2/1/23

By Rosey Vogan

I gave a talk about the Journey for Justice to over 1000 people at my church, St. Joan of Arc Catholic Community in Minnesota, this past Sunday: https://youtu.be/mquCQ4G331U.

For the better part of December, I traveled with Witness at the Border, in the Journey for Justice Caravan. We started on Boca Chica Beach at the Gulf of Mexico, gathering before the sun rose to hold a candle light vigil and remembering all our brothers and sisters on both side of the border who have been affected by policies of governments who put economic greed, profits and fear over the lives, dignity and humanity of people. We reached the Pacific Ocean at San Ysidro, CA. on International Migrant Day.

I have twice made this journey along our southern border - solo. This journey would be different. This time our action was to “Witness”. To see what others do not want us to see! To hear what others do not want us to hear! Josh Ruben, one or our leaders, told us “To witness is to engage in the subversive act of seeing!” Each morning 12 vehicles decked with magnetic signs and window flags traveled and stopped at 17 border crossings, visiting shelters on both sides of the border and listening to the people most affected by the violence in our borderlands. We came from 13 states - Strangers bonded with a desire to witness, to stand beside and recognize our fellow human beings as deserving of respect and being treated with dignity.

We spent a day in Uvalde, visiting the school where 19 students and 2 teachers met their death while 376 law enforcement officers waited outside 77 minutes to confront the gunman, while gun fire rang out in the school and children bled out. Protecting property was put ahead of protecting the lives of children and adults. A common theme we heard as we traveled. We listened to the families of those killed as they shared their pain and how it is driving them to take action to stop the sale of assault rifles.

We passed border patrol leaning out of their vehicles looking for footprints while dragging tires behind their trucks along the dirt paths that ran just off the highway. Tracking and hunting, as if people were animals, people who are only looking to find a safe haven for their families and themselves. We saw the blimps overhead that were watching from above for anyone who might be crossing in this desolate land. We saw massive flood lights and learned about the sensors that pick up any movement along the border.

We learned that guns and money are the largest exports from the US to Mexico. Both by our government and through organized crime. Drugs are sent north in exchange!

We drove along a road with homes built by the river on one side and a 12 ft barb wire fence with razor wire lacing the top on the other. Articles of clothing were draped across some of the wire where people had tried to cross. One man waved to us while another video-taped us with his hand resting on his gun holster. Not only did the road end but so did the fence as we walked behind it and recognized the absurdity of its existence.

In Yuma, at 5 in the morning, temps in the low 30’s, we handed out food and water to over 600 people waiting at the end of the wall for border patrol to come. Border patrol would line them up 50 at a time to take for processing and detention. Where they would be either deported immediately or given a court date to apply for asylum all based on what country they were coming from. The bus returning for the next load every 3 to 4 hours. They would be waiting for hours. They huddled around campfires to keep warm. I met a man from Columbia traveling alone carrying his sleeping 3 yr old daughter. A nursing mother in a light cotton shirt shivering with her 2 month old. I gave her my lined travel blanket knowing full well that in a few hours the blanket would be tossed by border patrol into the nearby trash container as she was picked up. At least she was going to be warm for that time. Others in our group handed out sweaters and socks from their own bags. As I looked at the wall, I could see they just kept coming and coming and were so excited to have made it to the US alive. The majority had no idea what would be happening to them once border patrol drove them away. I cried as I knew.

We handed out water thru the wall to 50 Russians waiting to be picked up. When border patrol arrived, they were lined up and shoelaces, belts, medicine and jewelry were removed. They were handed a plastic bag to put papers and phones in. Their luggage was stacked off to the side! I saw one man climbing into the truck while an agent, yanked the watch off his arm and tossed it. They didn’t speak the language and couldn’t understand the instructions given to them. It was like I had stepped back in time to Germany and the holocaust. They have 30 days to claim their luggage, but most don’t know where it will be or where they will be in 30 days. It will then be trashed. We were told that often it is trashed as soon as they are driven away.

We saw the container walls covered with razor wire that governors in Texas and Arizona use as a photo op saying they will keep people out. We could walk all the way around these containers, they just sat out in the open. Over $200 million was spent in Arizona alone to place them while destroying the habitat and landscape on Coronado National Memorial.

What if we spent just a fraction of what it cost to militarize the border with people, sensors and walls to provide a warm shelter, a drink of water, a meal and a welcoming attitude when refugees come requesting asylum instead of taking away their shoelaces, and belongings and placing them in detention cells where the temperature is kept in the low 50’s?

Our policies of denying people entry has enabled organized crime cartels to make money off of refugees fleeing for their lives. What if instead of deporting people before we give them a chance to apply for asylum, we were to welcome them? Because In their desperation to find safety, they will try to cross again in more deadly areas.

Families are separated when sent to detention and when released not told where their spouse or children are. Belongings, shoelaces, medicines are not returned to them. People treated as less than human, denied basic needs of food and water, shelter, medical care or just a kind word.

Treated as criminals though asking for asylum is a right and not a crime. It is not dependent on your economic status, place of origin or color of your skin or even how or where you enter the country. This is international law and was ratified by Congress.

When asked why I continue to go to the border it is because my faith demands it, through Catholic Social teaching and scripture. I believe we are all part of the Body of Christ. To receive the Eucharist and not receive my brothers and sisters as fellow human beings is a contradiction.

I see God in the refugees, whose faith and hope is unshakeable. Whose own generosity far exceeds mine. I witness God in Fernando, who every morning with just a couple of volunteers delivers water and food to hundreds waiting for Border Patrol in Yuma. I witness God in Dora who built a shelter in Sasabe, Mx for those deported and dropped in an area where no services or transportation were available and over 60 miles from the nearest town. I witness God through the volunteer nurses who treat the badly blistered and thorn filled feet of migrants and the severe diaper rash on infants at the shelters on both sides of the border. I witness God in the people preparing daily hot meals for those denied entry. God is present in all the volunteers who have left their jobs to work for justice on a daily basis, many who are harassed and threatened by militia groups, by border patrol or our government for providing aid to those in need.

Here I am preaching to the choir at St Joan’s but I will continue to preach until the choir sings loud enough to help me stop this inhumane treatment that is happening to our brothers and sisters who are fleeing their beloved homelands because of violence, climate change and extreme poverty. They are doing nothing that you and I would not do to protect our children and grandchildren if we were in their shoes.

The border is everywhere! Everywhere that people do not recognize and honor each other’s humanity. What would Jesus do? What will you do?