Speaker 1: With white with.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone. It's me James and I'm joined by Scharen
Speaker 2: and Robert. Today we're going to be talking about the border,
Speaker 2: which is where the audio you heard at the start
Speaker 2: was recorded yesterday. Hi Serene and Robert.
Speaker 3: Hi James.
Speaker 2: Hello James, thank you, Robert, Thank you Serene. It's lovely
Speaker 2: to have this form on introduction time. Okay. So yeah,
Speaker 2: we're gathered here to go to talk about the border.
Speaker 2: And the reason we are talking about the board it
Speaker 2: is because border patrol are doing their thing, the thing
Speaker 2: that they like to do tiemingly like on a quarterly
Speaker 2: basis actually exactly three months after the last time, which
Speaker 2: is to hold people out in the open in between
Speaker 2: the two board defenses in Santi Sego, just about fifteen
Speaker 2: minutes south of where I live. The it's probably worth
Speaker 2: grounding this discussion in the various claims and counterclaims. So
Speaker 2: there are about two hundred people in between the two
Speaker 2: boarder fences right now. People I spoke to were from Azerbijan,
Speaker 2: Turkmenistan and Zbekistan, Turkey, China, Vietnam, Hondoors, Guatemala. Yeah. Like
Speaker 2: the reason that sometimes these lists of people sound like,
Speaker 2: you know, you're singing Washington bullets. Is because these are
Speaker 2: all countries that we have destabilized in one way or another,
Speaker 2: saying we qua the United States, not we as CAOL
Speaker 2: zone media, we were spire to de stabilized regimes.
Speaker 1: We've only destabilized two or three countries.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we're proud of it. Yeah we don't, Yeah,
Speaker 2: we don't. Uh, we don't hide it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we took our shot at Canada, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Well we've taken a good couple of swings
Speaker 2: in a tamadoor. I think we land some punches, but
Speaker 2: who knows, time will tell. So yeah, it's people from
Speaker 2: like I think often the migration is constructed as quite
Speaker 2: unquote Mexican, which is definitely not the case. I spoke
Speaker 2: to one family from Mexico yesterday. But like, even if
Speaker 2: you look at border patrol statistics, about four thousand out
Speaker 2: of fifteen thousand people apprehended in the San Diego sector
Speaker 2: in July of this year of Mexican nationality.
Speaker 3: That's lawer than I would assume to be honest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's just a number of things, right, Like,
Speaker 2: it's these countries, Like climate change is definitely getting worse,
Speaker 2: so migration is happening from there. I see a lot
Speaker 2: of people from Vietnam. I don't have the language skills
Speaker 2: to speak to them in depth, like I was speaking
Speaker 2: to someone when We'll get onto this through Google Translate
Speaker 2: from Vietnam. But hard to conduct a full interview, especially
Speaker 2: when folks are guarding their phone charge, which they are
Speaker 2: because exactly the same as last time, they need the
Speaker 2: phone to do CBP one. They need the phone to
Speaker 2: interact with their families, let them know they're safe. Some
Speaker 2: of their families, I guess don't know that they're traveling.
Speaker 2: I was helping people charge phones yesterday. So we can talk.
Speaker 2: Let's talk a little bit about mutual aid response, and
Speaker 2: then we'll get onto the border patrol, you know. So
Speaker 2: there are two groups down there right now, and I
Speaker 2: think it's very impressive the services they're able to provide
Speaker 2: because because Border Patrol claim these people are not detained,
Speaker 2: that means that they are therefore not obliged to provide
Speaker 2: any services to them. Right So that would mean they
Speaker 2: don't have to give them water, they don't have to
Speaker 2: give them food, they don't have to give them shelter
Speaker 2: or like salitation, which salitation is the one that's really
Speaker 2: hard to cover because everything has to go through a
Speaker 2: fist sized gap in the fence. So that's still like
Speaker 2: an unmet need. But these two groups free Ship Collective,
Speaker 2: they're free Ship pebe on Twitter, and also American Friends
Speaker 2: Service Committee. I've spoken about them before. They're a Quaker
Speaker 2: group that they're really great like in terms of turning
Speaker 2: up and helping people who need help. They're constantly there
Speaker 2: and they they're a good place to send your money
Speaker 2: even if you're not a Quaker yourself, like check out
Speaker 2: the Twitter. Like Actually, they're probably aligned with a lot
Speaker 2: of people who listened to show on a lot of things.
