DAY 6 - BORDER IMMERSION in EL PASO - February 9, 2023

Steve Obaid

Day by day, through exposure to people and places, we are gaining a better understanding of the process and issues surrounding immigration. To help get there we have been guided by Pastora Rose Mary Sanchez-Guzman and Pastor Juan de Dios Lopez.  Their church, Iglesia Luterana Cristo Rey, is small in number of members but plays an outsized role in the support of refugees in this part of the country.

The mission of the church is first to support and care for refugees and second to educate others about immigration issues. This is done through their Border Immersion Program, in which we are participating, and which is rated one of the best in the country. 

We have seen firsthand how Pastora Rose Mary works tirelessly to feed and support refugees. As the director of a refugee center in southern New Mexico told us, "She doesn't know how to say no." She is the embodiment of goodness, as is Pastor Juan.  While our first several days focused on serving refugees and hearing their stories of the perils of coming to the United States, today we met with experts who could better help us answer questions we have been struggling with about how the immigration system works and what underlies border issues that we hear about in the news.

This morning we traveled to The Fence along the border where we met with Agent Isela Aguirre, a public liaison for the Border Patrol (BP). Her role has included recently briefing the President, Vice-President, and numerous congressional delegations. She clarified the role of BP as that of working between official Ports of Entry. If you encounter BP it means that you are committing a crime. The first time is a misdemeanor. They work on the front lines and their purpose is to "identify and classify," i.e,. determine such things as a person's country of origin, whether they have a prior criminal record, then determine where they should next be sent for processing. BP does not have authority to grant asylum, nor to deport, and they do not operate detention facilities. Previously, BP in the El Paso area was able to process 200-300 people a day but they have been overwhelmed by the recent influx of migrants.  When asked about the biggest threat to BP, Agent Aguirre named counter surveillance by Mexican drug cartels, and described episodes where drug cartels created diversions to distract agents while smuggling drugs across the border. (Although more than 90% of drugs come through at the Ports of Entry.) When asked about the hardest part of the job, her answer was, "how quickly federal policies change."

We next met with Michael DeBruhl who offered a remarkable perspective on border issues having worked for BP for 22 years, initially as a field agent, then rising to a senior leadership position in Washington, D.C. After finding himself in disagreement with border policies of the last administration, he resigned and is now director of a refugee shelter. He gave a presentation entitled "Southern Border 101." We learned: (1) the current large numbers of people crossing the border is not new, there were similar levels through the mid-80s, (2) the BP was built to process people coming to the US from Mexico and now the influx of those from other more distant countries complicates their work, and (3) the idea that people crossing the border at Points of Entry are criminals is a myth. "The last thing they want is to be in detention, they just want to work."

We had a closing meeting with Pastora Rose Mary in which she described the experience of Cristo Rey as a sanctuary church and of hosting refugees. She also provided a firsthand account of the increasingly cruel treatment of immigrants in detention centers in 2017-2019.

The final session of the day was with Anna Hey, an immigration attorney with Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services, who told us that the single most important determinant in being granted asylum is legal representation. She also dispelled the argument that immigrants wanting to enter the US should wait and "do it the right way." In truth, unless you have a family member in the US it is almost impossible to enter this country without the process taking 10-20 years.

It was a long but enlightening day.