Randy admitted it sounded like the beginning of a joke. But the lineup for speakers at Common Ground on the Border gave participants a variety of perspectives on the border in a short time.
The Priest
Rev. Rodger Babnew is a deacon in the Episcopal church, in charge of the border ministries of St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Nogales, Arizona. His focus is on providing assistance to those applying for asylum status in the US. Rodger shared with us the sorts of heartbreaking experiences I'd heard from others. He also talked about breakdowns in the systems meant to manage the borders and help people on either side. One shelter nonprofits were working with was charging shelter clients for food, water, etc., even though those supplies had been paid for by churches like Good Shepherd and St. Andrews. That shelter no longer exists.
He also told us about some of the "turf wars" going on between Border Patrol and Customs officers, adding to the slowdown of processing asylum seekers. He claims BP can process more people than Customs, and want to take over that process, but Customs won't let them. I haven't been able to find out more information about this claim. But I have heard an array of comments about issues with Border Patrol, Customs, and ICE - all part of the National Security Agency - from lack of oversight to refusals to cooperate with each other to misappropriated funds. This isn't really surprising - these are big branches of governmental agencies with overlapping territory (literally and figuratively). And then add private for-profit prisons to the mix. It's hard to have a conversation about oversight and management in the agencies that manage the border without segueing into all the other debates about the border. But since we will continue to have borders and need to manage them, it would be great if we could be confident that best practices are the goal. I know, that's a lot to ask with any big organization.
The Sheriff
Sheriff Tony Estrada is, in his words, the only Hispanic sheriff in the whole state and probably the oldest (he's 75). Born in Nogales, Sonora, he's a law-and-order man, the elected sheriff of Santa Cruz County. He says it like he sees it, and keeping his community safe is the priority. Whereas other speakers I heard criticized local police departments for taking Operation Stonegarden funds (FEMA grants to local law enforcement agencies to buy equipment they can use to help with border security), Sheriff Estrada values this partnership. He uses the funds for things like vehicles and overtime. In return his officers are “eyes and ears” for issues at the border – not necessarily undocumented people, but drugs, people at risk, etc. He says the funds allow more of his officers to be on patrol. Border Patrol will assign them to “hot spots” that BP can’t cover; the mere presence of the police cars serve as a deterrent.
At the same time, Sheriff Estrada is against construction of more wall along the border. He says the immigration problem pales in comparison to the drug program, and he'd like more efforts focused on the latter. Estrada claims, "We are responsible for the cartels." He believes when the US tightened security at the border, the cartel saw an opportunity and started promising people they would help them cross in exchange for smuggling drugs.
In contrast, Estrada shared his thoughts on people attempting to cross illegally: “When you think about the people who undertake this incredibly dangerous journey, you think it must take a particular quality of person, a huge amount of strength, to do that.” He'd like us to put that strength to work in our country.
Finally, Estrada mentioned something I'd heard from others. People say, "Nogales (US) is so dangerous." But he believes it isn't. To combat this myth he has given tours of Nogales to representatives from 50 countries around the world. Personally I felt comfortable in Nogales (on both sides of the wall, actually, but I know there are dangerous parts of Nogales, Sonora). But the visual of a huge wall with (more and more) layers of barbed wire send an ominous message.
The Lawyer
Unlike the sheriff, lawyer Ray Ybarra Maldonado was born in the US. But just two miles north of the border. And his mother was born two miles south of the border. Trying to understand how a distance of four miles can make such a difference has shaped his life and his work. You might have seen him on the news; he's worked on the case against Sheriff Arpaio as well as conflict with the various Minutemen groups in the area (I didn't realize there were so many different versions of these militia groups who have ties to white supremacy).
When Maldonado was young he played at the border. It was a chainlink fence with big holes. His brothers would run through the gaps, touch Mexico, then run back until Border Patrol came by and told them to stop. Over the last 10+ years, such a game has become physically impossible in most spots, and life-threatening even where it's possible. Just in his lifetime the border has gone from neutral space to militarized territory. As another speaker put it: Is this border security or border militarization?
Today he worries about the impact on young brown people - US citizens - living on the borderlands. They see people who look like them on the "other" side of the border, and hear how they are talked about. He fears it makes them question their worth and belonging.
Maldonado addressed the question I keep struggling with. When he discusses the border, he doesn't focus on legality. Legally there is no debate: it is illegal to cross the border. But he focuses on the bigger issues, including what led to these immigration laws in the first place. He shared the words of Stokely Carmichael, from a speech in 1966:
"I maintain that every civil rights bill in this country was passed for white people, not for black people. For example, I am black. I know that. I also know that while I am black I am a human being, and therefore I have the right to go into any public place. White people didn’t know that. Every time I tried to go into a place they stopped me. So some boys had to write a bill to tell that white man, “He’s a human being; don’t stop him.” That bill was for that white man, not for me. I knew it all the time. I knew it all the time.
"I knew that I could vote and that that wasn’t a privilege; it was my right. Every time I tried I was shot, killed or jailed, beaten or economically deprived. So somebody had to write a bill for white people to tell them, “When a black man comes to vote, don’t bother him.” That bill, again, was for white people, not for black people. So that when you talk about open occupancy, I know I can live anyplace I want to live. It is white people across this country who are incapable of allowing me to live where I want to live. You need a civil rights bill, not me. I know I can live where I want to live.
"So that the failures to pass a civil rights bill isn’t because of Black Power, isn’t because of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; it’s not because of the rebellions that are occurring in the major cities. It is incapability of whites to deal with their own problems inside their own communities."
Maldonado says the people he works with know they have the right to work, move, have a better and safer life. In his view, we need a law that helps all the white people to know that.
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