Speaker 2: I think their prison abolitionists. So those two groups were
Speaker 2: there and they would At first there was myself, one
Speaker 2: person from American French Service Committee and two older volunteers
Speaker 2: who would come in about one hundred and fifty to
Speaker 2: two hundred people. So most of the ideas kind of
Speaker 2: helped because I think in that situation is more important
Speaker 2: to help than necessarily like get the best audio for
Speaker 2: your podcast. So we handed out water, handed out food,
Speaker 2: handed out those emergency survival blankets, and it was about
Speaker 2: all we had at first, some like medical stuff people
Speaker 2: had medical and a bit later free ship people came
Speaker 2: and Xavier came. I'm not sure what Zavier's org is,
Speaker 2: but I will tweet it when I find it. I'll
Speaker 2: put it in the show notes to He's great. I've
Speaker 2: spoken at his events before that he holds down by
Speaker 2: the Border. We had a border media round table. He
Speaker 2: turned up with a massive generator, so that was great.
Speaker 2: We're able to charge phones. And what's really I think
Speaker 2: like notable is how much the people in between the
Speaker 2: fences are able to participate in distribution of goods and
Speaker 2: helping each other. So like they have a person who
Speaker 2: volunteers to be the coordinator for the water distribution, and
Speaker 2: one who volunteers to coordinate for the organizing people into
Speaker 2: lines and making sure people don't cut the line right,
Speaker 2: and then one person who was the phone captain who
Speaker 2: was doing like an incredible job of they'd get the
Speaker 2: cell phone right right the name of the person and
Speaker 2: then sign them a number in the line, and that
Speaker 2: person would also have that name and number written on
Speaker 2: their hand, and it's written in duct tape that's taped
Speaker 2: to them and tape to the phone. And then when
Speaker 2: their turn to charge comes, he would shout the name
Speaker 2: of the number. They would come from wherever they were
Speaker 2: in between the walls. They'd come and we would charge
Speaker 2: the phone, and then once they've got above fifty sixty percent,
Speaker 2: we'd switch it out and he'd call them again and
Speaker 2: they come get their phone. So lots of that is
Speaker 2: stuff that was learned in May and has been like
Speaker 2: implemented again much more like. It's less chaotic than it
Speaker 2: was before, and fewer people are able to provide better help,
Speaker 2: which is really good that it doesn't mean that those
Speaker 2: people don't need like donations, because they do. I know,
Speaker 2: the free ship people came with dozens of blankets, but
Speaker 2: there weren't enough blankets for everybody, so we were prioritizing
Speaker 2: families with children and pregnant women to have a blanket.
Speaker 2: It was cold yesterday, it was raining, and people didn't
Speaker 2: have anything to shelter under. There were a few tarts,
Speaker 2: but not very many, and it's a pretty like there
Speaker 2: were very young babies there. Right, it's a pretty difficult
Speaker 2: place to sleep with Like, people were very keen to
Speaker 2: get their hands on cardboard boxes to lie down on
Speaker 2: to sleep. That gives you a sense of how kind
Speaker 2: of underserved they are. There's obviously no toilet facilities because
Speaker 2: you're just in a dusty kind of desert area by
Speaker 2: the border. So if people are familiar with Lass Americas,
Speaker 2: the Discount Moll, we're like maybe a mile west of
Speaker 2: there along the dirt road, and it's just kind of
Speaker 2: dusty field, so very rocky, very difficult people to sleep,
Speaker 2: very exposed to the elements. Right, it was hot today,
Speaker 2: like I was out earlier, and it's ninety one, so
Speaker 2: they won't be having any shade today. They didn't have
Speaker 2: any shelter from the rain or al ways to keep
Speaker 2: warm last night. They're not allowed to start fires either,
Speaker 2: even if they have the means to do so. So
Speaker 2: the situation of these people, I think is something worth
Speaker 2: discussing because it's not exactly super duper clear what role
Speaker 2: this plays in the immigration process. And there were a
Speaker 2: couple of examples to illustrate that. So I was able
Speaker 2: to talk to one person. They presented themselves from like
Speaker 2: they came into the parking lot walking and they looked
Speaker 2: looked very concerned, and so I approached him as, hey,
Speaker 2: do you need anything, can we help few? And they
Speaker 2: had experienced some kind of medical condition and been taken
Speaker 2: to hospital, which Customs and Border Protection will do that, right, Like,
Speaker 2: if those people are there and they're having an emergency,
Speaker 2: they'll open the gate, take that person out and transport
Speaker 2: them to hospital somewhere in San Diego. That person had
Speaker 2: then been released from hospital to a taxi, which hospitals
Speaker 2: in San Diego have a habit of doing this. They'll
Speaker 2: dump homeless people. Right If you anyone in San Diego
Speaker 2: will have seen this, you'll be familiar with that. People
Speaker 2: dumped out of hospital in Hillcrest wearing a hospital gown
Speaker 2: and maybe having very little other possessions. It's every single
Speaker 2: day this happens. Unfortunately, people have passed away on being
Speaker 2: released by the hospital before in Hillcrest. So they release
Speaker 2: these folks and I guess they often give them a
Speaker 2: bus pass or they pay for a taxi. In this case,
Speaker 2: they paid for this person's taxi. They asked for a
Speaker 2: taxi to the border. The command of English was pretty limited.
