From the borderlands to Buffalo: exploring the Kino Border Initiative

by Kaitlin O’Meara, Copy Editor

On Monday, Oct. 6 the Borders and Migrations Initiative, in collaboration with Campus Ministry, hosted an event on the current state of immigration with an emphasis on the political situation in the borderlands and the realities of migrants. Titled “Migration with Dignity: Border Realities and Collective Action,” the event centered around a panel discussion with students who had recently returned from the service immersion trip at the border with Dr. Richard Reitsma, Spencer Liechty and Iñigo Casares Perez, the education coordinator of the Kino Border Initiative (KBI). For more information on this trip, refer to the article “On Migration with Dignity” from the Sept. 12 edition of The Griffin.  

Iñigo Casares Perez, who has been working for KBI for about three years, is currently on a “tour” of schools – mostly in New York City – to talk about KBI. These conversations center around its mission, values and the work it does, to try to combat misinformation surrounding migration and to help people figure out how they can support migrants in their community. During the presentation at Canisius, he not only discussed the work of KBI but also encouraged attendees to volunteer at local organizations like Justice for Migrant Families, Journey’s End Refugee Services, Catholic Charities and more. 

In discussing the misinformation and misunderstanding that often surrounds conversations on migration, Casares Perez stated that he wished that “people [would] understand that migration is about people. It's a social phenomenon. It’s not supposed to be good or bad. We should put people at the center of things, but the rhetoric around it focuses a lot on statistics, politics, economics and it’s hard for people to understand that [these are] people just like everyone else.” The mission of KBI is “migration with dignity,” and they seek to holistically accompany migrants in all stages of their journey. Casares Perez highlighted the importance of KBI being a binational organization, mentioning that “the things that we see at the border, we see it as something that is happening in a shared space, not something that is just affecting like the U.S. or just Mexico, which is an interesting approach.” KBI operates its education and advocacy programs on both sides of the border, emphasizing that though the nations are separated by a wall, the problems affect both sides. 

Mackenzie Harmon and Aidan Hart are two students who went on this trip, Harmon this past summer and Hart the summer before. Though both had taken classes on immigration prior to coming on the trip, they were able to learn more about the realities at the border and develop a new, more nuanced perspective on the situation at the border. Harmon discussed her experiences spending time in the shelter in Nogales, Sonora with migrants in various stages of their journeys and experiences. Harmon said, “The experience provided a more in-depth and personal understanding of what it means to be forced to leave your country and make that hard decision.” She mentioned one man in particular – Diego – who was the face of the shelter, and made sure that she and those she came with felt welcome at the shelter. By learning individual stories of people’s reasons for migration, students like Harmon are able to better understand the human side of migration, like Casares Perez noted earlier. 

Hart noted that he “wasn’t expecting the border wall to cut through people’s backyards. [He] thought that the wall just kind of separated the nations cleanly, but it has literally separated families in Nogales that live on opposite sides of it,” again showcasing the impact on real people on both sides of the border. The wall was not constructed through Nogales until fairly recently (the 1990s), so people are still dealing with the impacts of the wall splitting their lives and families. As a result of his experiences on this trip, Hart is now writing his honors thesis on “how Latin American immigrants are often scapegoated as the cause of economic perils in the U.S. when in fact, they keep our economy running in many ways, and the U.S. would

struggle economically without them.” 

The panel concluded with a space for attendees to ask questions to the panelists: for Casares Perez, about what he sees going on and how people in Buffalo can be more engaged, and for the students, about how they will take what they learned during the experience with them in the future. Harmon mentioned how she has taken some of the things she learned regarding accompaniment and walking with the excluded – one of the Universal Apostolic Preferences of the Jesuit tradition – with her in her work at a local food pantry. These two students’ experiences after their time with the Kino Border Initiative and their continued dedication to this subject area highlight the sentiment KBI emphasizes of taking the “next steps” to make sure that the experiences students had results in action in their communities and in the larger world.