El Paso Day 2!

Day 2 of Borderlands El Paso is in the books! 

After a good night's sleep, we started the day with a delicious breakfast. Although the night temperature was certainly variable, the air mattresses were quite comfortable.

We then drove to the border wall and heard a presentation from Hope Border Institute Formation and Engagement Coordinator Abi Ray about the uphill battle asylum seekers face. It was interesting hearing how much of a role religion, especially Christianity, plays in providing asylum seekers faith and shelter. The groups also interviewed Abi for their final projects relating to the border.

 


After that, we headed to Cafe Mayapan for a tasty Mexican lunch. We enjoyed enchiladas, flautas, and salsa, along with a variety of Mexican candy, even if it took a while to come. 



After lunch, we traveled to an undisclosed location to visit Ruben Garcia at the Annunciation House: a local shelter for asylum seekers. Garcia spoke about his journey as the director of Annunciation House, as well as the push factors that cause migration. Garcia pushed back on the story of immigrants being violent, and rather suggested that they're simply escaping the cruelty of cartels in Mexico and Central America.

At the end of the day, we returned to Peace Lutheran Church and played basketball and other assorted games, tired after a long day. We are so grateful to all the speakers who took time out of their day to share their extensive knowledge and stories.

- Alex and Abby

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Travel Day Reflections

Image
Ryan: To be honest, I had quite a lot of apprehensions about how invested I would be in immigration going into this trip. Reflecting on those concerns now, I'm realizing that they were all relatively unfounded. By conversing with various speakers, from professors to actual immigrants who have crossed the border, I was able to incorporate their stories into an enriched personal worldview regarding the asylum seekers. I can't express how thankful I am for this opportunity to get a first-person perspective into the issue of immigration and will continue to study it in the future. Abby: Looking back on this trip, I don't even have the words to describe how it has expanded and changed my worldview. Most importantly, it has taught me to embrace the humanity of people. Instead of viewing migrants and asylum-seekers as a mass of individuals with one sole purpose - to cross the border - I've now learned to embrace them with empathy and realize that each person has their own purp
Read more

Day 6: Final Remarks!

Image
Hi! As we munch on some juicy watermelon, we'd like to report to you on our last full day of our trip, also the last blog day. Today, we first went to a mural in downtown Las Cruces. After, we went to a hospitality center and took a tour of the area. The building was split up into a common area, dorms, children's play area, and recreational areas outside. Half of us stayed at the hospitality center where we sanitized the kid play room, laid down cots for new guests, and organized supplies in the warehouse. The other half went to a hotel where the guests stayed previous to the opening of the new location. We helped clean up the place for an hour. After doing community service, we went to get lunch at a local tamal, burrito and donut shop.  After lunch we met with Leonardo Castañeda, a reporter for the ACLU-NM, who gave us a presentation about asylum in the US. He described how there are many ways in which the border system is ineffective because of the areas that don't have
Read more