Speaker 2: They asked for attacks to the border. They were taken
Speaker 2: to like the formal border crossing the Sanisudur, which is
Speaker 2: a mile and a half east of where we were.
Speaker 2: And then they walked down the dirt road to where
Speaker 2: we were. But obviously because there was a fence in
Speaker 2: between US and the people being detained, then they weren't
Speaker 2: able to access that area, right, So that leaves them
Speaker 2: in a conundrum, right that they're now in the United
Speaker 2: States without without any status they were able to want
Speaker 2: Bodiptroll agent advise them to return to Mexico. Obviously, that
Speaker 2: would constitute an entry to Mexico in between portsland entry,
Speaker 2: where you'd be illegally entering Mexico. It's not bot of
Speaker 2: Patrol's job to enforce Mexican laws. But that person was
Speaker 2: in the United States and presented a claim for asylum.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: They had a cell phone and they were using Google Translate,
Speaker 2: and they literally I could see it. It was like,
Speaker 2: I'm afraid to go back to my country, afraid I
Speaker 2: will be her if I go back there, which is
Speaker 2: like a pretty textbook asylum claim. I would like to
Speaker 2: claim asylum right. And on making that claim, a Border
Speaker 2: Patrol agent returned them to the area in between the fences, right,
Speaker 2: which would suggest that this is a holding facility to
Speaker 2: border patrol for people. I just want to read the
Speaker 2: statement that Border Patrol made to me this morning this
Speaker 2: was like a couple of hours one recording this, recording
Speaker 2: this on Tuesday. CBP has built and retrofited facilities along
Speaker 2: the Southwest border to enhance our capabilities in this regard.
Speaker 2: CBP has also significantly increased the number of medical personnel
Speaker 2: along the Southwest border and those providing other wrap around services,
Speaker 2: all to better support ensuring getting people appropriate care as
Speaker 2: quickly as possible. Border Patrol has prioritized the quick transportation
Speaker 2: of migrants encountered in this environment, which is partially dangerous,
Speaker 2: particularly dangerous uring current weather conditions, to border patrol facilities
Speaker 2: where individuals can see medical care, food, and water. It
Speaker 2: is important to note that migrants who are between the
Speaker 2: border barriers are not in border patrol custody and are
Speaker 2: at liberty to return to Mexico if they desire. We
Speaker 2: have some audio of border patrol addressing the migrazine between
Speaker 2: defenses that Daniald's going to drop in right after this person.
Speaker 1: You have a Monday, Just ghost it outast it out.
Speaker 2: Listen.
Speaker 1: We take as soon as we can. Listen, there's too
Speaker 1: many of you.
Speaker 3: You can't do this fast.
Speaker 1: Why as you here and talk.
Speaker 2: To you the last time we have to take people.
Speaker 1: We're not designed to take hundreds of people. We're working
Speaker 1: as fast as we can be patient.
Speaker 2: I can tell you this. They're shouting at them, they're
Speaker 2: shouting at them in English. They're not really giving any case.
Speaker 2: So what the people obviously have questions, right they've entered,
Speaker 2: Lots of them have been given bracelets when he's talking
Speaker 2: about the bracelets, and people will have heard that in
Speaker 2: the intro to that they were taking people with white bracelets.
Speaker 2: Those have a day, right the day that you entered,
Speaker 2: so like it might say Monday or Sunday or today.
Speaker 2: Obviously it's Tuesday, so they would get a bracelet which
Speaker 2: has a color and a day, and they process people
Speaker 2: in order of priority. The people who arrived on Monday
Speaker 2: first seale process on accompanied minors. I didn't see any obviously,
Speaker 2: some eighteen year old people. It could be hard to
Speaker 2: tell how exactly hold they are, but seventeen whatever, But
Speaker 2: I didn't see any people that young on their own.
Speaker 2: After that, they will process single mothers with children sor
Speaker 2: a few of those, quite a few of those. After that,
Speaker 2: they will process like a family, which they defined to
Speaker 2: consist of a man or woman and children. After that
Speaker 2: they will process men on their own. I guess women
Speaker 2: on their own, then men on their own. They had
Speaker 2: initially separate people. They had people just like they had
Speaker 2: last time, right in like families and those with children,
Speaker 2: and then single men were somewhere else. But it seemed
Speaker 2: like people were able to come to travel in between
Speaker 2: the fences down to the place where I was, because
Speaker 2: that was the only place that they were able to
Speaker 2: access services, right And I guess the claim of border
Speaker 2: patrollers that these people could go back to Mexico. I'm
Speaker 2: not sure how because obviously that they're in between these
Speaker 2: thirty foot walls right right, you could.
