Post by Isabel Blume and Faith Christenson. Colgate Class of 2022.

The time had come; it was the last day of our trip through the borderlands. After a collective effort to clean and check out of our Airbnb, we headed further into downtown Tucson. We were to see a streamline case at one of the federal district courts, but we were running early. We walked around Tuscon for a few hours and enjoyed our last chance to bask in the sun before returning to the tundra of Upstate New York.

At 1 p.m. our group met in front of the Federal Court House. Walking inside, the building was sterile. We were immediately met with a security line and signs relaying the obvious ban of phone usage in the proceedings. Walking through those doors the delightfulness of the January sun was left behind and traded for an overwhelming gloom. Entering the courtroom, we sat in the back where we could see the entirety of the proceedings. The room was large and well kept up. The ceiling was colored in a pattern of red, green, and purple, colors that are often used to create a feeling of relaxation and excitement. Those are two words I would not associate with these cases. The agenda for the afternoon featured a hearing for those whose only offense was crossing the border illegally and one for those who had committed another offense on top of that. In total, there were somewhere around sixty people seen in the court that afternoon. All of these sixty people were in shackles, walking in a line to a large formation of seats in the middle of the room. They wore headphones to aid their understanding of the procedures while a translator spoke in Spanish through a microphone. Of course, this did not help all, as some spoke indigenous languages that were not translated. Going down the line, the judge spoke the same phrases for each person, asking questions about citizenship and sentences hoping to garner a simple yes or no answer. Soon the entirety of the group had finished.

Watching these procedures take place was unlike any other part of our trip. It was almost too real to see this happening right in front of us. Everything that we had studied, everything that we had seen, accumulated to these lines of people: dehumanized under the weight of their shackles. Everyone in these hearings was over eighteen, but most of them looked relatively young. Many of the defendants looked as if they could be the same age as us and yet there we were, sitting on the opposite side of the room. After facing the judge, many of the younger defendants looked at their lawyers, shared a small smile and vice versa. It was as if they were saying “it’s going to be okay.” I could feel myself and those seated around me starting to tear up. This week had made it entirely clear that was not the case.

After the hearings were done, we were able to speak to the judge as a group. After many intense questions, the judge made one point. We have the power to change what we saw. The only way to do so is by exercising the right to vote or by going into politics to change this ourselves. We can do all we can to help individuals but only a change in the laws can stop this all together.

Watching several groups of people get deported before our eyes was disheartening, and the judge’s logical and only solution seemed a little bit too rigorous. Our next stop, however, appeared hopeful for migrants entering the United States. Casa Alitas is a program that shelters immigrant families seeking asylum in the United States. Though this program’s mission isn’t to alter the immigration policy in the United States, it was still extremely uplifting as the program’s aim was to help shelter immigrants seeking asylum in the United States. At Casa Alitas, we met Kat Smith who is the outreach coordinator of the program. She walked us through a bright and vibrant building that housed several refugees. The walls were painted bright pink and purple and had children’s art and maps displayed everywhere. After sitting in the courthouse, this positive energy really stood out and juxtaposed the hopeless energy displayed through the endless and certain trials. Children played outside with an abundance of toys and Kat showed us the piles of donations. She described the history of the house and all of the obstacles that they have overcome as a program. We also discovered that this place that shelters immigrant families used to be a detention center. The connotation surrounding the structure was a little bit shocking but the place did not resemble its past function even in the slightest. This is because of donations and the work of volunteers.

In conclusion, this day’s trip to the courthouse and to Casa Alitas displayed a lot of juxtaposing thoughts and symbols, but at the end of the day, we were able to conclude that there is still some hope for this cause. Through volunteering, voting, donating, and working in law something may be able to change.