡muere! ("And when I say liberty, they say to me, death.")--Otto Rene Castillo

July 4th, 2007: The border city of El Paso, Texas/Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua awoke on U.S. Independence Day to headlines in the newspapers announcing the shooting of a migrant by a Border Patrol agent. This was the second Border Patrol shooting of an undocumented person in as many weeks, and the fourth this year in El Paso. This incident has increased fear and anxiety among many in this majority Latino community.

Earlier this week, at Annunciation House, a shelter for migrants and refugees on the fringes of El Paso's El Segundo Barrio, two Border Patrol agents attempted to enter the facility to apprehend a migrant who had just been dropped off by his employer. The Border Patrol is a regular presence in this old Latino neighborhood between El Paso’s downtown and the bridges over the Rio Grande to Juarez. Guests of Annunciation House might be detained anywhere outside the house, but inside they find a sanctuary usually respected by the Border Patrol. On this particular night, Annunciation House staff successfully and non-violently resisted the agents’ pursuit. However, the Border Patrol did detain another guest of the shelter who was leaving the building, and who will be deported.

Many of the residents of this part of the border feel they live in one city, not two. Most families in El Paso, 80% of whose population is of Hispanic or Latino origin, have close ties that reach across to Juarez. 10% of the students at the University of El Paso come over the border from Mexico every day to attend classes. For these people, the border is more a place where people come together than where they can be held apart.

This border and the way we police it says much more about our concept of liberty than it does about the people from the South who seek a better livelihood here. This latest shooting in El Paso, alongside the mounting deaths in the desert in Arizona, speaks louder than words. We are left with questions: Liberty for whom? Independence from what? At what cost, and at whose expense?

To what kind of freedom did you wake up this morning?

Tucson roundup

Here's an overdue summary from the daily team log of our doings on the Tucson phase of this journey:

29 June--Friday

The team held its initial meeting at Sitting Tree Community, home to Rick & Kitty Ufford-Chase and several others in central Tucson. As of today the entire team takes up residence here for the duration of our time in Arizona. Late morning and afternoon meetings focused on basics... review of the BWD's goals, team roles, schedule/itinerary, logistics. Rick offered an overview of migrant advocacy history in the Tucson area and guided the goals discussion. Nuts and bolts details will be worked on over the course of the week end and thereafter. A "light and lively" put-all-our-stuff in the trunk exercise revealed that we do not need a car top carrier!

30 June-- Saturday

Our first day in the field: we left at 8 for Nogales, the Mariposa port of entry. The state of Sonora has a respite station for returned migrants, and No More Deaths provides volunteer support. There is food, water, and medical attention, and most important, shade. While we were there a Wackenhut bus dropped off about 35 migrants, men and women, mostly in their 20's or even their teens. The Border Patrol picks them up, takes their names, and sends them back with their possessions and their shoelaces in a plastic bag (see Haven's poem for more on shoelaces). They were tired and hungry and thirsty, so we helped serve them. Two needed medical attention. One had scratches all over his cheek where he had fallen, but only superficial. The other had a sprained ankle, swollen and black and blue. We were told that 1000 people per day are returned at this one point. It was a disturbing reminder that our "land of freedom " is not welcoming.

That afternoon, we drove over dusty roads to the NMD Camp Ark in the desert. We were met by Steve Johnston and other volunteers and by 4 pm were on our way on evening patrol. We split into two groups and walked the trails to see if there was anyone in need. It was hot and rugged, but we carried water and migrant packs to drop off along the way. Indeed there was one man from Phoenix who was quite dehydrated and exhausted from several days of walking. It was clear that his life would be at risk if we left him alone in the desert, so we made sure that he would be safe.

1 July--Sunday

The day dawned clear and hot. The team attended worship at Southside Presbyterian, Rick's home congregation. Mark Adams of Frontera de Cristo (a binational Mexican/U.S. ministry) preached and served communion. We enjoyed lively singing with a beautifully diverse congregation and led a short litany, after which the church prayed for us and blessed us on our journey.

After lunch with the Ufford-Chases, the team left for the No More Deaths orientation for new volunteers. The training covered civil initiative, border history and culture, legal considerations, health and safety in the desert, and understanding privilege. The highlight, after Rick's hassle line, was the ice cream at break!

