Since issues on the border are dominating headlines, I want to share some of my experience in a border immersion trip I took with my church a few years back.
“I am your servant, O God. I live to do your will.”
Bring your whole self and open your whole self.
You live in a different world than everyone else and the same world as everyone else.
Struggle with the presence or absence of God.
“Mexico: so close to the United States but so far from God.”
Mexicans are the disposable people of the United States. They are not treated like other immigrant communities. After we welcome their workforce, we have pushed them out into the poverty of communities in Tijuana.
A story: San Diego police would go to a hotel in town and insist that the owner open its rooms and show people’s documents. They told the owner, “If you don’t, the next time you need us, we won’t come.” How is that good law enforcement?
Recently, a Puerto Rican was deported to Mexico because he didn’t have a passport. People are harassed because of how they look. Puerto Ricans are citizens!
Lest we get all upset that our stories are biased, the police department and Border Patrol will not send officers to speak at Centro Romero (the center we visited).
On the plus side, Police in San Ysidro are very quick on crime. It’s a safe place.
Each year, 85,000 to 90,000 victims of sexual trafficking come through Tijuana. Prostitution is illegal, but there is a Zone of Tolerance in the city. People pay $10,000 to $25,000 for young virgin girls. Girls are kidnapped or sold by their families. The U.S. is the second largest market for sexual trafficking. Germany is 1st.
I think to myself: Why did I get this life? There is no cosmic justice.
Your life is not good or bad because of anything deserved or undeserved. You can improve your life. You can hurt your life. You don’t control it any more than God.
God is what connects us. Not more or less. God will not make your life better or worse except to help you connect and feel connected to whatever world you live in an whichever people are surrounding you or your mind.
We watched a documentary called Maquilopolis which was about the factory workers, most of whom are women, in Tijuana. The factories pay them horrible wages, they work 6 12-hour days per week in poor conditions, and live in a shanty-town which is heavily polluted by the factories (against NAFTA policy). U.S. companies are supposed to dispose of waste outside of Mexico, but they simply dump it in the water supply.
NAFTA made it hard for Mexico to compete with the larger global sources of agriculture. Since Mexico was a primarily agricultural country, many of its citizens lost their jobs as a result of NAFTA. The Tratador de Guadalupe also led many legal workers to be pushed out of the US and displaced them in the border region of Mexico. This is a reason that the maquiladoras rose in the border region.
NAFTA violated the Mexican Constitution (mandated its change); the Mexican Constitution guaranteed land ownership to Mexicans. No foreigners could own land before NAFTA.
The Mexican government doesn’t care/likes illegal immigration in the US because it brings money back into Mexico.
Part of the problem is that after NAFTA did so much to destroy Mexico’s agricultural industry to the benefit of the US, Mexico and its government can’t offer its citizens work that can sustain their families. Most migrants want to be in Mexico, but they need to feed their families. Many Mexicans are here out of necessity.
There have been more deportations in the Obama administration than in the entirety of the Bush administration.
Someone asked, “What happened to Obama?” I think Obama wants to demonstrate compromise, but instead has been stomped on because the Republicans aren’t willing to compromise.
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