Thoughts from the border

This trip has been amazing. The first day we got here we were plunged into the immigration situation with a simulation that showed us just how hard it is to even get by in Mexico, and how difficult it is to immigrate into the U.S. On Tuesday we went to the courthouse and witnessed something called “operation streamline” an extremely inhumane process for the handling of illegal immigrants. They deport 70-80 people at a time. When we were sitting in the courthouse there was this one particular man who I will never forget. He was wearing a blue tank-top and jeans, his hair was a mess and he had a cut on his arm. Throughout the entire hearing, we kept making eye contact and he just looked so scared, like he didn’t know what was going on. As he walked up to the judge, chains jingling, he glanced at me again. The judge called his name, “Juan Wilmer Arroz” which is very similar to my name, which just made me feel even more connected to this guy. The judge gave him a “time served” and deported him. As they took off the translator headset, he looked like all hope was gone. When he was leaving, he paused in front of our group and looked at me one last time before a deputy pushed him through the door. I will never ever forget this experience. The next day we went to the border patrol office and had a tour. They continuously bragged about how many drugs they have confiscated. Yet when we asked the agent what percentage of people they caught were drug smugglers, his answer was “about 2-5%” yet that is the only group he talked about. After that he talked about how they are preventing terrorism, yet they said in the past 15 years they have caught no one with terrorist connections. Another thing about the border patrol is they referred to people as “subjects” as well when they said that they arrested people, they called it “rescued” these wordings just struck me as weird. The fact that they had gift bags for us also seemed a bit of a weird concept, in the hallway they had a little souvenir case with souvenir border patrol fish bobbers, yes, really, fish bobbers. After this we traveled down to Nogales and visited the border wall, how can an inch of sheet metal separate two countries? The people on the other side of the wall are just as much human as I am what makes me so different? The border wall is made out of old runways from operation desert storm. A border separating people is made from the leftover of a war.
-Jon Rice

ps sorry mom for any grammar errors, Ii know you'll find a ton