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Cultivating Relationships
and Understanding
Across Borders
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Volunteers at the Migrant Resource Center choose welcome. You, too, can volunteer there. See our application below. | |
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Dear friends,
"Wouldn't releasing so many people a day be seen as a burden to your community?" asked Nathan, a reporter from The Globe and Mail, while sitting on the FDC porch. He had come to seeking to gauge community reaction to the Biden Administration's recent executive action to increase expulsions into Agua Prieta and other Mexican border communities.
Implicit in the question is that vulnerable families, men, women, and children who are fleeing extreme violence, or poverty, or are seeking to be reunited with family in the US, are burdens, as opposed to human beings created in the divine image, beloved by God. What the question fails to capture is that the there will an extra burden on the already vulnerable population being returned.
On Friday, we had lunch with a delegation from St. Ignatius High School (San Francisco) at the Douglas Welcome Center which, in 6 months, has welcomed 8,500 men, women, and children who were released by Border Patrol before the recent executive order. Last night we celebrated at CAME, which has provided shelter and food for thousands of people in transit over last 24 years. On June 30, we will celebrate the 18th anniversary of the Migrant Resource Center, which has welcomed more than 200,000 men, women, and children who have been expelled from the US.
We are grateful to be a part of a bi-national community that chooses welcome and rejects labeling vulnerable populations as "burdens". We are grateful to be a part of a bi-national community who seek to live out the values of Jesus and rejects the temptation to respond in fear when confronted with the suffering of the world.
We are grateful for you whose prayers, words of encouragement and support strengthen our community of welcome.
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Remembering the Dead on the Migrant Trail Walk
by Jaime Wilson, as published in The Border Chronicle, June 6, 2024
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“Janeth Ortiz Mercado. 37 años, Mexico,” reads the white wooden cross I carry with me as we head south from Tucson to the Sásabe port of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border. This is where we begin the 75-mile journey back to Tucson, to remember Janeth and the thousands of people who have died trying to cross the border. It is Memorial Day, a little more than a week before President Joe Biden will further restrict the border crossings of asylum seekers, some of whom—like Janeth—may end up crossing the border in this same dangerous corridor where we will walk for the next seven days ...
For many who walk, we do so as an act of bearing witness, which includes cultivating an awareness about the violence of U.S. border policies, and accepting the responsibility to speak out against them. In addition, our intention is to remember those who have died and to mourn their deaths. Our rituals reflect these intentions. Every year, we carry prayer ties for the people whose remains were found in the past year. This year we prepared 191 red tobacco bundles, as well as yellow, green, and blue ties for the sun, the earth, and the sky, and one last white tie for those who will never be found.
Continue reading the article
Subscribe to The Border Chronicle for original reporting and analysis from the US/Mexico Border
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Miriam and Gaby, a participant in the Eastern Mennonite University delegation, preparing to welcome the walkers for their first dinner on the Migrant Trail. Frontera de Cristo has provided the first dinner for the Migrant Trail walk since 2004. | |
Make Your Voice Heard ... | |
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YOUR VOICE MATTERS. US Congressional Representatives need to hear your voice about what you would like to see in our border and immigration policies.
Do you want folks who are fleeing persecution to have access to the asylum process? Tell them.
Do you want to stop using a "prevention through deterrence strategy" on our border that has led to thousands of deaths and tremendous suffering of the most vulnerable while benefitting organized crime? Tell them.
Do you want the dignity of immigrants to be upheld and to end the political vitriol which demonizes them? Tell them.
Your voice is important.
Contact Your Representative: Your congressional representatives offer many ways to contact them. They welcome your emails, letters, phone calls, and even visits. You can find all their contact information on Congress's Directory of Representatives. Let them know how you feel, today.
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Making Connections and Being Present
by Ruth Noel & Ray Nosbaum, FDC Volunteers
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SINCE 2022, RAY AND I HAVE volunteered in DouglaPrieta (Douglas, Arizona and Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico). We are hosted by Frontera de Cristo, and volunteer principally, but not solely, at the Migrant Resource Center (MRC) in Agua Prieta, which is co-directed by Frontera de Cristo and CAME (Centro de Atención al Migrantes “Exodus”). The MRC serves both those seeking asylum and those who have been denied permission to remain in the United States and have been returned to Mexico. | | |
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The whole time and experience at the border is special, a separate spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical experience than we have at home. This difference raises questions for us. ...
Continue reading and see more photos
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Getting to Know Us: Marina Forero
Director, Children's Enrichment Ministry
FDC Staff Cameo by Mary Goodwin, FDC Volunteer
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Last fall, FDC volunteer Mary Goodwin had a conversation with Marina in which she talked about Frontera de Cristo’s Children’s Enrichment Program, where she sees hope, and what gives her joy. | | |
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MARINA FORERO HAS SERVED AS DIRECTOR OF THE Frontera de Cristo (FDC) Children’s Enrichment Ministry since 2017. She supervises the program and its teachers and volunteers, meets with parents, evaluates children’s academic needs and progress, and promotes the after-school program in the community. Marina grew up in Bogota, Colombia, where she received a Bachelor’s Degree in Education. Together with her husband, David Bonilla, she became a mission worker of the Mennonite Brethren Church in 2002, with support from the Mennonite Central Committee, serving in a resource-poor neighborhood of Bogota. Marina and David migrated to the US/Mexico border as Mennonite mission workers in 2013, first to Nogales and then to Agua Prieta. | |
Children love learning at our Children's Enrichment Ministry | |
Love Mercy, Do Justice, Order Coffee | | |
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FRONTERA DE CRISTO AND CAFÉ JUSTO CREATED the "Love Mercy, Do Justice" (Amar Misericordia, Hacer Justicia) initiative to provide coffee for migrant shelters across the southern border. Thousands of women and men each week are greeted with a cup of coffee, a meal, and vital medical attention when they are repatriated into Mexico. You can help support this effort with a donation to Love Mercy, Do Justice. | |
In the mean time, why not order some coffee for yourself today? You will enjoy delicious 100% organic coffee cultivated, roasted, and shipped by the Café Justo cooperative. To order by mail instead of online, just download this form. | |
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Two Dates to Save!
Frontera de Cristo's 40th Anniversary
2024 Border-to-Border Delegation: Coffee, Migration, & Faith
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Mark your calendars now and plan to celebrate Frontera de Cristo's 40th anniversary with us in Agua Prieta, October 18-20, 2024. Online registration coming soon! | |
2024 Border-to-Border Delegation: Travel to the Guatemala border and learn about the Café Justo cooperative. (Dates include participation in Frontera de Cristo's 40th anniversary celebration.) Download the flyer here. Download the registration form and pay by check or register and pay online. | |
A Week in the Borderlands | | | | |
