ABHMS delegation visits U.S.-Mexico border, returns with renewed commitment to justice for migrants and refugees
VALLEY FORGE, PA (11/12/2024)—As 2023 brought a record number of “border encounters,” that is, interactions between United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents and individuals trying to enter the country without authorization, anti-immigration sentiments have been on the rise. During the 2024 presidential election campaign, both candidates seemed to compete over who could be “tougher” on policies restricting immigration to the U.S., including those policies that shape asylum claims by those who fear for their lives and safety in their countries of origin.
Regardless of the public mood and ever-more restrictive laws, ABHMS’ mission centers on justice and care for the vulnerable, including immigrants and asylum seekers. In that spirit, following conversations with ministry partners working in the border area, an ABHMS delegation traveled to Arizona, California, and Mexico in mid-October to visit activists, partners, and other ministries that assist and advocate for immigrants and refugees.
The delegation included the Rev. Rothangliani Chhangte, senior associate for Grants, Partnerships & Strategy Alignment; the Rev. Abner Cotto-Bonilla, national coordinator for Latino Ministries; Vincent W. Dent Sr., chief development officer; Dr. Laura Miraz, associate executive director of human resources management services; and Micah Shaffer, videographer.
The itinerary of the trip, which occurred October 8-13, involved several sites and institutions. The trip commenced with a visit to First Christian Church in Tucson, Arizona, where Pastor Pedro Ramos Goycolea gave a presentation titled “My immigration story: Coming through the door” and led a workshop on the “Doctrine of Discovery” and border militarization. The following day, the delegation visited the Tumacacori Mission National Park, where further discussion was held about border militarization. They took a tour of the border wall, walking alongside the wall on the U.S. side and eventually crossing the border into Mexico, where they visited the Misericordia shelter in Nogales, which serves vulnerable migrant families and individuals.
The third day involved walking migrant trails in the desert and meeting an asylum-seeking family. These experiences in the Tucson/Nogales area culminated in the delegation creating an action plan for the participants’ ongoing involvement in the movement towards justice and immigrant rights.
The next stop of the trip was at the Monte Vista Cross Cultural Church in Phoenix, where the delegation was welcomed and shown around by the church’s coordinator for Migrant Ministry, Yurani Rios. ABHMS has previously partnered with MCCC, helping the ministry meet the needs of migrants released from ICE detention.
The final two days were spent in San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico. The delegation participated in moving worship at the Border Church/La Iglesia Fronteriza led by the Rev. Dr. Seth Clark, who also authored the 2022 Judson Press title “Church at the Wall: Stories of Hope along the San Diego-Tijuana Border.” This international church that gathers in Friendship Park brings together in communion diverse people from both sides of the border.
Friendship Park is a shared space on the U.S.-Mexico border, situated in the San Diego-Tijuana area. Located within California’s Border Field State Park in San Diego County, the park spans half an acre and features a border fence that separates the two nations. This unique place allows people from both countries to meet face-to-face, making it the only place along the border jointly managed by the U.S. and Mexico for such gatherings. Members of the Border Church celebrate communion, sing, and use their pinkies to pass the peace through the mesh metal wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
The delegation visited an “open detention center” in the area that is created by two fences. Once migrants find a way through the first fence, they encounter a 30-foot-high wall and become trapped. The border guards patrol the area and pick up the migrants, but do not always come right away, so sometimes migrants spend the night sleeping there, on bare ground.
Rocky, a deported U.S. military veteran, staffs the Unified U.S. Deported Veterans Resource Center in Tijuana, Mexico.
After they returned, members of the delegation shared their thoughts in a meeting. Miraz mentioned they discussed the challenges faced by migrants who are seeking asylum in the U.S. She highlighted the difficulties of the one-app system, which only allows a limited number of appointments per day and requires users to be near the Mexican border. Chhangte and Dent shared their concerns about the dangerous journeys migrants undertake to reach the U.S., emphasizing the courage and perseverance of parents who risk their lives to bring their children to safety. Shaffer and Dent shared their experience at the Chaparral border crossing, with Shaffer, a white man, being waved through without being screened while others had to put their bags through a 3D X-ray scanner.
Delegation members also discussed the challenges and failures of the border wall in preventing cartel activities. They noted that the wall, which stretches 700 miles, has been breached by cartels using machines to cut steel bars and push open concrete slabs. They were all shaken by the reality of migration across the desert at dangerously hot temperatures with no natural water reservoirs, which activists try to remedy by leaving water tanks.
They also highlighted the plight of asylum seekers and non-citizen veterans, with the latter being deported despite their service to the country. One of these deported veterans, Rocky, told his story to the delegation on camera. After completing a seven-year-long sentence in a U.S. prison, he was handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and taken out of the country. “They [ICE] brought me here [Mexico] at two in the morning, and they let me walk out of here. No money, nothing. Just what I had on me,” he said on camera.
Rocky eventually found the Unified U.S. Deported Veterans Resource Center in Tijuana (www.uusdepvets.org), where he received assistance. He found a job as a barber and eventually got his own apartment. The Resource Center helped him get medical help after he needed hip surgery. After he retired from his job as a barber, Rocky began running the Resource Center and now provides the same assistance that was offered to him when he found himself in the impossible situation of being deported to a country where he had nothing and knew no one, as all his family reside in the U.S. Many others share this traumatic experience and continue to be deported despite their service to the country.
In the spirit of its mission and believing that the Kingdom of God has no borders, ABHMS will continue to support partners in Arizona and California who aid migrants. You can be a part of this mission by giving to abhms.org.
By Rev. Dr. Anna Piela, ABHMS senior writer and associate editor of The Christian Citizen
