Continued Border Activity
Jason Evans
5 January 2009
Borderland, Campaigns/Projects, San Diego
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NOTE: I am writing this post because several people sent me notes after following my Twitter updates yesterday. I wanted people to be able to read fully what happened. Initially I intended to post this on my personal blog rather than the Ecclesia Collective blog. There are three reasons why I post about these issues on the EC blog. First, I do so to spark theological imagination for how San Diegans approach border and immigration issues as Christians. Secondly, I do so when we want to promote events and activities we think Jesus-followers in San Diego should consider participating in. And, lastly, I do so to inform people of those things I have publically signed on as a co-founder of the Collective. This, however, is a personal experience that I didn’t choose to theologize on. But, as I continued to write I realized that our beliefs about God and Scripture are useless unless rooted in real life experiences… and this is mine. So, in a way it actually achieves all three of the requisites I typically set.
Every Sunday afternoon, I head down I-5 towards the San Ysidro border crossing. I get off the freeway and head towards Border Field State Park. Within the park, at the most southwest point of San Diego county is Friendship Park, a monument to the friendly relationship between the U.S. and Mexico. When I come up to the monument I am met by familiar faces on both sides of the fence. Mexican men, deported from the U.S., women selling their handmade goods, and families separated from each other by the border, using this unique space as a place to meet, squeezing their fingers through the fence to touch each other; wipe away tears from each others faces. And there are clergy and activists too. We are gathered to celebrate communion. We are gathered to celebrate our unity through the work of Jesus Christ that surpasses fences and walls built by the State.
The Department of Homeland Security has elected to build a new border fence that will run through this special place. 35 laws and regulations have been waived in order to do this. Millions of dollars will go into this project. Several months ago, I went to the meeting with the Army Corps. of Engineers to see how San Diego contractors could get a piece of this work. I may disagree with most of the contractors present on this fence, but they aren’t dumb. Everyone quickly realized that the meeting was a simply a “dog and pony show.” There wasn’t any real work for San Diego contractors. No significant amount of that large amount of money was going back into our economy.
So, as I walk towards that fence every week, looking to the east and seeing the new fence encroaching on this peacable place, I am aware of the undemocratic manner in which it has been erected. I am aware of how unhelpful this is to our local economy. I am aware of the irreprable ecological damage it reeks on God’s creation in this place. I am aware that it will give coyote’s reason to raise prices for human smuggling, making a violent, inhumane industry even more so. I am aware that this means even more people will die in the eastern rural segment of our county, trying to cross in areas manned by fewer Border Patrol agents. I am saddened by this but I feel that our symbolic work every Sunday helps us imagine another world, a world that we continue to work towards establishing even in the face of this large challenge.
During winter months, the park is closed to vehicles. The roads often flood. Instead, my colleagues and I park outside the park gate and hike through the sticky mud, down to the beach and then south towards the monument. Altogether about a mile and a half walk in sand and mud. Not a big ordeal when considering the celebratory moment we are about to participate in. The Friendship Park monument segment in Mexico is part of urban Tijuana. People easily walk up to the Mexican side to meet us, eating cob corn on a stick as they meet with their loved one’s that have not been deported.
A plastic mesh fence was put around the monument the week before Christmas this year. The park was still open to pedestrians and no one has prohibited us from serving communion. So, this week we continued with our usual plan. We turned off the muddy horse path and on to the beach beginning our southward walk. About halfway from the horse path to the monument we were met by two Border Patrol jeeps. We were told that we would be given a citation by State Parks if we went any further. We asked why this wasn’t on their website. The agent did not have a helpful response. This was also curious as the Department of Homeland Security has declared this federal property. Why would the Parks give us a citation and not Border Patrol? We told the young agent that we had people waiting for us at the fence. We needed to get there. He told us he would have to “intervene” if we did that. He would not clarify what this meant. We asked to speak to a supervisor.
About this time, a Border Patrol helicopter flew over us a couple times. A curious show of force. A photo journalist from the LA Times was with us this Sunday. He decided to risk driving up to the monument and was stopped by the State Parks and cited. About the time that it was realized that he was a photo journalist, we were told we could approach the fence near the ocean to do communion, and the “man from the LA Times” would be driven out to meet us if we agreed to stay away from the monument. It seemed clear that they were willing to compromise with us as long as it didn’t mean a scene would be made for the photo journalist to report.
