Hello everyone,
I know it’s been a while and I am sorry.. there just has been so much going on! I have a lot to post about but the first one and want to talk about is the border closure and immigration. I will focus on the southern border, since that is what is effecting us.
We received notification that the central southern POE(Point Of Entry) from AZ to MX would be closed, we received this information on a Friday 12/1/23 in the afternoon with the closure taking effect Sunday evening at 8pm regular closing scheduled time, and would not reopen for an indefinite period. Lukeville AZ has become the epicenter of immigration discussion, not the first small town to be drawn into this discussion and will likely not be the last.
Arizona has 7 POEs, Douglas, Naco, Nogales, Sansebe, Lukeville, San Luis and San Luis II. Lukeville being the most central and closest port to gain access to Puerto Peñasco it is a busy port for tourist. The other ports are busy as well with local traffic and commercial traffic but within AZ the Lukeville crossing is crucial to tourism, on both sides of the border.
Now as you can imagine this has fueled the ever raging left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative, democrats vs. republicans political game that gets played out in the US. I don’t really care what side of isle your favorite person is on, they are all pretty much in it for themselves, to some degree. I think at some point they wanted to be in politics to right the wrongs and help change the world, but then they got there things changed, they changed.. I think it’s very rare if not non existent to find a politician who is actually in it for the people and only the people. Yes, I am cynical, politicians have made me this way.
Moving to Mexico has been a liberating experience, while no country is free of the corruption and picking of sides, it’s been nice to be away from the 24hr non stop partisan news cycles. I find I have less and less energy and will to deal with it all. Anyway… enough of that. So the border closure spawned all kinds of vitriol and partisan politics all over, in person and on social media (I know shocker!!). Much of the comments and biased posts dealt with how the red team was way way way better at controlling the border and ensuring peoples safety! The blue team was/is weak on controlling the border and making people unsafe! I have always held the belief that neither team really gives a damn about the border till is fits an agenda or to stir up the base to garner votes!
I however approached that from just my own thoughts and had no real data to back that up. So I set out to research some and figure out if I really was on to something or if maybe the red team was right. I started by researching border protection, specifically the southern land border, I wanted to know what the data was around that, to my surprise border protection has data going back to 1960 on southern border encounters. These encounters are not legal border crossings these are classified as non legal crossings. Now, not much in the mission has changed since 1924 when BP was created, and I am sure actual encounters varied in the early years because borders were not well defined or enforced. The border did have check points even before border protection was created , it was only know as US Customs and Immigration, which dates back further than 1924.
The US has always had a grey line when it came to Mexican immigration, one that when it suites the US was fine but then when it doesn’t it’s not. Congress banned Chinese labor force in 1882 and the US looked to immigrants from Mexico to fill those jobs. Mexicans used to working longer hours and 7 days a week in Mexico to earn the same amount journeyed to the US to find a better life. Records report that between 1910 and 1920 it is estimated more than 500k Mexican nationals entered the US as the Mexican Revolution raged on, they entered the US without passports or money, many coming with only the clothes they owned.
Mexican labor fueled, the growth of farms, ranches, railroads, and cities, however even in this time the same divisive language we hear now existed. People claiming Mexican laborers were steeling peoples jobs, so this rhetoric is nothing new in the US and what I meant previously about, the influx of labor immigration is only acceptable when it suites the US needs, as the US labor force grew from the expansion of the railroads and the bounty of the farms and ranches, it was viewed that Mexican labor was no longer needed and that the Mexican people should be sent back to Mexico. Many families did return to Mexico after the Revolution but many also stayed in the US and struggled to do so with more and more prejudices emerging.
So without going into a huge long history lesson, I will kind of jump to the start of the data collection starting in the 1960s. Like I said I had no real understand if the people cheering for the red team were right. I spent several days going through records and reviewing the numbers creating a spreadsheet in my sleeplessness because it was bothering me. What I came up with was a chart that contains the encounters by year, I then divided that up into the red team/blue team captains.
What I found out is that I was basically right.. immigration really doesn’t change much between the red and blue teams, in fact what the number suggest is that prior to the new blue team captain the red team was “winning?” by almost 8million more immigrant encounters! So I guess you could say, maybe the new blue team captain wanted to even the score? Not sure.. My point is all the rhetoric is just that! Politicians use this issue as nothing more than division to garner votes and win elections and then go back to ignoring the issue till the next news cycle, election time, etc.
Look all the rhetoric and partisan politics aside the issue still remains and little is ever done, what is sad to me is behind all the spreadsheets, bar charts, graphs and breaking news headlines are peoples lives. I know there is no easy answer, I know the US can not take every single immigrant that wants to come to the US, it’s just not feasible. I also know by not taking them we are dooming many to a life of misery and death, that’s what gets lost in all of this. The southern border is no longer a major crossing point for Mexican nationals instead it’s become a crossing point for peoples from all over the globe looking for a better life. People from India, Middle East, Africa, South America, China, I often hear they are all men, its dangerous, they pose a threat. I often want to ask the person saying this if you were in their place, would you send your wife, your mother, your sister on a journey around the world with no money, no clothes or would you go alone to protect them. I know the answer, but again I think it gets lost in all the rhetoric and partisan politics.
The US basically closed this POE to cause some economic hardships in Mexico to spawn more cooperation of the Mexican government in deterring immigrants passing through Mexico to the US freely. I get that, but the fallout is effecting hard working men and women on both sides of the border! The small family shops, restaurants, businesses here in Mexico that rely on tourism to survive are struggling to feed their families and stay open. Businesses north of the border as well that are sustained on tourism traffic, small restaurants, gas stations, and stores, have closed or cut back staff and hours. I cant say if what is being done is right to help secure the border and deter immigration, because it has used everyday hardworking people as pawns in a game that never changes, doesn’t have a winner.
The Statue of Liberty, between 1892 and 1954 Ellis Island saw 12Million immigrants who came to the US with nothing many times not even documents. The US only deported 2% of those people back to their counties. I think we have to ask ourselves has anything really changed, or has the rhetoric and partisan politics changed, feeding on peoples worst characteristics and fears to gain power and demonize those less fortunate. The US still likes to view itself as this beacon to the rest of the world, one of the things so many recognize the world over is the Statue of Liberty and the words inscribed.
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
- Emma Lazarus
I will leave you with one final thought.
The US really strived to embody the words that poem at one time, has the Statue of Liberty, her purpose and symbolism faded? Should the statue be removed and the inscription taken down, stored in a museum as something belonging to a time since gone?
Mexico Beach Adventure 