Your tax dollars at work.

This is an Abuse Report that was done at the Migrant Resource Center where I work. None of this is made up. All of this is very real and takes place more than is most likely documented. Just to remind any one who might read it, this shit aint cool.

Documentation of an abuse on August 11th, 2009
Names of Interviewers: Sergio Tellez and Michael Ugarte
Place: Migrant Resource Center, Agua Prieta, Sonora
Abuse: Physical and Verbal

Guillermina Ibarra and Brenda Ibarra were detained about 48 hours. The Border Patrol treated them inhumanely. The agent grabbed Guillermina and Brenda and made them walk through the toughest terrain when Guillermina had fallen, hurt her knees and could not walk. She has lacerations on her neck. She is unable to lift her knees, she hurts especially in the groin area. She told the agent that she needed medical treatment but was told that she was not in a hotel and was not in her country and she did not deserve treatment. She was handcuffed and made to sit down then another agent, she was told of Japanese extraction, made her walk while he accompanied her in a 3-wheeled vehicle. He made her sit down forcefully, pushed her, and he took out his weapon pointed it and called her “a fucking bitch.” When she got to the Migrant Resource Center she could hardly walk and she was crying.

a bit of what I wrote to my church.....

It is difficult for me to understand why a family should suffer just because they live on the south side of a line literally drawn in the sand by railroad contractors and soldiers in the 1850's. The people I help here on the border have no one on their side. They have no one fighting for them. Police rob them as they travel north through Mexico, their guides abandon them in the scorching mountains of the Sonoran Desert, only to be caught by the Border Patrol and repatriated back to Mexico without eating food, in many cases for days at a time. And if they do cross successfully, and many do, they are taken advantage of by employers in the United States.

So, how have I felt God calling me to do this? I have read that we should love our neighbors as our selves. So if my neighbor is hungry, I'll give him or her a burrito. If my neighbor is thirsty, I've give a cup of coffee or a glass of water. These people who cross the desert, and often die in the process, are moms and dads, children, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Most importantly they are children of God.

This shouldn't sound so revolutionary, but for some reason, it is. The ugly wall that stretches as far as the eye can see, dividing the United States from Mexico, is not the only border that we have put up. We have borders surrounding us, all the time. So if you feel like the border that the United States and Mexico share is too far away from you, think about borders closer to home. And try to break those borders down, and love your neighbor as your self. Not only is this a charge for you to love your neighbors, but its a charge for your neighbors to love you.