In the evening team meeting, we revisited our goals and, after a few revisions, agreed that they are pretty darn good for now:

1. Put a human face on immigration, first for CPT's constituents, and as possible, the broader public.
2. Clarify and deepen CPT's role along the border.
3. Meet with legislators and church-related organizations to share stories of the crisis in the borderlands and immigrant communities, especially in light of the recent inaction by the Congress.

We also assigned team roles. We leave Tucson for Las Cruces at 8 am tomorrow.

Shoelaces

Thoughts on the morning of June 30, 2007, as four CPTers helped at a respite station for returned migrants, just over the border in Mexico.

SHOELACES
by Haven Whiteside, Nogales, Sonora, Mexico

Shoelaces, shoelaces, what do they mean?

More than you think, consider the scene.

Moving north they hold shoes firm on your feet,

Strong for walking, and your heart strong too.

Over the border to the land of opportunity,

How far would you walk to feed your family?

A dozen, a hundred, a thousand miles if you could,

And your shoes have their laces: life is good.

Shoelaces, shoelaces, in plastic bags

With all your possessions, and Border Patrol tags.

You still have your shoes, but cannot walk far,

Just back to Mexico from the Border Patrol car.

Your trip is over, your journey just begun;

At Mariposa crossing there’s no need to run.

Sarah brings a drink from Gilbert in the back;

There is medical aid, and food for a snack.

Home is not near: a thousand miles to the south;

And if you were there you’d see empty mouths.

So you’ll keep on going, try it again

Walking the desert with a dozen of them.

Following the law of survival,

Though you break laws of men.

Shoelaces tell the story: are they out, are they in?

Are you hopeful today, or is your hope growing dim?

May God bless your shoelaces,

as you put them back in.

Lord, bless these shoelaces.

Let the journey begin.

---

NOGALES, MEXICO: "Seventeen bodies were recovered this month....."

[CPTer John Heid (Luck, WI) has spent June working with No More Deaths and the Samaritans in southern Arizona, providing humanitarian assistance to migrants. In July, he will be joined by CPTers Sarah Shirk (Chicago, IL), Haven Whiteside (Palm Harbor, FL), and Brian Young (Richmond, IN) as they engage in CPT's July month-long Borderlands Witness Drive.]

Lace-less shoes on weary feet identify these hundreds as migrants, dumped back across the US/Mexico border each day at Nogales. Each face reveals a story. Each story is punctuated by hunger, loss and determination. Their bodies are usually weary, blistered and dehydrated. The spirits are often resilient despite these facts. So, the migrants keep coming, and the buses keep deporting. Survival is higher than any wall.

Temperatures in southern Arizona have exceeded 100 degrees every day since June 13th. There is no end in sight. Seventeen bodies were recovered in the Tucson sector this month. These neighbors died of dehydration, but the political analysis autopsy reads "failed immigration policy."

The headline in last Sunday's Arizona Daily Star read "Efforts to cut summer deaths along the border aren't working." While the US Border Patrol scours the desert for laborers, fathers, mothers and increasing numbers of children, there is scant public understanding of the reasons our neighbors risk life and limb simply to work.

The politically constructed border is a flash point. It is a locus of life and death. Yet the crises neither begins nor ends in the Sonoran desert. Economic policies created this crisis. Federal and state policies exacerbate it long after a migrant finds work in a labor camp, truck farm, construction sight or poultry plant.

CPT Borderlands Witness Drive begins this week in the literally blistering Arizona heat and culminates in late July, 3,000 miles away in the air conditioned hall of Congress. The team will follow a migrant trail of sorts -- from the fences, walls and watch towers of the border, through the south and southeast gathering testimonies, joining solidarity vigils, and praying. We will look squarely into the faces of immigrants with a vision that authentic human spirit, theirs and ours, can be breathed into the currently comatose debate on immigration policy.

New Blog on Raymondville, TX Detention Center

Elizabeth Garcia, border activist, resident of Brownsville, TX, and CPTer, has started a new blog to provide details on the gargantuan Raymondville, TX Detention Center that has been set up to warehouse detained migrants. You can find it at:

http://tentcityinraymondville.blogspot.com/

We'll also put a link in the sidebar.

"How far would you walk to feed your family?"

"How far would you walk to feed your family?" Six migrants walked to their deaths in as many days in the Arizona desert this week, bringing the year's total to 88 fatalities in the Tucson Sector alone.

The query "How far..." punctuated a June 6th press conference held by No More Deaths, CPT's local coalition partner, as human rights workers shared first-hand accounts of the courage and compassion of migrants they have encountered in the desert. No More Deaths reopens summer camps and mobile stations in the Sonoran desert this weekend as temperatures climb into 100's.

