By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Bowling Green Independent News will be running a series of stories this week on the human cost to failed immigration policies at the U.S. border with Mexico.
What this is …
This tells of families trying to escape crime and extreme poverty in their homelands, making the harrowing journey to the border to be welcomed with razor wire, shifting rules, and months of living under tarps just to get an appointment with U.S. immigration.
What this isn’t …
This isn’t the full story of the border crisis. It does not tell the side of border control officials or of property owners along the Texas border, whose land is frequently crossed by people seeking a better life here.
The series is based on visits to three camps just over the border in Mexico, led by Alma Ruth, a woman who founded the Practice Mercy Foundation in McAllen, Texas. Going along on the “immersion trips” were three members of First Presbyterian Church in Bowling Green, nine members of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Flower Mound in Texas, and six members of an organization called Mormon Women for Ethical Government.
The focus of the trip was on humans trying to get to the U.S. legally, but stuck in the broken immigration system.
The mission of the Practice Mercy trips is to give Americans an unfiltered view of the effect of immigration policy on human beings. A view unlike that told by politicians standing on the border talking about the need to keep people out.
The series will look at five topics:
- Day 1: The people waiting at camps to enter the U.S. legally. The three camps visited included groups of asylum seekers from Honduras, Venezuela, and Russia and Eastern European nations.
- Day 2: The broken immigration system. The failure of the U.S. to keep drugs from crossing borders has resulted in a roadblock to people coming here to work, reunite with loved ones, and raise their families in a land with more jobs and less violence.
- Day 3: The political impasse at the border, with some tough-talking politicians appearing reluctant to find solutions since the ongoing crisis benefits their careers. Also how can Christians justify turning their backs on immigrants.
- Day 4: Victims or villains? This is not the first time that the U.S. has put up barriers to immigration from certain areas of the globe. Plus a look at how U.S. policies meddling in Central America have contributed to the current crisis.
- Day 5: What happens to undocumented immigrants who settle in Wood County? People come here to fill jobs, raise children, become part of their communities – but live in constant fear of being deported.
