The Nogales, Sonora side of the border

Today, we took the "walk of shame." Well, at least what will become the walk of shame when the new corridor is finished on the Nogales border. It is an enclosed corridor that has been designed to make migrants so feel bad that after they are deported, they will not want to return to the US. Migrants call it the walk of shame because of how they feel after having failed to get to the US or for having been deported after having spent years there. From what I understand, however, migrants returned to Mexico are still being repatriated through the old path.

We then walked to the Kino Border Initiative which serves food and provides services to migrants who have been deported recently. It is a joint initiative supported by several organizations on both sides of the border, including the Jesuits. We helped serve food to about 40 people this morning and maybe another 40 this afternoon. I spent most of my time speaking with the migrants which wasn't really that much time because they are in and out in 45 minutes or so.

I spoke with a few guys from El Salvador and Honduras this morning. Central Americans can use the comedor's services on the way north. However, most of the migrants were from Mexico. They can only use the comedor's services after having been deported and for about a week. Therefore, all the migrants from Mexico had been deported from the US within the last week or so. Some were planning to return home (Oaxaca, Michoacan, Mexico City) while others were going to try to cross the border again, perhaps tonight.

While the Salvadoran and Hondurans spoke about the violence in their country, every person I spoke to placed greater emphasis on family reunification. Some had spent years in the US while others perhaps little or no time at all. However, it seemed as if all of them were trying to get back to the US to reunite with a wife or a child. Several of the men and women broke down and cried.

The most powerful story of the day came from Mary. She has three children with US citizenship and three with Honduran. Her daughter visited Honduras over three years ago. While there, her US passport and that of her nine month old son were stolen. She was able to have a new one issued for herself but there were problems with getting a renewal for her son. Eventually, she returned to the US to continue working on the passport issue. In the meantime, the grandmother who was watching the child witnessed some drug trafficking activity. After going to the police and the human rights office to denounce threats against her, her house was burnt down. She then fled with the boy with nothing but the clothes on her back.

That was in April. She passed through Guatemala and then Mexico on the beast before arriving in Nogales a few weeks ago. She told of some harrowing stories along the way. It looks like the grandson that she has been caring for these last few years will be reunited with his mom in Dallas within the next few weeks. Mary, on the other hand, is going to apply for asylum in the US. She was threatened by the narcotraffickers and then attacked after reporting the threats. Her situation is obviously a difficult asylum case but there's not much she can do.

The cemetery on the right here is where many of the migrants sleep at night if they are unable to afford a hotel or get into a shelter. The groundskeepers lock the gates in the evening so that the migrants are safer than if they were to sleep outside of the gates. There's also some protection from the rain if necessary.

A really powerful day that I am not doing justice too right now but that I thought that I would share.