The immigrant crisis that we are facing right now is awful. My thoughts are filled with sorrow for the poor immigrants. They are only trying to cross over to have what any other human being should deserve; a safe place to live with ones family. Before reading these stories I knew a bit about their struggles, but now I am infuriated at how little we do to help these people. These people are our neighbors and we treat them like they are spoiled food only to be thrown away. I could not agree more with what Brenda Rioja, the editor of a local church newspaper and the mission’s spokesperson, said: “It’s about helping those who are right there in front of you. Imagine if we did that all around the world, how different it would be”. (National Geographic).
As a person who has lived in the Rio Grande Valley all his life I can say that this crisis has effected me directly. It is not rare here to have a family member or friend deported. Either by Visa or because of criminal activity, these people are forced to go back to their “home” country even though they have spent more than half of their life here. I personally find this very cruel because you are depriving people of their most prized possession; their loved ones. I am not saying that these laws should be revoked, but that the law should be more lenient on these things because sometimes it is almost as if we are throwing them back into a pack of hungry wolves, as some of these stories have said.
These articles have summed up our problems with immigration here in the RGV somewhat accurate, I think. In a place where we are all so alike we do not do enough to help. We can change that though, if we wanted, by donating here to The Sacred Heart Catholic Church, mentioned in one of the articles. It would not be much, but it is a start and it does make a difference. What these articles paint the RGV as is a big mess of a city. I do not believe that is exactly true though, since they are only focusing on the bad stuff and very few good people. The valley can be a wonderfully simple and laid back place and there is none like it. I was fortunate enough to be able to travel this summer to Spain and France and was immediately culture shocked at how different it was. The people, air, buildings, and atmosphere were all great but I could not help but to miss the RGV a bit in the corner of my heart
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There was a lot of upsetting stories in these articles. The one that got to me the most however was the one about Jose Matias Garcia, a shop owner from El Salvador that had to leave because of the gangs, and his eleven year old daughter Daniella. This man was forced to leave his home and split up his family just to be safe. I cannot even imagine what having to sell everything you own just get away must feel like. Using the money he had saved up he hired a “coyote” and traveled to Reynosa, where he bribed a army officials to let him go through. I sincerely hope that he is okay now and that he has returned to his family.
Inside Mind 