Speaker 1: Go around the end.
Speaker 2: That's how people come north. But that's quite a hike,
Speaker 2: especially if you haven't got any water and food and stuff.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's this is what they've claimed. It's worth
Speaker 2: noting that like Border Patrol, a number of representative from
Speaker 2: the Hispanic Caucus like requested Border Patrol clarify this after
Speaker 2: what happened in May, and their letter they noted that
Speaker 2: the conditions violate agency guidelines for detention, which they do,
Speaker 2: and that Boderpatol isn't supposed to hold people in his
Speaker 2: own custody for more than seventy two hours, which some
Speaker 2: people were held for longer than that in May, and
Speaker 2: CBP responded, I'll just read it out. The individuals in
Speaker 2: question had not made contact with US Border Patrol personnel
Speaker 2: and were not constrained from further movement. At the time
Speaker 2: of this incident, the US Border Patrol San Diego sector
Speaker 2: facilities were experiencing capacity issues and some transportation challenges which
Speaker 2: have since been remediated. Border Patrol agents encountered and apprehended
Speaker 2: these migrants as soon as there's operationally feasible to do so. Again,
Speaker 2: like they were dropped off in May by Border Patrol
Speaker 2: vehicles in the place where they were being detained, And
Speaker 2: it's simply not factually correct to suggest that they had
Speaker 2: not come into contact with Border Patrol. I have video
Speaker 2: of it. I've published video over on Twitter, We've used
Speaker 2: audio of it on the podcast. I think it's just
Speaker 2: not true. So Border Patrol essentially are claiming that this
Speaker 2: isn't happening when it continues to happen, right, and this
Speaker 2: time they've taken that to it's like they've al readly
Speaker 2: doubled down on that status. I guess because they're not
Speaker 2: providing any services, which is probably a good time for
Speaker 2: us to hear from some products and services. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: fucking magic, Look at that taking a victory lap. I'm
Speaker 2: quitting now never podcast again. I enjoy these adverts. Yeah
Speaker 2: it's me, I'm back. Everyone else is still here too.
Speaker 2: Now we're talking about the mutual eight response to what's
Speaker 2: happening at their border, right And as I said, a
Speaker 2: border patrol aren't providing anything. And as I said, at
Speaker 2: least when I left, I left after it got dark,
Speaker 2: quite a long time after it got dark last night.
Speaker 2: It was there for probably seven six or seven hours,
Speaker 2: and I saw more and more people arriving in that time,
Speaker 2: and it was a really wide dispersed group of people.
Speaker 2: Like I would say, maybe the majority were Spanish speaking,
Speaker 2: but a lot of people with Vietnamese. I was speaking
Speaker 2: to some Francophone African people at various nationalities right before
Speaker 2: I left, Like I said, lots of people from Tadjikustan, Azbekistan,
Speaker 2: as Abijan, places like that. Those people were pretty prominent.
Speaker 2: So it's fairly hard for volunteers to communicate with all
Speaker 2: of them, and they don't have any information right about
Speaker 2: what's happening to them. Can they expect to be separated.
Speaker 2: In some cases they can. Can they expect how long
Speaker 2: can they expect to be there? We don't really know.
Speaker 2: I heard one bord of patrol agents saying that some
Speaker 2: of the people who arrived on Monday could expect to
Speaker 2: be taken out maybe by Wednesday, So that's at least
Speaker 2: two hours two days, right, So all of the services
Speaker 2: they're being provided, they're being provided through mutual aid right now,
Speaker 2: which is exactly the same thing that happened last time.
Speaker 2: Right Sometimes, Border Patrol last time gave them a granola bar.
Speaker 2: We haven't come back with their granola bars this time.
Speaker 2: And I think it's really worth us like taking a
Speaker 2: moment to consider the scale of what like two hundred
Speaker 2: people is not that many people, but it was more
Speaker 2: than two thousand people in May, and that was provided
Speaker 2: for by mutual aid. And I think it's a really
Speaker 2: good like getting off point for maybe us to have
Speaker 2: a little talk here about how we do mutual aid,
Speaker 2: because the only thing that enabled like little babies to
Speaker 2: have like a blanket is someone messaging someone else on
Speaker 2: signal and being like, hey, this is happening again. Do
Speaker 2: you have stuff? Can you come down and someone who
Speaker 2: I don't know, weeks ago, I guess was like, oh,
Speaker 2: these people are doing nice things, let me send them
Speaker 2: some money, because without that, those people would just be
Speaker 2: sleeping in the in the in the dust. I think
Speaker 2: it's really it's it's admirable, I think, and it's something
Speaker 2: that like, I don't know how to say this, that
Speaker 2: we should take into consideration when we're discussing things like
Speaker 2: religion and then like doing this course, and like it
Speaker 2: could be really easy to get like into like full
Speaker 2: readit atheist mode. I'm not a person who believes in
Speaker 2: religion particularly, but like, the only people who are helping
Speaker 2: at some point are people who are at least part
Speaker 2: of religious organizations.
