![]() “Most of the workers were living next to the fields,” he explained, “because they wanted to avoid police or border patrol, because they were undocumented, and also they wanted to save as much money as possible to send to their loved ones.”Īs U.S. He described their work as an effort “to keep the flame of hope, because many of them are hopeless, and also the flame of love because most of them feel afraid, in this environment of hate and fear…They are afraid they are running away from death, from violence, and now here they are seen and treated as criminals.”īorder Angels was founded by a man named Enrique Morones back in 1996, mainly doing outreach to field workers living in Carlsbad. Hugo Castro explains the work of Border Angels and gives some immigration history. Before heading out from there, Hugo Castro, who was leading the caravan, gave a short speech about the work of Border Angels, and gave some rather candid insights about US immigration policy (past and present). ![]() We arrived a bit early at the offices of Border Angels in San Diego. A few days before, I’d put out a Facebook call, asking for food and supplies, and my friends and family did not disappoint-our trunk was loaded. Three friends and I drove down from Fullerton to San Diego on a Saturday morning. I present here an account of a trip I took with a Border Angels caravan on July 13th to three migrant shelters in Tijuana, where I had the opportunity to meet and speak with actual migrants from places like Honduras, Guatemala, and Haiti-the vast majority of which were women and children fleeing poverty and violence. Under president Trump’s “remain in Mexico” asylum policy, thousands of folks seeking asylum in the United States are forced to wait in border towns like Tijuana, as they wait months for an asylum hearing that may, or may not, grant them entrance to our country under both U.S. I reached out to a San Diego-based group called Border Angels, a group which, every two weeks, leads something called a “Caravan of Love” southward across the border into Tijuana, to deliver food and supplies to migrant shelters. And so, I decided to approach the issue from another vantage point. As a local journalist, I was not hopeful that I would be granted access to a US migrant detention facility. In an effort to humanize this issue for myself, and (perhaps) for some readers, I decided to try to meet some actual migrants, to put a human face on what is often reduced to little more than a Facebook argument, at least in this country. Democrats advocate for the rights of immigrants (documented and undocumented), and Republicans clamor for a border wall to stem the tide of “illegal aliens.” Listening to the endless chatter of pundits and politicians on this issue can be numbing, frustrating, and can make the issue an abstract political debate, rather than a real thing involving real human beings. ![]() In today’s current political climate, the issue of immigration has become extremely polarized.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |