Day 2

“The people here are among the lucky 2% of asylum seekers who actually end up being granted the opportunity to plea asylum to a judge in the states. The other 98% are rejected.” This statistic was shared to us by nurse Freida A., who works at the immigrant hospitality center we visited today. This center houses up to 250 for 2 or 3 days at a time, as they arrange travel plans to meet a sponsor. Today, we learned all about the intricate process that is asylum seeking at the US border. Vague immigration legislation leads to a system where the success of asylum seekers is largely dependent on their assigned immigration judge. Although she’s glad she makes an impact on those who are accepted, Freida described the whole situation as, “so infuriating I don’t even want to think about it.” Yet, she still described the incredible fulfillment she experiences every day from helping care for these immigrants who often haven’t had a warm meal or a good night’s sleep in weeks. She ended her talk by emphasizing the importance of volunteer work, regardless of whether or not it’s on the border, at a local food bank, or any other form of service. We had a fascinating first day in Las Cruces, NM, and we’re excited to continue working with the hospitality center throughout the rest of the week. -Drew K

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 6

Image
Throughout the trip, I have seen many different basketball hoops. Some – like the hoop on which we played with students from California – stand on blue and green courts, vibrant and cheerful. Other hoops sit atop dusty school playgrounds. But some, like the hoops in the dim, weathered gym that has been converted to a shelter for undocumented immigrants, are taped up and broken. The people that sit under them are simply trying to survive – they have no time to play basketball.  I have begun to realize the immense and unearned privilege that I gained from being born in the United States. By day five, after witnessing the struggles that so many face immigrating to this country, I started to feel helpless. With each presentation, I become more enraged. Yesterday, for example, we spoke to a University of Texas at El Paso professor who explained that, despite the fact that U.S. foreign policy caused much of the turmoil that forces Latin Americans to immigrate, the country refuses to he...
Read more

Day 7

Image
Driving through the sandy streets of Ciudad Juarez, observing the welcoming community, and following along the inconsistent steel border, I felt a confluence of emotions. As students of Lakeside, conversations surrounding privilege are abundant and familiar - but talking can only get you so far. Today we took the extra step, or an hour-long drive, and finally crossed the border, a day we had all been waiting for. We were exposed to the life that could’ve been.  After eating a delicious, home-cooked meal encompassing flavorful taquitos, colorful hibiscus tea, and a diverse palette of sauces we engaged in discussion with two powerful local women, Estella and Berta, who run Biblioteca Para La Vida. The two had moved roughly 30 years ago, each with five children in search of land and in hope of a life with opportunity. Battling major setbacks such as a lack of food, water, electricity, money and even a house fire, their four-by-four wood panel houses withstood the hardships, but most i...
Read more

Day 4

Image
Today was an action packed day for our group. We started off the day early in a district courtroom, and were able to attend a handful of online court sessions reviewing various cases. The common themes among the cases were ‘Re-entry into the United states after deportation’ and ‘Conspiring to import aliens’. Both of these cases were very interesting to hear about, as we were able to hear examples of maximum punishments for each of these offenses, and how these punishments changed between each different case. One prominent aspect of the punishments that a lot of us noticed was the prominent fines. For one case involving fentanyl, the court said that the maximum fine would be 5 million dollars. After all of the cases, the magistrate judge who was handling the docket gave us the opportunity to ask questions. When prompted about the fines, he stated that oftentimes the maximum fines aren’t even approached, and that sometimes fines aren’t even designated.  After the court case, we got t...
Read more