Border Stories: a New Perspective on Mexican Immigration Naco, Sonora

Border Stories: A New Perspective on Mexican Immigration 1 Naco, Sonora, Mexico Union College Jared Iacolucci, USA, Union College Kaitlyn Evans, USA, Union College Erin Schumaker, USA, Union College Section I: This project aimed to provide basic humanitarian aid to migrants, who while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, were apprehended and detained by the U.S. Border Patrol at the Naco, Arizona station. To supplement this aid, we planned to document stories and abuses suffered by the migrants during apprehension and detention and write a book to inform the public of the reality of the deportation process. The first unanticipated problem we faced was the living arrangements. Originally we had all planned to stay in the migrant shelter, but the director of the program requested that two group members take care of her house for two weeks while she was away. This was a problem because we expected to spend each day and night in the shelter in order to speak more with the migrants and collect more stories. Secondly, the Migrant Resource Center is located in Naco, Sonora, a small town that survives on human trafficking. Therefore, we encountered unexpected competition in the form of Coyotes (human traffickers) that intimidated migrants and occasionally volunteers at the center. Their presence made it difficult to convince migrants that we were there only to help, and not associated with human trafficking or other crime. Lastly, beginning in late August, the governments of both the United States and Mexico agreed to begin a six-week program of voluntary repatriation by airplane. Instead of returning migrants through the various ports of entry along the border, migrants are flown to Mexico City where they are processed and sent to their states. Therefore, for the last two weeks of the project, almost no migrants were repatriated through the Naco port of entry. Where once we provided aid to fifty or sixty migrants a day, following the commencement of this program, we would aid only one or two migrants a day. During our two month stay in Naco, we helped around 1,500 migrants that had recently been returned to Mexico. A large majority of these people come from Southern Mexico, specifically the states of Michoacan, Veracruz, Puebla, and Guerrero. Around seventy-five percent of these migrants are male, fifteen percent women, and the remaining ten percent children and teens. In a year and a half of operation, the Migrant Resource Center has helped around 15,000 migrants. At this time, the center works with the Mexican Consulate in Douglas, Arizona to offer migrants a reduced fare to return to their home state in Mexico by bus. However, the Consulate seems to be under financial stress following a recent budget cut, and are reducing the number of migrants able to return home with their aid to thirty people per week. Before the budget cut, the Consulate often sent home fifty or more people per week. Another government agency, Grupo Beta, also offers a half-priced fare for migrants, but they do not have an office in Naco. Therefore, in order to insure the continuation of this vital program, the center will need to find a reliable agency. One difficulty that the center experiences, especially during the summer months, is the lack of consistent volunteers since many people take vacations. Therefore, our project during July and August provided a stable, consistent presence at the center, allowing it to remain open twelve hours every day of the week. This continued presence helped migrants feel more comfortable at the center and the shelter because the same people were working every day (they did not have to re-explain their situations to a new person each day). One week following our arrival, the director left for two weeks and we assumed the responsibility of running the center day-to-day. This included opening and closing, calling the Mexican Consulate to locate separated family members, arranging reduced-fare bus trips for migrants, collecting information, taking migrants with medical problems to either the Red Cross or the Health Center, managing finances, and providing food and information to migrants. This immediate immersion Border Stories: A New Perspective on Mexican Immigration 2 Naco, Sonora, Mexico Union College Jared Iacolucci, USA, Union College Kaitlyn Evans, USA, Union College Erin Schumaker, USA, Union College accelerated our understanding of how the center functions and we were able to better assist the migrants on our own. Following the director’s return, the only paid employee of the center, a local Naco, Sonora resident, took a week vacation. During that week, we were responsible for not only working each day at the center, but also assuming responsibility as the caretakers of the shelter each night. This included cleaning the shelter each morning, washing towels and sheets, and most importantly, waking up to let migrants in that have been repatriated in the middle of the night. Section II: Peace is a state of existence in which human interactions are fair, just, and disregard social divisions. This project contributed to peace by providing humanitarian aid to people in need regardless of their age, sex, or nationality. These people had often spent a considerable amount of time in the desert, and were mistreated by various groups of people during their travels. First, unscrupulous Coyotes will often abandon groups of people in the desert. Since these migrants are not familiar with the territory, they will often wander for hours or days without food or water until they are picked up by Border Patrol. Once in the custody of Border Patrol, migrants are often subjected to both verbal and physical abuse. Many are told they have no rights in the U.S., insulted in both English and Spanish, and their legal situation is not explained clearly. Also, in the detention centers migrants are exposed to extreme temperatures, given little food (sometimes only two packages of crackers per day), held in very crowded cells, and occasionally harmed physically by agents. After being released from Border Patrol custody, the migrants are dropped off in Naco often without knowledge the town or connections. In this weakened condition, migrants can be taken advantage of by Naco residents. For instance, migrants are robbed while staying in hotels and harassed by human traffickers. Another danger is the use of public telephones. People watch the telephones and following a migrant’s phone call, they will steal the number and demand money from the migrant’s family or friends. Given the hardships they have endured, migrants find it difficult to trust anyone, let alone a U.S. citizen that has no real understanding of what they have gone through. Initially, many migrants were hesitant to even pass through the center for fear that we were connected to Coyotes or corrupt government agencies, but little by little we were able to gain their trust. Often migrants would come back several days in a row, and on a few occasions even to say goodbye. The trust we earned from migrants despite hardships suffered at the hands of both Mexican and U.S. nationals helped create an atmosphere of peace between two groups of people often portrayed at odds. “This project enabled us to help a group of people who, due to their status as migrant workers, face alienation in both the United States and Mexico. This same group is often portrayed as criminals and a danger to the fabric of society, when in reality they hold the same values and morals as us.” -Kaitlyn Evans Border Stories: A New Perspective on Mexican Immigration 3 Naco, Sonora, Mexico Union College Jared Iacolucci, USA, Union College Kaitlyn Evans, USA, Union College Erin Schumaker, USA, Union College .

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