Friday, June 4

Leviticus 19:33-34

After a traveling most of the day on Thursday, we were happy to have some downtime in Acapulco. It was a nice way to relax after a physically and emotionally exhausting week of travel. While many of us were excited to be at the beach and have time to rest, our hearts were still with the people in Huitzapula.

The main activity for Friday (aside from riding jetskis and swimming in the ocean) was the time spent discussing the situation with immigration - hearing about the how groups of people migrated even in the earliest part of our world history to the newest legal regulations against undocumented people in the U.S. Much of the information wasn´t ¨news¨ to me. In having an interest in the growth of Hispanics in the U.S., I have tried to be intentional about learning as much as I can about their way of life here. Also, many of you know that smaller and more rural towns (pueblos) are having difficulty with law enforcement actively searching for undocumented people to deport back to Mexico or neighboring countries. This is a sensitive subject for many people, both Hispanics and non-Hispanics. For example, how far should ¨we¨ in the U.S. go to enforce legal regulations? I don´t have the answer, but I will leave you with this. I believe when you know someone or are personally touched by an experience related to immigration, the issue becomes even more real to you.

As I´ve mentioned in previous blogs, Edgar, our classmate from Duke, is from Mexico. His family has traveled with us along this Encuentro trip and we have gotten to know them fairly well. As we had this dicussion today, he mentioned that another member of his family would be joining us while we are in Acapulco. Juan, who is Edgar´s brother-in-law was coming to be with us because he had just been deported back to Mexico. For the past 12 years, Juan lived with his wife and five children in Colorado working and earning a living to support his family. I´m not certain about the situation in which he found himself back in Mexico, but he is now staying here trying to earn enough money to be smuggled back into the U.S. so that he can with his family.

Whether or not this is the ¨right¨ way to handle this situation is not for me to say, but I will say that Leviticus 19:33-34 speaks of the alien residing in our land, calling us to love the alien as ourself because we too are aliens. Is there more we can do to demonstrate our love to others, especially the alien?