How can a converted two-car garage be the center of change for so many lives? 12 NEIU students know the answer to this question. The students that attend the Border Awareness trip as part of NEIU’s second annual Alternative Spring Break had the opportunity to share in the stories of the families served by the Women’s Intercultural Center in Anthony, New Mexico last month.
The Center, which began as a converted garage, was founded in 1992 to provide educational opportunities to women in the local community. As of spring break 2010, it has evolved into a multi-faceted community center providing classes in ESL, sewing, art and jewelry making, and includes a child care center and a newly added garden, provided by NEIU students. But that is just a small part of the change. The real change is occurring in the lives of immigrant women who have come to the Center in search of help, hope and a place to call home.
NEIU’s Alternative Spring Break trip, which took place March 21 – 29 offered selected students the opportunity to explore the U.S./Mexico border. It was an educational experience that exposed students to various perspectives of border issues. After meeting with migrant farm workers and hearing their stories of exploitation and hardship, students were taken on a guided Border Patrol tour to learn the legal processes of immigration control. There definitely seemed to be a disconnect between the law and the human face of immigration. Another disconnect was visible during the immigration court-hearing students were allowed to attend. The judge coldly read the docket numbers and you could see the faces of all the immigrants who had tried for years to go through the legal process, while being separated from their children and families.
One woman from the Center shared her story of applying for residency after her husband and children had legally moved to the U.S. Due to ‘filing errors’ in the processing paperwork, the woman was threatened with jail time and given a lifetime penalty that excluded the possibility of ever returning to the U.S. Her husband explained with teary eyes the abuse and dangerous conditions his wife faced working with cayotes to cross the border. Their children, sitting at their mother’s feet, explained that they cried often because they’re afraid their mother would be taken away.
During the same week, Border Patrol agents told the story of ‘humanitarian assistance’ and ‘voluntarily returning’ a woman and her three children that had snuck across the border after being beaten and abused by her husband in Mexico. As NEIU students were paraded around the Border Patrol’s processing center staring at the woman and her children through her glass cell like a zoo exhibit, one agent said, “You want change, change the law. Then I will happily abide by it.”
Projects like El Paso’s Café Mayapan and La Mujer Obrera (The Working Woman) showed the NEIU students that many women were organizing and fighting for justice and dignity in the face of the crime, murder, corruption and inhumanity of their sister city, Juarez, just across the border. Organizations like these, as well as the Center where students stayed for a week, were proof that change is possible.
And change is necessary. There are several stories like these even closer to home. NEIU’s diverse population includes students whose parents moved them to the U.S. at a very young age. Without the proper documentation, these students can receive a bachelor’s degree, but lose any hope for a job after NEIU. These same students have very little, if any connection, to a life on the other side of the border since they were raised in the U.S. Without immigration reform, these students are in limbo and face the threat of deportation to a land that is not their home.
This is where we come in. The NEIU students on the trip included those majoring in Political Science and Women’s Studies, as well as, artists, musicians, military veterans, dancers, gardeners and massage therapists. The varied perspectives brought to the trip were precisely those needed to address the various problems surrounding the diverse border issues. The students are currently working to put together a presentation about their experiences in order to bring awareness and make a call for action. Collectively, the group has agreed that they must share this knowledge and be a catalyst for change in order that the efforts of women at the Center and others at the border are not in vain.
The trip’s student leader and NEIU Women’s Studies Major, Alison Greer, stated it best, “I feel connected to the border and feel the people calling me back. I feel there is so much that can be done there. But for now, my community is here, NEIU. So the question is, where do I start in my community?” The group will share their experience and pose this question to the NEIU community before the end of the semester. In the meantime you may ask yourself, ‘where do I start and how can I help?’