Border Witness
Kathy Ress – Northeast Ohio Chapter
From May 19-27, five of us, health and mental health professionals, shadowed, assisted, and bore witness to migrants recently deported and left at the Mexican side of the gate in Aqua Prieta, Mexico. Included in our group were Deb and Joe Marino, who were in Bolivia as Maryknoll Lay Missioners. They now both serve with Central American Medical Outreach (CAMO: https://www.camo.org/), going to Honduras every year, where they have helped develop a medical clinic.
Since coming home, we have managed to write up many telling and informative vignettes of our conversations with these humble people, mostly men but some women. We have listed our bullet points and “asks,” and we developed our PowerPoint presentation. We have started to meet with our legislators. We next want to meet with you as supporters.
Kathy Ress and a boy at the border
We met a young man who had lived in the US and had DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) status. He wrote his story for us:
I would like to begin by saying that a lot of immigrants are currently crossing due to the fact that there’s no deportations all the way back to our countries. For example, I am from El Salvador & see this as an opportunity. Since I can try to make it until I cross. However, there’s a lot of people suffering not just on the way up to the border but also crossing the border. One thing I’ve learned through this trip is that the cartels are only benefiting from this and really only care about our money. In my opinion, in order to stop so much migration is to eliminate all cartels. I was a DACA kid who made some mistakes while young. I’m praying to God I make it back to my family before deportations start all the way back to our country. I’d also like to thank the people of this Church who help immigrants like me. You guys give me hope.
This group shared their DACA stories with us.
A young man from Guatemala made the trip with his cousin, and the cousin was taken to the hospital. The good part is that the cousin was a minor and was placed with a family in the US, but this young man is stuck.
The guides often pressure the migrants to get back on the trail; they lie, pushing them to go back up into the mountains. The volunteers help those who need to get off the trail, with medical help, temporary shelter, food and emotional support to handle the trauma of the trip.
Statute outside Borderlinks (https://www.borderlinks.org/), a nonprofit organization in Tucson that offers experiential learning about the difficulties of migration and life along the US/Mexico border.
We were honored to teach Capacitar to the migrants at the Shelter today. Most of them will return home, crushed by the journey and fearing for their lives and seeing many bodies. Capacitar (https://capacitar.org/programs/) is a trauma-informed practice that utilizes movement and tapping to disrupt flashbacks, and re-regulate ongoing moods that carry fear, sadness, anger and other intense emotions.
When asked what they would like us to tell others, migrants said they want work visas, safety from death on their journeys, help for their families. One young DACA person said that migrants will keep coming, the wall is but a speed bump in the road. We were able to gather many testimonies and stories to share. We planned, when we returned, to put all the stories together.
Learn More about Life on the Border
We invite you to join us as we bear witness through these stories and raise awareness. You may join us in person or via Zoom. Please contact me:
Message me on Facebook – www.facebook.com/kathryn.ress
or
Email NSFAMaryknoll@gmail.com or Bob Short at AffiliateBShort@gmail.com.
Your message will be forwarded to me.
NOTE: This article was published in the September/October 2021 issue of Not So Far Afield.