Speaker 1: Look, I think that the perfectly consistent stance to have
Speaker 1: is that like, if someone is showing up and providing
Speaker 1: people with necessary assistance and not not asking for anything
Speaker 1: in return, including the ability to prostolytize, then I don't
Speaker 1: give a shit what yeh, right, Like, I don't care
Speaker 1: if they're from a church. I don't care if it's
Speaker 1: like you know, some wee like as long as they
Speaker 1: are showing up and helping people in desperate need and
Speaker 1: not demanding some sort of something from them, including like
Speaker 1: you know, them listen to a spiel. I don't really
Speaker 1: you know, it could be a church, who gives a fuck, right, like,
Speaker 1: I'm glad they're there, you know, yeah.
Speaker 2: Totally, it could be church. There were mosques there last time.
Speaker 2: I'm sure that they were like synagogues.
Speaker 1: And yeah, fucking kudos to those people, right, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: like that's good, glad they're there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, those Yeah, those people are doing anarkids and do,
Speaker 2: even if they wouldn't call it that or whatever. Like,
Speaker 2: you know, the more we can create networks that look
Speaker 2: after each other without trying to control each other, then
Speaker 2: the better of a place we make the world. And
Speaker 2: that's what those people are doing, and we should all
Speaker 2: celebrate that and support them however we can. I guess.
Speaker 2: So as of today, there are still people there, and
Speaker 2: they still seem to be putting people in there. I
Speaker 2: think it's not supposed to be too hot this week,
Speaker 2: like we had triple digit days last week. I think
Speaker 2: over the weekend was pretty hot. Yeah, it was. It
Speaker 2: was very hot on the weekend. So, like, the possibility
Speaker 2: for this to get much worse is still there, right,
Speaker 2: The possibility for people to get the person I spoke
Speaker 2: to who had to go to hospital had become deep hydrated,
Speaker 2: Like that's how they needed because you don't when people
Speaker 2: were come when we first at least when I first
Speaker 2: got there, people were very hungry and very thirsty and
Speaker 2: like really desperate for a drink of water because often
Speaker 2: they'd come from some of those other holding areas and
Speaker 2: like walked down because this was the only place where
Speaker 2: they could access stuff. So like, yeah, I guess the
Speaker 2: potential for this to turn into something as sad and
Speaker 2: completely unnecessary as what happened in May is there again.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you mentioned that there's no shade, like no
Speaker 3: shade in areas, so when it's triple digits, like there
Speaker 3: are kids and babies and everyone's outside, Yes, that is
Speaker 3: just I mean, it's terrible regardless, but like that in particular,
Speaker 3: that's like brutal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think I've shared these pities with
Speaker 2: you guys before, but like in Hakumber in May, people
Speaker 2: were making little kind of a frames and lean to's
Speaker 2: and out of ostillos and cacti and stuff, just trying
Speaker 2: to get out because it was very hot then out there.
Speaker 3: Even the photos you sat recently, there's like a there's
Speaker 3: a photo you sat with the child's hand, like coming
Speaker 3: out of the the fence that.
Speaker 2: It made me emotional. Yeah, it makes me emotional, honestly.
Speaker 2: Like I think I've said this before, like in interviews,
Speaker 2: and I would an interview with Rory Pecktreust about this,
Speaker 2: but like I would rather go somewhere dangerous and have
Speaker 2: dangerous things happen then see a little kid have to
Speaker 2: be cold, not be able to help them, or like
Speaker 2: just be sad, like it's not a funny place for children,
Speaker 2: And that fucks me up in a way that like
Speaker 2: that's yeah, I would.
Speaker 1: I would so much rather be like physically uncomfortable or
Speaker 1: in danger than like be in a perfectly safe place
Speaker 1: where you're watching kids suffer.
Speaker 2: Like that's the rough thing.