For those migrants who survive the desert crossing incarceration awaits. A record 26,000 migrants are currently imprisoned in the burgeoning network of private and state detention centers across the United States.

Meanwhile the immigration reform bill debate drones on in congress.

CPT's Borderlands Witness Drive is scheduled to begin in Tucson on July 2nd. The team will travel along the US/Mexican border meeting with the myriad groups engaged in migrant aid/advocacy work,visiting and vigiling at detention centers and collecting information/stories in an effort to bring the human face of migration to Capital Hill in early August at the culmination of the Drive.

The perils of migration are lethal in the deserts of the southwest, but violations of human rights dog every step of a migrant sister or brother's journey north. Borderlands Witness Drive will follow this trail through the southeast with meetings, vigils and solidarity gatherings in Louisana, Georgia and North Carolina and ultimatly, Washington DC.

ARIZONA/SONORA BORDERLANDS REFLECTION: Two Psalms

ARIZONA/SONORA BORDERLANDS REFLECTION: Two Psalms
CPTnet, 8 June 2007

After completing her all-night shift at the Migrant Resource Center,
19-year-old Rachel Liberto returned to her fellow Christian Peacemaker Teams delegates bearing a precious gift. Located on the Mexican side of the Douglas/Agua Prieta border crossing, the Migrant Resource Center daily receives over a hundred newly deported Mexican and Central American migrants, offering them food and drink, basic care for their blistered feet, an orientation to services available to them in Agua Prieta, a kind word, and a listening ear.

Late that night, one migrant sat beside Rachel and asked if she would read Psalm 22 aloud to him

"I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint--Thou dost lay me in the dust of death--"

The Psalm captured so much of what Rachel and her fellow delegates had heard about the treacherous journey from Southern Mexico to Arizona. This journey, taken every day by thousands of men, women and children, claims the lives of hundreds every year, and the hopes of an inestimable number. But in the face of this kindly man from Oaxaca, and in the impassioned, raw words of the Psalmist, the reality of the crossing struck Rachel with a new power.

Some hours later, Rachel greeted one last weary migrant, Margo, a young woman from Chiapas. As Rachel tended to her horribly blistered feet, she motioned to the Bible in Margo's hands. Did she, Rachel asked, have a favorite Psalm? "Yes," she said, "Psalm 23."

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green meadows--"

Rachel listened to Margo as she shared some of her story. In tears, she recounted small pieces of her journey and the sacrifices it required. Her mother had died five years before and left her ill father to take care of Margo and her younger sister. Margo told Rachel that her family has gone days without food. Rachel glanced up at Margo's face twisted in sadness. She did not know if there were consoling words to say so she slowly stroked Margo's swollen shins and stared blankly into the pink tub of antiseptic water. In time, Rachel finished bandaging her blisters and stretched clean socks over her feet. As they parted the two new friends embraced one another.

The next morning Rachel told briefly of her night at the Center, of her new friends, and of the two Psalms they set before her. She read the Psalms aloud and invited the others to join her in silent prayer.

Rachel and her fellow delegates pondered the realities of the migrants' experience with grief and amazement. What conditions would lead a mother to leave behind her family, including her one and only child, a four year-old daughter, to risk her life for a dreadfully unreliable promise on the other side of an invisible line? Who is this strange God who lays migrants "in the dust of death" and "in green meadows"?

[Participants in CPT's May 24-June 4 Borderlands delegation were Carin Anderson, Christopher Moore-Backman and their baby Isa (Tucson, AZ), Rachel Brocker (Beaverton, OR), Erin Cox, (Chicago, IL), Martha Hayward (Negaunee, MI), Rachel Liberto (Seattle, WA), Lois Mastrangelo (Watertown, MA), Kyle Navis (Spokane, WA), Tyler Schroeder (Centennial CO), Martin Smedjeback (Sundbyberg, Sweden) Rick Ufford-Chase (Tucson, AZ) and John Williamson
(Spokane, WA).]

CPT Announces Borderlands Witness drive

During all of July, CPT's Borderlands project will send a four-person team to enact a 3,000-plus mile Border Witness drive organized around the migrant experience within the US-Mexico Borderlands region. The team will engage in public witness and connect with immigrant-solidarity organizations as it travels from Tucson, AZ, east to Brownsville, TX and then north to Washington, DC, culminating with legislative advocacy calling for comprehensive immigration reform.