Edgewood students learn about growing carrots and the production of food for migrants
in a meeting with a staff member of La Semilla Food Center.
May 7, 2024
By Alexandra Nadolski
OTE Assistant Editor
Seven students traveled to Texas near the Mexico-United States border during spring break with four faculty/staff members associated with the Edgewood College Office of Mission, Values, and Inclusion.
The students observed the complexity of life for refugees and American citizens living at/near the border with a focus on the Dominican values of Edgewood College.
“Crime and violence are not their biggest concerns. It’s more human rights,” said Laura Hermanns, the director of Campus Ministries at Edgewood College.
El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico are a back-to-back community. People intermingle and they cross the border every day for work and many work on farms, advocates said.
While in El Paso, Edgewood College worked with three non-profits: the Hope Border Institute, Annunciation House, and La Semilla Food Center.
The Hope Border Institute says its mission is to bring the perspective of Catholic social teaching to bear on the realities unique to our US-Mexico border region, according to its website. Through research and policy work, leadership development, and action, the organization says on its website that it builds justice and deepens solidarity across the borderlands.
Advocates describe Annunciation House, which offers shelter to refugees and migrants, as nearly 100 years old and located on the fringe of El Paso’s biggest barrio, about 10 blocks from the United States-Mexico border. The two-story, red brick building in poor condition has been home to thousands of refugees and the migrant poor, they say.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently took legal action that would have closed Annunciation House. On March 11, Judge Francisco Dominguez of the 205th judicial court ruled in favor of Annunciation House and it stayed open.
“The Attorney General’s efforts to run roughshod over Annunciation House, without regard to due process or fair play, call into question the true motivation for the Attorney General’s attempt to prevent Annunciation House” from providing humanitarian and social services, Dominguez wrote in the court ruling.
”These people are being used as a political bargaining chip,” said Hermann. Some officials use statements to create negative images of the migrants and refugees, she said, adding that addition, they send migrants to other states and make hostile policies.
“Policymakers are not listening to those on the ground. Policies aren’t reflecting what is actually being shown,” she said.
The La Semilla Food Center is located in New Mexico and Texas and was established in 2010, according to its website. It uses are using a root-cause approach in creating and supporting a more equitable and sustainable food system in the Paso del Norte region, the website said.
Edgewood students on the trip received the book, “Migrant: Stories of Hope and Resilience,” composed of stories in a comic book format and inspired by conversations with migrants. The authors, Jeffry Odell Korgen and Kevin C. Pyle, depict the life, hope, and suffering of a migrant.
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