Speaker 1: I've been to a lot of refugee camps, and it's
Speaker 1: always like, you know, it's weird because I've also seen
Speaker 1: a lot of kids like in active combat zones And
Speaker 1: don't take the wrong thing out of this, but like
Speaker 1: the kids who have been stuck in a camp with
Speaker 1: like no chance of ever getting out seem like more
Speaker 1: depressed in a lot of ways than the kids who
Speaker 1: every day, you know, they're they're in you know, part
Speaker 1: of the city, even though like the city is a
Speaker 1: dangerous place to be. They're they're moving around, they're usually
Speaker 1: doing stuff. Obviously, it's a much more worse situation in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. But like the degree to which
Speaker 1: being in this limbo messes with their heads and depresses
Speaker 1: them and traumatizes them is And again I'm not saying
Speaker 1: like it's better for kids to be in an act
Speaker 1: of war zone, but like that is trauma as well,
Speaker 1: and I think in a lot of ways an equivalent trauma.
Speaker 1: Even though the danger to their body is less, the
Speaker 1: trauma they face being stuck in a place and not
Speaker 1: having any idea what the future is and not having
Speaker 1: any ability to influence it. Really right being you know,
Speaker 1: these kids up at this fence are totally they have
Speaker 1: no control over their future or their lives.
Speaker 2: Really, I think that's the really like it strips people
Speaker 2: of their agency, which is a really degrading thing to do. Right,
Speaker 2: you're forcing these people they can do everything right that
Speaker 2: that person presented a perfect affirmative asylum claim, you know,
Speaker 2: and yeah, it doesn't matter. And I think that's very hard,
Speaker 2: especially I imagine it's very difficult. I'm not a parent,
Speaker 2: but I imagine that, Like if you are a parent, God, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, you just want your kids to have a
Speaker 2: safe place to grow up. And like, I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's the first time I ever realized that I was
Speaker 2: having a trauma response, and it was not a good one.
Speaker 2: Was in twenty eighteen with the migrant caravan, when like
Speaker 2: I had been there was one little child where I
Speaker 2: speak about a lot, but she was obsessed with my hair.
Speaker 2: If people haven't seen, paces of me have long hair,
Speaker 2: and like wanted to braid my hair every time I
Speaker 2: went there. And so she'd come and she'd sit on
Speaker 2: my shoulders and I would just do shit, and she
Speaker 2: would braid my hair while I was, you know, handing
Speaker 2: out water bottles or you know, talking to people, doing
Speaker 2: what I could do. And like, I saw that girl
Speaker 2: every day for months, right, And then I remember once
Speaker 2: coming back to a Christmas party and just wanting to
Speaker 2: fucking scream at everyone. It's a juxtaposition from being seeing
Speaker 2: this little kid like deprived of so many things that
Speaker 2: chord should have, warmth and shelter and good food and
Speaker 2: a safe place to be, and then going home, you know,
Speaker 2: twenty minute drive across the border, drive home and see
Speaker 2: people just like going about their lives. It's it's a
Speaker 2: really challenging duality. We can't stop it, right, Like it's
Speaker 2: not in our power to stop this, but like it
Speaker 2: is in our power. One of the things I hear
Speaker 2: people being like, it's like welcome to America. Like it's
Speaker 2: pretty fucked up way to be welcome to America, right,
Speaker 2: But like, like, I'm an immigrant. My my arrival here
Speaker 2: was very different, and like Sharene, you came here when
Speaker 2: you were younger, right, I was.
Speaker 3: I didn't immigrate myself. I was born here a month old,
Speaker 3: moved back from my parents, immigrated.
Speaker 1: Yeah so you can be president, that's important.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, I can be president.
Speaker 1: You can be president, but not James, which is which
Speaker 1: is good? Which is good? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, in general that is my goal for you, James. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I can see. I'd really crush it in that round.
Speaker 2: I do love a good law. Yeah yeah, yeah, Cherine
Speaker 2: can take out Ted Cruz. Who is you can?
Speaker 1: You can be Charene's John Mitchell. Now it's a fun
Speaker 1: little water Gate chap for every fund. I will be
Speaker 1: hiding Karen's secret meetings. I'm hoping for Haldeman myself. That's
Speaker 1: the Oh, that's the guy to be.
Speaker 2: I want to go back for like further than that,
Speaker 2: you know, like when students were chads and like Roosevelt
Speaker 2: got shot five times. I can see Sharene having that
Speaker 2: kind of energy. Sure, well, yeah, we're all in on Scharene. Yeah,
Speaker 2: don't choose sereen A book was enough for Teddy Roosevelt people.
