campaign stops:
Texas: Sheffield, El Paso, Ft.
Stockton
New Mexico: Las Cruces,
Demming
Arizona: Quartsite,
Wilcox, Benson, Tucson
Immigration Border Tour II - Winter
2006
- In a hardscrabble area of the inner
city of El Paso, we visited the Annunciation House -- a shelter for
illegal immigrants just coming across the border. I met with
Director Rubin Garcia who said the shelter is supported by a network of
churches here that are interested in promoting social justice. Note:
On an earlier tour, we walked the dusty Westside streets of Juarez,
Mexico, just across the border from El Paso. Some 200,000 people
live in cobbled together shacks with no running water, no electricity and
little food. Our administration would do everything possible to try
to help these people -- on both sides of the border.
- In Las Cruces, New Mexico, my
daughter Sarah and I sat in on a workshop at Our Lady of Health
Church. Part of the workshop included attendees talking about
how they "...longed to see God's face." I said it's
actually not hard to see God's face. That is, Jesus said whenever we
do something for "the least of these," we do it for Him.
So it only stands to reason that we can see God's 'face' every day-- in
the 'face' of the poor. Note: Although that is harder
to do in Las Cruces these days. An ordinance was passed several
years ago banning the homeless from begging on the streets here.
- In Las Cruces, we also met with
Sheriff's Deputy Jimmy Beasley who has been with the Department the past
19 years here. He said drugs coming across the border is a
tremendously big issue. He said the drug cartels south of the border
are powerful and quite networked. He said no matter how much
security, they will find a way to get at least some, if not a lot, of the
drugs through. So common sense would indicate we have to find more
ways to decrease the demand for drugs on this side of the border.
One way to do this is through the DARE Program, which Deputy Beasley has
helped coordinate the past 16 years now. The program helps students
develop positive peer groups and make responsible choices around drinking
and drugs.
- I was interviewed by reporter
Kevin Buey of the Headlight newspaper in Demming, New Mexico.
The day before, Buey had written an excellent piece about the "Southwest
Desert Sustainability Project" slated for the area. Southwest
Desert Sustainability is a non-profit organization developed to help
homeowners evaluate their energy efficiency. These reviews are
offered in conjunction with: "Rebuild New Mexico." A
thrust of the project is to show homeowners in this area how to retrofit
with more insulation in tandem with adding solar devices. (The sun
shines more than 300 days a year here on average.) I told Buey our
platform asks Americans to considerably ratchet up their
"environmental stewardship" to reverse global warming.
- In Quartsite, Arizona, we met a
man who had served in the Army and had been dispatched to Hiroshima
shortly after we dropped the atomic bomb there. He said the city was
absolutely decimated. And the image that particularly stuck in his
mind was the outlines of bodies actually burned into the concrete where
adults and children were incinerated when the bomb detonated. Note:
Our platform calls for a U.S. Department of Peace to head this off in the
future, while building more worldwide camaraderie.