Communion was beautiful this week. It was cold enough to keep the orders of rotting fish, trash and kelp at our feet at bay. At the water, the fence has wider openings. The chalice was able to fit through the fence so that people did not have to squeeze their small bit of tortilla through the opening. I was able to fully grasp my friend Martin’s hand as we prayed. An honor to do with a man who–along with his family–has been through so much. The initial behavior of the Border Patrol ignited a fervor in my fellow clergy, Rev. John Fanestil who brought tears to eyes during his introduction to communion, smoothly moving between Spanish and English.
After saying goodbye to our friends, cleaning up and getting ready to start our walk back, we noticed a couple that had met us at the fence from the San Diego side walking back north. Around 10 people had started the walk back before them, several yards north of them. Two Border Patrol jeeps stormed down the beach cutting off these 2 specific pedestrians. The couple and their young son were brown-skinned Hispanic Americans. No one else had been stopped who had begun walking home. None of the rest of us were brown-skinned as they were… But the Border Patrol will say they do not conduct racial profiling.
It has become even more important for the tight-lipped posture of the agencies in charge of this project and area to be more transparent. At a minimum, it seems realistic to ask for plans for the park to be made public. To date, their has been nearly zero consistency between information released by State Parks and Border Patrol. It’s disconcerting and unlike the democratic society this country claims to be to not involve the public and it’s elected officials in the process of something that so drastically impacts part of the place we call home. We are a long way from Washington D.C. We should be allowed to have a voice in this project.
Even more deeply important to me, is that as a follower of the Great Liberator, Jesus Christ, I do not feel I can stand idly by while powers do not listen to their people, act inhumanely to people based on the color of their skin or place of origin, recklessly destroy God’s creation and line the pockets of corporations who have no intent on benefiting the people who live in the region effected by their work–further gouging the divide between the have’s and have-not’s in a variety of ways. Last night, I asked my faith community to pray for discernment, courage and wisdom as I work with my colleagues in determining how we will continue to respond to this situation. I ask those of you that pray to do the same. I also invite those physically able to join me next Sunday for communion at the border. It is uncertain how much longer we will be able to do this. You may even want to spend the day in Tijuana and meet us on Mexican side. We meet at the fence on Sundays at 3:00 p.m. It would be really great to see a large turn out. It would make a great statement to the people and powers of Tijuana and San Diego. Feel free to contact us for information.
Jason Evans is a co-founder of the Ecclesia Collective and a member of the Hawthorn House. He is married to Brooke–the woman that Proverbs 31 is based on–and has two wonderful kids, Paige and Matt. He is currently a student at Fuller Seminary.
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I think you are an inspiration to many, including me. Thanks for sharing.
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It is sad that the protectors of our freedom
have become the bully!
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As positive as communion at Friendship Park has been to highlight the spiritual union between believers that transcends national boundaries, I wonder what Jesus would do if he lived now in San Diego.
Yes, Jesus was the Great Liberator, but from what did he liberate people? Jesus rarely addressed economic practices and governing powers directly — only when local the businessmen turned a house of prayer into a predatory market and when the people’s elders asserted their oppressive religious rules. When did Jesus stand against the Roman occupation of Israel? Even though their system was far more economically and socially oppressive than the faults to be seen in the border fence project — cutting most local contractors out of federal border-fence contracts, prompting undocumented immigrants to sneak across the border in more dangerous or expensive places, and limiting local input to a certain stage of the planning phase — Jesus didn’t spend any of his valuable time on such issues.
It would be great if we could do something to bring an end to the the human tragedy taking place at the hands of coyotes, during inhospitable hikes across the inland border, and in the form of heart-broken families separated by selective deportation. As we decide how to act upon our calling to minimize human suffering, perhaps we should pray that the border fence is completed quickly and effectively so that these several kinds of suffering now experienced by undocumented immigrants will end sooner. An effective border would slowly dry up the ground in which all these painful experiences have grown.
It would be ideal for the new arrangement at the border to include a new Friendship Park so that once construction is complete, the communion services, the reunions, and the spirit of friendship could continue there as in the past. But it may be too late to influence the design of the border fence project — the DHS site reports that the local community input phase has come and gone already. So it appears the only thing left to do is use the Park for as long as it remains accessible, and communicate the desire for a new Park to our elected leaders.
