To be free of border delusions, you must know the truth

By Elket Rodríguez

Change never stops on the U.S.-Mexico border. From a Haitian caravan encamping under a bridge, to a surge of unaccompanied migrant children, to the expulsion of asylum seekers, the border is the setting of hundreds of stories every week. 

Every news outlet frames its narrative according to its perspective: Some depict the border as a war zone, where Customs and Border Protection officers clash with migrants. Others portray border dynamics as a humanitarian crisis. Many frame the border as a political challenge. A few claim the border is open, while others insist it is closed. Many Americans believe most migrants are criminals, while others think asylum seekers only desire safety from persecution. 

A multitude of stories; many of them conflicting. Ironically, many who claim to describe the situation along the U.S.-Mexico border do not live there and have not even interviewed migrants.

That is why we must infuse the debate with facts that explain the border clearly to people who do not live there or serve migrants there. Here are truths about the U.S.-Mexico border and the human flow that has carried migrants to the region. 

Most migrants do not want to leave their home countries. 

Over and over, migrants and the attorneys, advocates and pastors who assist them insist migrants want to stay in their countries. The migrants arriving at our southern border are overwhelmingly fleeing extraordinary circumstances that would force us to do the same to protect our families. 

Migrants leave their countries fleeing persecution, corruption, governmental collapse, economic depression, criminal organizations and global warming. 

The pandemic has worsened these circumstances to the point migrants arriving at our southern border are fleeing for all these reasons simultaneously. 

Why? Because when a pandemic strikes an already weak economy, governments ruled by corrupt politicians collapse. Then some citizens of those countries begin working in the informal economy (drug smuggling, weapon trading, human trafficking) to survive, expanding the influence of criminal organizations, which in turn oppress them. Residents who resist the informal economy for moral reasons fare even worse, because the criminal organizations persecute and even kill resisters. Agricultural workers are more vulnerable than other workers, because global warming affects their crops, and they can’t earn a living, much less also pay extortion to the criminal organizations. 

The border is not open, but neither is it closed. 

The Biden administration continues to implement Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allows immigration officers to expel migrants summarily to Mexico. The only difference between their approaches is the Biden administration has exempted unaccompanied migrant children and some vulnerable families. 

The border is not a war zone. 

Many people who do not live along the border think animosity dominates relationships between U.S. and Mexican citizens living in “sister” border cities. This is wrong. U.S. and Mexican border cities depend economically and socially on each other. If you live on the border, you will notice brotherhood among border citizens. Many border residents have families on both sides. Residents of the Rio Grande Valley of Texas often say, "I didn't cross the border; the border crossed me." That phrase acknowledges a shared community that binds citizens on each side of the border. 

The flow of migrants is not going to stop, and nothing will stop migrants from crossing to the United States. 

No matter how many immigration officers or how much technology and money the United States deploys or invests to apprehend, detain and deport migrants, the situation will worsen. We must understand people beyond our borders are desperate. They don’t have a country, a family, a job, a community or a safe place to live. That is why the arrival of Haitians in Del Río did not catch many border residents by surprise. That is what happens in Mexico every day. 

Our neighboring countries already had experienced the horde of Haitian humanity that huddled under the bridge in Del Rio. In a world that is heating up, where poverty is increasing, and governments are collapsing, the U.S.-Mexico border will continue to be where the richest country in the world meets the poorest of people in the world. 

How we respond to them—with a welcoming heart or with disparagement—will define the future of a church that is increasingly becoming multiethnic. 

Let’s witness with our lives, but also with the truth. 

Elket Rodríguez is the immigrant and refugee missions and advocacy specialist for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Fellowship Southwest.