Day 5

To start day 5 of our trip, we had an early morning before driving to El Paso. We talked to 2 border patrol agents, before heading over to a restaurant called Mayapan, which provides training and work for displaced female factory workers who were unemployed when factories moved to the economic free zone south of the border. After that, we visited the Chamizal National Memorial and learned about the Chamizal Dispute. Finally, we got coffee at a Vyable Cafe before heading over to UTEP to talk to a professor of Chicano studies. 

Talking to Border Patrol was an interesting experience because a lot of us came into it with a somewhat negative impression of what they do. However, the border agents made it clear that they are proud of the work they do. They described how their commitment to their work helps save lives. At one point, a member of another group that was attending the talk asked how many lives they’ve saved, and the agent responded “We do it every day.” 

The most interesting thing for me was when they said that they “understood the migrant plight,” which they backed up by the fact that they were both immigrants themselves. Towards the end of the talk they started to share more about the need for immigration reform, but their role is bound by the current legal construction. Border patrol is a way for them to work from inside the system to make it better, even if they don't necessarily agree with all of its policies. 

These ideas were balanced out by Professor Adrián Aragonés who we talked to in the afternoon. His perspective was more geared towards the politics of immigration – in other words, he was more interested in shining a light on some of the causes that drive immigration. 

This day helped me better appreciate the complicated process of immigration and some of the people involved. While certain organizations may be opposed to each other on a policy level, it’s clear that there can be individuals inside each organization who truly believe in the work that they are doing, and are making a difference. The issue of border control and immigration is extremely complicated, and the only way we can better understand it is by talking to people with different experiences and letting them share their knowledge and perspectives with us. Gabriel M-B

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