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Sir, your heart is in the right place, but you have misplaced your facts. The park was closed off because of flooding, and some very undesirable substances had washed into it. The monument was encircled to prevent people from being injured on a construction site. The people who are “separated” by the border self-separated, that is, one of more of them broke our laws by entering our country by stealth, manifesting a distain for the rule of law, which is one of the elements that makes the United States a decent and orderly place to live. Had they obeyed our laws and entered legally, they would be free to go back and forth to Mexico to visit their loved ones. And they failed to render unto Ceasar, as we Christians are taught to do. The brown-skinned couple with the child? How do you know it was their child? How could anyone know? Perhaps that child was being taken across the border illegally, and would be held for ransom until his parents could pay what the coyote asked. It was the duty of the agents to determine the truth of the situation. I find it strange that a professed Christian would be so judgmental of and hostile toward people who are doing their jobs in good faith as well as they are able. In addition, a couple of months ago the paper published a list of contractors who are working on the fence, and I seem to remember there were several California firms among them. And regardless of the address, do the workers not eat, pay rent, pay taxes and live while working in San Diego County? How, pray tell, is it possible that the community is not benefitting from their good jobs? As a brown-skinned person whose family entered this country legally and openly, and as a devout Catholic, I thank God for many things, and among them are people who put their lives on the line every day to ensure my safety. Discernment indeed.
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Hi Lydia,
Thank you for posting. I would like to respond to a few things you said in your comment. First, I am aware of why the the park is closed to vehicles. But if you check the website or the Estuary you will see that it is still open to pedestrians. I am also aware of why the fencing is in place. Neither of these statements contradict what I wrote.
As a Christian I feel called to a higher “law” than that of the state that you say migrants show disdain for. I feel called to be obedient to law that Jesus embodied in which all peoples are treated humanely. Our economic arrangements with countries such as Mexico out economic benefit of U.S. based corporations above and beyond basic human need. Can you really say people are showing “disdain” when they are desperate to find a way to feed their families? Would we really be ethical to put economic benefit before human care? This is in fact what arrangements that the U.S. has engaged has done . Your simplistic statement ignores that complexity of the situation.
In regards to your statement about Caesar, I would disagree with how interpret Jesus intent. It could be understood that Jesus was challenging his listeners’ understanding of who really is in charge. Afterall, they would have understood God as the creator of everything, so what really is left for Caesar? Nothing.
In reference to your question about the child, the fact is that those of us with backpacks could have been smuggling all kinds of terrible things across the border in fact. Which we certainly weren’t. We, though, were not questioned because of the color of our skin. Having spent a lot of time at this location over the last several months, it is common knowledge that the BP count people as the approach and as they leave. This family approached the fence with the same number that left. I appreciate what you are trying to say, but my experience paints a quite different picture.
As far as your accusation of hostility goes, I don’t see how I have in any way been hostile. Rather, we have always approached agents with kindness and appreciation for the complexity of their job. They are clearly not be informed in a concise way by their superiors. Which has to make things difficult. I would say that your implication should rather be flipped. Helicopters approaching a small group of people armed with nothing more than grape juice, a Bible and tortillas is hostile. And I would add, who is getting in the way of whom to do their job? As a follower of Jesus, I am called first to seek the Kingdom of God. In going to this fence and celebrating an expression of the Kingdom, am I not conducting my primary vocation? And who is it that would stand in the way of that?
Certainly, local labor will be used for this massive project. But the truth is that the larger portion of this work is awarded to contractors from out of San Diego. And it is the owners of the companies who will walk away with most of the profits. Those hard working men and women who own small local construction companies are not going to get anything of large significance.
I appreciate your concerns. I am glad to hear that you and your family were able to immigrate to this place safely. But I have to say that the rhetoric that has been used to convince us that this fence and the further militarization of our border somehow makes us safer seems silly to me. I have lived in the county most of my life. I have met hundreds of Latin American immigrants. With and without proper documentation. But only the very fewest of them seemed unstable or violent. And all of them having crossed for nothing but the safety and opportunity of their families. It is this kind of rhetoric that leads us towards to the dehumanization of those that are different. It does not assist in solving the issues at hand in my opinion. Thanks, Lydia. I appreciate your comment. But I do strongly disagree.