Speaker 2: It's have changed return no jokes aside, Like I came
Speaker 2: to America very differently from this and like, uh, I
Speaker 2: recently became a citizen after a long time, and like
Speaker 2: you always feel very precarious when you live here and
Speaker 2: you're not, so I just went Like one thing that
Speaker 2: I noticed was that so many of the folks down
Speaker 2: there at one point, all of us one pot I
Speaker 2: didn't know. We're also people who had come here themselves
Speaker 2: and like had different stories, and we talked about Like
Speaker 2: another thing I think is really important, actually, it's like
Speaker 2: just because people are in a shitty situation doesn't mean
Speaker 2: that they are not like people. Like sometimes it can
Speaker 2: be really easy to be like bottle of water, buy
Speaker 2: bottle of water, he goo, bottle of water. Chairs, Like
Speaker 2: let's want to fucking talk to you and like how
Speaker 2: is your day or like what's your favorite football team?
Speaker 2: Like like that can be a really valuable way of
Speaker 2: being like, look, I understand that the government is treating
Speaker 2: you like shit right now, and that's not with my consent, Like.
Speaker 3: I human connection because they aren't treated like humans. So
Speaker 3: it's like nice to remember.
Speaker 2: That's like, oh, it's like yeah, totally, someone seeing me,
Speaker 2: yes exactly, and just being like we're in community, like
Speaker 2: we are here to do whatever we can to make
Speaker 2: this a little bit less fucking barbaric. Like I always
Speaker 2: think I should buy like soft toys for the kids.
Speaker 2: I spent a lot of money on soft toys for
Speaker 2: kids over d years. But remember one time we cleared
Speaker 2: out at Costco in Tiuana and like had them morn
Speaker 2: in the bed of a pickup truck and they were
Speaker 2: like trying to fly out as we drove down the freeway.
Speaker 2: It was it was a good time. But yeah, it's
Speaker 2: I think that common humanity is super important if people
Speaker 2: have language skills and they want to help, Like there
Speaker 2: are always organizations to help migrants, so American Friends Service
Speaker 2: Committee is a really good one. I don't think they
Speaker 2: would care if you were not a person of faith.
Speaker 2: I think lots of the people helping out with them
Speaker 2: are not. They're just nice people. So there are so many.
Speaker 3: Languages apparently that need translating, Like it's not just Spanish.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people assume it would just
Speaker 3: be like I don't know Spanish, I'm not going to go.
Speaker 3: But so many other languages that would be helpful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I speak French, and I honestly spend as
Speaker 2: much time at the board of speaking French or Spanish.
Speaker 2: I have like passable communication in Haitian creole, and they
Speaker 2: can sort of if some people speak like more formal
Speaker 2: French who are Haitian, so I can speak to them.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I don't speak Taiji, Kolozbek, Russian or Vietnamese,
Speaker 2: so like those people are. Therefore it's harder for them
Speaker 2: to access solidarity right and to talk to people and
Speaker 2: to be seen, Like we can try a best with
Speaker 2: cell phone apps. The person who had been taken to
Speaker 2: a hospital was Vietnamese and was just doing a stalwart
Speaker 2: job of Like obviously they were to the north of
Speaker 2: the border, so among the volunteers basically, and we were
Speaker 2: using our phones to talk and they were helping us
Speaker 2: distribute shit, right and then helping explain to the Vietnamese people, hey,
Speaker 2: like you have to be in this line if you
Speaker 2: want this, at this line if you want that, and
Speaker 2: like so that was nice, and it's always like great
Speaker 2: to see like people empowered by that process, Like they're
Speaker 2: not just like asking for stuff, they're also helping get
Speaker 2: other people stuff, and I think that that helps both parties.
Speaker 2: So like this means of like I guess like people
Speaker 2: call mutilated solidarity not charity, which I think that illustrates
Speaker 2: really well. You know, like all these people are there
Speaker 2: to be in solidarity with people who they consider to
Speaker 2: be members of their community, not not to like gain
Speaker 2: some camic reward or whatever like people, And I think
Speaker 2: that's a really laudable thing. It's something we should all
Speaker 2: participate in if we can stand there everyone's near the border.
Speaker 2: But like, yeah, we can't change this that we're all
Speaker 2: supposed to vote for Joe Biden because he wouldn't be
Speaker 2: a piece of shit to migrants, and he's been a
Speaker 2: complete piece of shit to migrants for the entirety of
Speaker 2: his time in office, and I sincerely believe he will
Speaker 2: be a piece of shit to migrants if he is
Speaker 2: elected again. So you can't fucking change this by voting
Speaker 2: for someone. I wish you could. I wish it was
Speaker 2: that easy, but like it sadly, it requires your active participation.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I'm just constantly impressed by people who will
Speaker 2: Like the people from Free Shiit Collective, they bought their
Speaker 2: entire family. Right I send them a message, They were like, yeah,
Speaker 2: we're on our way, what do you need blankets? Okay,
Speaker 2: we have like one hundred blankets and a generator, and
Speaker 2: within an hour there's at least some of those people.
