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| Welcome to the House of Hope Community Center for Immigrant Care |
By Liz Lennox, Director of Communications SUSUMC & WPAUMC
In mid September, a group of seven from the Susquehanna and Western PA Conferences traveled to Tuscon, Arizona for an educational mission journey to learn more about immigration and the organizations that provide support at the border. As a communicator, I joined the team to document every step of the way and share our experiences when we returned. Having done this sort of thing before, most notably in 2019 as part of a disaster response team in Puerto Rico, I thought I was prepared - I had a vision of what I would share and how I would share it. The reality was very different from what I initially expected and I was unprepared for what I would learn and see and experience.
It’s been a full month since our return and I can confidently say that writing about this journey has been the most difficult assignment I’ve ever tackled. I’ve spent more time than I care to admit staring at a blank Word document, watching the cursor blink as I attempted to neatly package into my 750 word allotment everything that needs to be said about this emotionally taxing yet life-changing week. There are countless stories to tell and an endless amount of vital information that MUST be told.
This project I’ve embarked on cannot be neatly packaged and should not be. The truth of what is happening at our southern border is not tidy or easy to digest. The truth is, the situation is complex and messy and heart-breaking. The narrative perpetuated by the media is full of disinformation and exaggerations, enhanced with dehumanizing language and rhetoric meant to scare and polarize. What we saw and what we experienced shattered all the preconceived notions we arrived with, and it is our duty and responsibility to tell our story and the story of those we encountered.
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| Immigration Immersion Journey participants (l-r) Sandra Matoushaya, Michelle Schwartzman, Liz Lennox, Dotsy Miles Baiza, Corinner Dyer, Lisa Mitchell, and Janet Gyekis at the Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona. |
This reflection will give you an overview of our week-long journey as an introduction to a more in-depth chronicle of what we experienced and how we felt. This will be done through a multi-part blog series which will include written testimony, photos, and videos. But for the time being, allow me to share a brief synopsis of our week in Tuscon, Arizona.
The first day of our journey began in St. Francis at the Foothills United Methodist Church. This church is well-known for its dedication to social justice and many of the members have dedicated themselves to caring for migrants. One notable member is Scott Morris, the individual who diligently planned our activities and experiences alongside our Volunteers In Mission coordinator, Michelle Schwartzman. Worship was uplifting and inspirational, and the call for justice was prevalent throughout the entire worship experience. We then spent a very hot afternoon at the Sonoran Desert Museum, which introduced us to the beautiful but unforgiving environment that many migrants travel through out of desperation and in search of a better future.
The following days were spent visiting the various organizations working tirelessly to care for migrants through all stages of their journey. Our first stop was at The Inn, a shelter for migrants that began in the basement of a local United Methodist Church. Now its own 501C3, The Inn works with the county to provide rooms in a re-purposed hotel for migrants who have been processed by immigration and are ready to travel to be with their sponsors all over the United States. Generally they stay at this shelter for 24-48 hours and have a safe place to rest, eat, shower, and prepare for the last stages of their journey. We also visited the United Methodist Church that continues to support the organization with clothing and volunteers.
A difficult truth that we confronted was the loss of human life because of a broken immigration system and decades of poor policies implemented by the US government. A representative from the Colibrí Center for Human Rights met with us to explain how immigration has been handled and why these policies have contributed to increasing numbers of migrant deaths in the desert. The main mission of this organization is to help identify through DNA testing the migrants who have been found deceased in order to restore their humanity and give their loved ones closure. We also joined a larger group to meet with the Pima County medical examiner who shared a more scientific, yet no less devastating presentation about the high numbers of migrants who are found dead and the circumstances that caused their deaths.
We crossed the border by foot into Nogales, Mexico and spent an entire day with guides from the Community Border Alliance who introduced us to the border town. We visited Casa de la Misericordia, a long-term shelter for asylum seekers that allows families to stay together and provides schooling for the children. The process to obtain asylum is extremely confusing and difficult to navigate, so migrants staying here are given support and guidance through the long and tedious process.
Another day, we had the opportunity to meet with the director of Arizona Justice for our Neighbors, which is a United Methodist supported immigration ministry that provides free or low-cost legal services to people going through the immigration process. We also met with volunteers who visit detainees in Eloy Detention Center and build connections with those who are detained. We spent one evening with a presenter from the Sierra Club who shared the negative impact the recently built border wall has had on the environment.
Our last full day was the most memorable but also the most heartbreaking. On the way to see the border wall near Sasabe with Tuscon Samaritans, we had stopped to check on a water tank in the desert. Our guide, Gail, received a call asking for immediate assistance at a community center over the border. Casa de la Esperanza was preparing to receive over 100 migrants who had been deported and would be stopping at the center to receive food and water and clothing. When we arrived, our group did what we could to support those who ran the shelter by buying toilet paper, helping record names, and washing dishes.
We quickly realized that the majority of those deported were women and children. I will never forget the scenes from those hours we spent there. A young woman clutching her infant while she cried… another mother repeating, “Estoy tan cansada, estoy tan cansada,” which translates to “I am so tired”... members of the local cartel circling the streets, waiting to pick up and “help” all these vulnerable people.
The emotional toll of this experience weighs heavy on my mind and my soul and while I can only speak for myself, I suspect my fellow travelers feel the same. Throughout the week, it became abundantly clear that our current immigration policies dehumanize and criminalize migrants while making it nearly impossible for those who are escaping violence and poverty and oppression to immigrate legally to the United States. It is our responsibility as followers of Jesus Christ to do what we can to advocate and care for those suffering at our border, rather than turn a blind eye.
As I mentioned before, this article only scratches the surface of what we experienced and learned on our educational mission journey to Tuscon. In the coming weeks, I will delve more fully into the organizations we met with and share personal testimonies from the other participants, while examining the contributing factors to this crisis and dispelling some of the pervasive myths about migrants. Stay tuned.