Paz,
Jason
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Hi Carey,
I will have to disagree with your statement about Jesus’ rarely speaking about economic concerns. A close look at the Gospels reveal that Jesus speaks to economic issues more than anything but the Kingdom of God. As far as whether or not he addressed governing powers, again I will have to disagree. The very fact that he was called, “Lord” was an overt political affront on Caesar. In fact, Jesus’ life was political from the very beginning. Herod wanted him dead as an infant because his very existence threatened his authority. And ultimately, he was executed because of the threat he posed.
Good to see you around! At least virtually, that is.
Your question of what Jesus would do in San Diego today is good one! I agree that this needs to be asked. Jesus’ actions would likely be different for several reasons. He was an immigrant himself. I am not. He and his people were under occupation while I am from the citizenry of those that have occupied a region (ie. we weren’t here first, we occupied this area). So, you are correct. As an immigrant, in an occupied are, Jesus actions would potentially be different. And as you state, he didn’t spend time on these specific issues… but it seems obviously clear that he didn’t because he lived in a different time, place and context.
What I have learned from meditating on the life and teachings of Jesus as I read them in the Gospels is that Jesus taught us to pray for the Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. I am convinced that we pray by actions as well. But Jesus advocated a different kind of action. He did not encourage terrorist activity, he did not encourage alignment with the authorities, he did not encourage removal, and he didn’t encourage us to completely spiritualize our faith in a manner that allows us to disassociate with the realities we all face together. Rather, he encouraged us in his sermons and in his actions to engage in nonviolent actions that insight yet another way to look at the situation. And even when there seemed to little to no helpful outcome from this kind of approach… he stilled did it. Remember, his disciples saw his work as completely folded when he was executed. What they did not know at that point of despair was that this other way would now ignite the renewing of the cosmos when he ultimately defeated death.
Does is look to many as though our cause is nearly defeated? Yes, it does. But what I feel I am engaged is beyond a fence, beyond a monument. And I don’t feel that if DHS has it’s way it defeats us. Rather, we have simply exposed the brokenness of the powers and called people to seek security and safety in something beyond these things.
Thanks for stopping by, Carey!
Paz,
Jason
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Hey Jason and folks,
I just wanted to join the discussion. Being all the way in Boston, MA now I feel so disconnected from the border issue and I recognize how easy it is to feel like we understand it. The media portrayal, while fairly accurate, of Tijuana, clouds the judgment of the government and public officers to make sweeping decisions about individual things.
I agree with you Jason that Jesus clearly spoke overtly and frequently about economics and government. When he challenged the Pharisees that he would tear down the temple and rebuild it in three days, he made claim that no man-made structure or order would supersede his law and creation. When he met the Samaritan woman at the well, he clearly deconstructed the idea of ethnic/cultural identity in the kingdom of God (even location of worship!) When Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, it seems no coincidence that he asked them transcend the ways of the world in the context of a dominant government.
Knowing your community is praying for discernment, rather than calling people to urgent arms, informs us as readers of your tone, which is clearly as a peacemaker, not divisive protester. Of course we will all struggle to understand God’s word with complete unity, look at Paul and Barnabas, and border issues seem as difficult as any for Christians to grasp. But ponder this, what right do we have for even freedom or prosperity as Christians? Possibly as Americans, but difficult it is to argue for our own security, safety, prosperity within the proposition we followers of Jesus submit to of loving someone else more than we love ourselves.
AP
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I regret that I don’t know a lot of details about this issue either. I’m just across your border to the north.
I’m wondering if the change in government will affect any change in this situation?
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Hi Wilsonian,
Some people hold out hope that this is the case. And there certainly is that possibility.
My only caution to what you allude to here is this… Obama seems to be a man of character but it’s a false assumption (and kind of messianic in some scary ways) when we think that his holding that office will change everything. As he himself as said, it will require the hard work and sacrifice of us all. To be a democratic society we all must engage and not leave it to the elected officials to make change.
Thanks for stopping by.
Paz,
Jason
[Reply]
J,
Continue to pursue the kingdom of God my friend. I am proud to know you, and I hope you continue to do meaningful things such as this.
Shalom
randy
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what are the real facts here? we expect and even demand that our gov. protect us and our economy, but often are too ready to bite the hand that feeds us. in most cases i agree that these seperated families are trajic but we need to l
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About The Ecclesia Collective
We are primarily groups of people that meet mostly in homes, committed to a way of discipleship that is focused on peaceful and equitable ways of living out the kingdom Jesus announced. We are an evolving, organic network of these communities based in urban San Diego, CA.
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