In a court room at a refugee detention center in Southern Texas, a group of five SCJs witnessed the hearing of a young woman who had crossed the border illegally. Dressed in the anonymous dark-blue uniform of a detainee, she seemed powerless as an interpreter routinely acted the go between for her and the hearing officer. Yet, she conveyed a sense of dignity by her upright bearing and indigenous features, accentuated by long black hair drawn back from her face. Her composure seemed even stronger when she spoke quietly about the threats to her and her family in El Salvador.
John Klingler, Joseph Dinh, Frank Wittouck, David Szatkowski and Bob Bossie had come to visit sites along the Mexico-Texas border in September to learn about immigration and global economic issues. Somewhat to their surprise, they also experienced a sense of hope.
The detention center was located in the harsh wilderness of Bayview, 30 miles outside Brownsville, Texas. It was crowded by six hundred refugees, mostly from Latin America, who were driven by the hope of making a better life for themselves and their families. Traveling hundreds of miles, often by foot, they risked hunger and thirst, cold and heat, robbery, rape and beating. They came despite growing possibilities of accidental death in their attempts to avoid increased US border patrols. Now they were corralled in prison like conditions, away from family and friends. They waited, for possibly up to two years, represented only by advocates from under funded, not-for-profit organizations.
"Just a year or so ago there were only 150 refugees here," commented Dora Ramon, who acted as the groups guide in her role as director of the Rio Grande Border Witness Program. Some Americans consider refugees to be a threat to the American way of life, Dora added, but they are really victims of policies that allow products and money to pour across borders at the touch of computer keys, changing forever the lives and traditions of millions of persons.
Earlier in the day, Dora's husband Jonathan, who works for a not-for-profit group representing immigrants and refugees, pointed out that the people who make these products or suffer from such changes face ever tighter limits on travel. He suggested that even the border patrol officers and detention center guards are themselves victims of this system because their very livelihood is dependant on controlling desperate sisters and brothers who are more like themselves than not.
Joseph Dinh, who was once a refugee from Vietnam and now is a theology student in Chicago, said he had little understanding of immigration law before this.
Crossing the international bridge into Reynosa, Mexico, the SCJs drove through an industrial park filled with modern factories identified by household names like General Electric and Sony. Thousands of Mexicans in the interior, displaced by the new economy, flock to the border in hope of finding jobs in these Maquiladoras, as they are called. Literature given to the delegation by the Border Witness Program, stated that over three thousand factories along the US-Mexican border use Mexican labor, mostly that of young women, to assemble and process products from parts manufactured in other countries, for duty free export back to the US and elsewhere.
At the Delnosa facility - owned by the US Delco corporation, maker of electronic parts for General Motor's cars and trucks - the delegation listened to a friendly American manager explain the workings and benefits of his company.
Later, Bob Bossie commented that what the manager didn't say, probably through no fault of his own, was that companies such as Delco enjoyed the freedom to move work to a country where the minimum wage is about $3.50 per day, and by so doing this, pit American workers against Mexicans in a race to the bottom. A sign of hope, Bob added, are initial efforts being made to unionize workers in the Maquiladoras, as well as some of the collaboration now taking place between independant Mexican unions and US unions. Bob is province director of justice, peace and creation.
While the global economy grinds on, it was evident to the SCJs that the organizations they visited had found ways to support one another and grow in strength and determination, even under adverse condition. Proyecto Azteca helps groups of families to cooperate in building safe, decent and affordable houses for each other, at the project's site in San Juan, Texas. Then the houses are moved to sites in the different colonias,which are unicorporated rural subdivisions located along the border, usually with inadequate water, sewer, road and other infrastructure requirements.
Likewise, the local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity, La Frontera Initiative, builds and remodels homes in various colonias using a variety of "appropriate technologies" such as solar-powered water heaters, natural ventilations systems and surface-bonded block construction. John Klingler understood well La Frontera's efforts because he helped start a HFH program on the Cheyenne River Indian reservation in South Dakota a few years ago. Parallel to these efforts are projects using methods in harmony with the earth, such as Casa Juliana in Alamo and the United Farm Workers in San Juan, Texas.
A bright smile filled Joseph's face when he spotted Papaya trees being nurtured by recycled water in the garden of Casa Juliana, because the sweet fruit reminded him of his earlier life in Vietnam. His smile continued when he was permitted to picked one.
Most amazing, was the quiet community-building model being used by project Arise in the South Tower colonias known to its inhabitants as "Little Mexico." Based upon helping others to grow in recognizing their self dignity as God's children, Arise teaches leadership skills to woman. Dolores, an Arise community leader, said it helped her self esteem as a woman when she realized that she was not just a mother or a housekeeper.
When Bob asked how their husbands were responding to this new-found self-esteem, Andrea, one of the new leaders, said her husband was at first very cautious but now he offers to help with housework to allow her to work in the community. She said her children have changed for the better too. Dolores added, our motto is "if you teach a man or a child you change one person; but if you teach a woman, you change the whole family."
David Szatkowski, who is also a theology student in Chicago, remarked that this trip was a totally new experience for me. It opened me up a lot and I learned a great deal. "It's amazing, he added, these people have very little material things to share but they have tremendous hope and power."
Frank Wittouck, pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton, a very large Houston parish, said that he was very uplifted by this experience. "I recommend it especially for those SCJs in parish work. It has given me many ideas of how to get my parishioners involved," he added.
As is so often the case when SCJs come together, the group praised the opportunity to get to know one another better and to live and spend time with the SCJs working in the Rio Grand valley, this land of hope.