5/30/22

By Lee Goodman

I heard a few things during my trip to the border.

I heard the calls of birds on the American side and birds on the Mexican side. The birds on one side of the border sounded the same to me as the birds on the other side. I'm pretty sure they fly wherever they want. No one is trying to stop them. Why are we trying to stop the people? Does it make sense that birds have more of a right to move freely than people do?

I heard the engines of an airplane that was waiting on the runway to take deportees to Honduras. Above the roar of the plane, I heard the voice of the police officer who had driven up, telling me I couldn't stand on the roadside and watch the plane take off. The people who fly people out of our country against their will don't want anyone to see what they are doing.

I heard airplanes overhead, taking some people where they wanted to go, and others where they didn't. I heard the wind rustling cotton and sorghum plants near the airport.

Later in the day, a few miles away, I heard another guard tell me that I couldn't go near a detention center. Children were being held in that building against their will, to keep them from being with their families. The people who separate children and their parents also don't want anyone to see what they are doing.

I heard a guard at the border laughingly say, “Welcome to Mexico,” to people who had just gotten off a bus that had brought them there to be ejected from the United States. I couldn't hear what another guard was saying as he threateningly gestured for us to move along. He didn't want anyone to see what he was doing, either.

At the nearby bus station, I heard a bus idling as people who were being allowed to come into our country got off. They would get onto buses that would take them to their families. The bus sounded just like the bus at the border that had brought people there to be deported.

At the park near the border crossing on the Mexican side, I heard no one. People who wanted to get into the U.S. used to congregate there. The city has cleared all of them out, fenced in the park, and torn out all the plantings so they wouldn't return. The park is now just a muddy mess.

At a shelter for people who are waiting indefinitely for a chance to come into our country, I heard children laughing and crying, just like kids anywhere. Their parents looked more tired and discouraged than parents generally look in the U.S.

On the phone at the end of a hot, heartbreaking day, I heard my wife's voice – exactly what I needed to hear. A lot of the migrants can phone their loved ones, too, and hear their voices. They just can't go see them, as I can. The only reason they can't is because we won't let them. #OpenEveryDoor #WitnessAtTheBorder