Kicked off from Brownsville, Witness at the Border begins another pilgrimage from Texas to California

Minneapolis native and border journeyer says, 'It’s important to witness, to be present, to see the people as human beings.'

BROWNSVILLE — The border. They appeared here, one by one, then in groups, each greeting one another as friends brought together by the cause of humanity.

Witness at the Border planned another pilgrimage Saturday along the border through El Paso and New Mexico and Arizona, past homes and shelters and communities with variations simple and grand.

The pilgrimage, “Journey for Justice” aims to know those variations for a range of purposes — all them with a single focus of humanitarianism.

A projector illuminates Gateway International Bridge with the text “Witness at the Border” on Friday, Dec. 2, 2022 for the beginning of Witness at the Border’s Journey for Justice at Xeriscape Park in Brownsville. (Denise Cathey | The Brownsville Herald)

“We want to see the whole border because there are differences in different places,” said Joshua Rubin, founder of the organization.

“We want to make sure we understand more about the border in different places,” he said. “Also we want to make people aware of what’s going on along the border.”

He and others gathered Friday night at the Xeriscape across from Gateway International Bridge to sort of kick off the event.

“I have done it twice already,” said Rosey Vogan, 73, who’d traveled from Minneapolis to join the caravan.

“It’s important to witness, to be present, to see the people as human beings,” she said.

That seemed to be the purpose on everyone’s mind. Rubin, 70, of New York, wants people to know the full story of the border — which reaches from the Gulf of Mexico at the tip of Texas all the way to California, stretching for hundreds of miles of dirt and dust that’s now juxtaposed with jagged steel piercing the dry air and where laughter and triumph, heartache and hope have long lived — as opposed to the misperceptions presented by the media.

Volunteer Rosey Vogan is pictured Friday, Dec. 2, 2022 returning to the city for the first time since COVID-19 pandemic began for the beginning of Witness at the Border’s Journey for Justice at Xeriscape Park in Brownsville. (Denise Cathey | The Brownsville Herald)

“What’s really going on here is something quite different,” Rubin said. “There are so many differences. The obvious one is that along the border you have families that are just trying to get along and looking for good lives for themselves. We want people to see their faces and know their fears.”

Vogan said when she drove the border in 2019 she stopped at many locations to help with refugees. She could see the sincere gratitude of the people there, and realized what they really needed most was someone who was simply there, to recognize them as fellow humans in a chaotic world.

“I held a baby while the mother took the first shower she’d had in weeks,” she said.

Such events as this pilgrimage is important to keep alive the many causes and concerns of border immigration, said Sergio Cordova, co-founder and board member of the nonprofit Team Brownsville.

“I think it’s extremely important because the problem continues,” he said. “We get between 300 and 400 asylum seekers every day, and we provide support and meals.”

The trip comes after, once again, legal matters in Washington placed the border in a seemingly constant state of flux and uncertainty.

On Nov. 15, a federal ruling ordered an end to Title 42. Otherwise known as the Remain in Mexico policy, Title 42 is the pandemic era policy President Trump instituted to curb the spread of COVID-19, and which allowed for the immediate expulsion of people, including asylum seekers, to Mexico.

In response, Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez penned a letter to President Biden expressing concern about Title 42 ending, writing there is no “detailed and comprehensive strategy to manage the influx of asylum seekers.,” and invited the president to visit the border.