{"id":80,"date":"2011-09-22T14:38:11","date_gmt":"2011-09-22T21:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arroya.org\/?p=80"},"modified":"2011-10-09T00:16:33","modified_gmt":"2011-10-09T07:16:33","slug":"shoelaces-and-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/?p=80","title":{"rendered":"Shoelaces and love"},"content":{"rendered":"

When migrants are dropped across the border into Mexico after a pickup by the Border Patrol, they have no shoelaces.<\/p>\n

Shoelaces are the first thing that is confiscated from migrants \u201cso they won\u2019t run away\u201d.\u00a0 They arrive at the small clinica with no medications, no cell phone (and most start out with cell phones), and no little slips of paper with telephone numbers of family or prospective employers in Washington, Oregon, Chicago, New York, Alabama.\u00a0 All\u00a0have been taken away by US authorities.\u00a0\u00a0 Usually they have no money and no ID.\u00a0 It is impossible for the migrant to contact his hope for the future—his job in el norte or a family member—because the Border Patrol has emptied their pockets and taken precious scraps of paper with the phone numbers.\u00a0 Many have no idea where Nogales is.\u00a0 They\u2019ve never heard of the place.<\/p>\n

They show up at the clinica with blood sugars sky high.\u00a0 Their medications for diabetes were taken away, and they need immediate help.\u00a0 I do not know why important medicatons are not returned, but they aren’t.\u00a0 All have a vacant, empty look on their face. They have nothing but the shirt on their back and shoes that are literally rotting on their feet.\u00a0 One fellow this week eagerly took a toothbrush in a \u201chygiene packet\u201d we had prepared and marched over to a sink and began scrubbing his teeth.\u00a0 No water, no toothpaste—just vigorously scrubbing his teeth.\u00a0 He had just arrived after days in the desert.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

If the shoe fits....<\/p><\/div>\n

A college student with a Georgetown University t-shirt sits down with this young man.\u00a0 This is her \u201csemester abroad\u201d, and she is amazing.\u00a0 She lives with the nuns in their quarters in this very poor section of Nogales.\u00a0\u00a0 Her face is luminous.\u00a0 She speaks excellent Spanish and helps me as I try and figure out what to do.\u00a0 He needs a plan.\u00a0 He decides to go back to his village.\u00a0 Our group pools resources and buys him a bus ticket and money for food.\u00a0 The journey will be long—back to Oaxaca.<\/p>\n

And we find a good pair of shoes and brand new shoelaces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When migrants are dropped across the border into Mexico after a pickup by the Border Patrol, they have no shoelaces. Shoelaces are the first thing that is confiscated from migrants \u201cso they won\u2019t run away\u201d.\u00a0 They arrive at the small clinica with no medications, no cell phone (and most start out with cell phones), and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions\/111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}