Speaker 2: I had a warmer place to sleep right before that,
Speaker 2: I was giving out the blankets I had for camping
Speaker 2: in my truck. But I have two sleeping bags in
Speaker 2: my truck. It's not enough. Yeah, I think that's something
Speaker 2: we can all do in our own communities. But right now, again,
Speaker 2: I guess Biden's administration are back on the bullshit at
Speaker 2: the border, and it's important that people just pay attention
Speaker 2: to it.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: I guess you could write your Congress people, but they
Speaker 2: didn't do shit last time, they won't do shit this time.
Speaker 2: But people can show sort of directing any way, or
Speaker 2: lend their language skills. I think now it's a really
Speaker 2: important time to do that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's SIT's frustrating because the border in general just
Speaker 3: becomes like a political talking point, right, like Biden uses
Speaker 3: it for his benefit and then it's like I'll pick
Speaker 3: it up when I need it again. Yeah, whatever it is,
Speaker 3: it's pretty infuriating.
Speaker 2: It's fucking not. Yeah, it's incredibly infuriating for me to
Speaker 2: see like a guarantee you out was stand there yesterday
Speaker 2: when no other media folks will be there today. Folks
Speaker 2: who haven't been there since May will roll up again, right,
Speaker 2: who haven't covered the border, who don't have a working
Speaker 2: knowledge of like what's happened since Title forty two, which
Speaker 2: is apprehensions have dropped, by the way, like travel across
Speaker 2: the border has got a lot lower since Title forty two,
Speaker 2: which is what we were told that to opposite of
Speaker 2: what every off ed told us was going to happen,
Speaker 2: because people maybe should not be ranting about the border
Speaker 2: when they live in DC or New York. But yeah,
Speaker 2: Biden will come back to the border next time he
Speaker 2: gets attacked by Republicans on boarder stuff, and until then,
Speaker 2: like these people will be treated as if they're numbers
Speaker 2: or if they don't matter, and like each of them
Speaker 2: has a story and a reason for being here, and
Speaker 2: they're not just numbers. They're all people. And every time
Speaker 2: someone dies trying to come to its country to be safe,
Speaker 2: it's a tragedy, and it's a preventable tragedy, and it's
Speaker 2: one that the Democrats are justice complicit as Republicans in Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, we've spoken a lot about groups you can
Speaker 2: you can go to, right, Like we spoke about border Kindness,
Speaker 2: we spoke about Borderlands Release Relief Collective. Like there are
Speaker 2: in one ways to help or detail them all now.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's something that like we can't erase the
Speaker 2: Like I feel genuinely ashamed every time I'm down there,
Speaker 2: you know, to be American now. But it's just hard
Speaker 2: when people are like, hey, what's going to happen, you
Speaker 2: have to be like, well, we don't know, but like
Speaker 2: you might be separated from your family, you might be detained.
Speaker 2: They're probably going to take most of your clothes. They
Speaker 2: might take your belt off. You know, you can wear
Speaker 2: one jacket, one shirt, your pants, and your shoes. They
Speaker 2: might take your shoelaces and venues go into the fucking
Speaker 2: abyss of processing. Right, there might be years till you
Speaker 2: get your core date and you might not have a
Speaker 2: right to work until then. But it might cost you
Speaker 2: tang twelve grand to get a lawyer to represent you.
Speaker 2: How do you get that money? Fucked you? I know,
Speaker 2: you know, And yeah it's deep. I feel really ashamed,
Speaker 2: but yeah, all we can do is just try and
Speaker 2: help however we can. Yeah, yeah, all right, Yeah, sorry
Speaker 2: that was really depressing, was that? No, No, it's good.
Speaker 3: I really admire that instead of like kind of wallowing
Speaker 3: in the shame, You're like, I actually want to do
Speaker 3: something and it's okay that I feel shame. That's valid.
Speaker 3: It's both things can be true. I can be helpful
Speaker 3: and I can also have perspective on it.
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, it helps to help helps me. It
Speaker 2: helps other people to feel active, not like acted upon.
Speaker 2: And that's why folks on who are migrants want to
Speaker 2: also participate in migrant aid, right, like even folks whore
Speaker 2: in between the war right now, like organizing that the
Speaker 2: phone charging queue, because it helps to not just feel
Speaker 2: acted upon and remove the agency. Yeah, so yeah, do
Speaker 2: you mutual aid if you can?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Be nice, Yeah, be nice.
Speaker 1: Box the border patrol. H I think that that more
Speaker 1: or less covers it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's our message. That Sharine's
Speaker 2: presidential slogan.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's my campaign. I'll work on that, okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It could happen here as a production of cool
Speaker 2: Zone Media.
Speaker 3: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
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Speaker 3: find sources for It could Happen Here, updated monthly at
Speaker 3: coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.