Strung Out 40 THE JOURNEY ACROSS THE RIO GRANDE

Published: March 28, 2021, 6 a.m.

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Not many of us have had the opportunity to view the Rio Grande in Texas.\\xa0 Few of us have even been to the southern border of the US and Mexico.\\xa0 Having had the opportunity to perform at border towns in Arizona, I have had a chance in the past to look not only at the inhospitable desert that makes up a vast amount of our border, but also the complex security apparatus that is maintained to dissuade, arrest and deport illegal migration.\\xa0 I have seen firsthand areas where illegal migrants have paused in their journey north, the ground littered with various items no longer needed on the trek.\\xa0 It is heartbreaking as well as mind numbing. \\xa0

And it doesn't end.\\xa0 February of 2021 saw almost 100,000 people at the border.\\xa0 Trump's attempt at a physical barrier was never going to stop people determined to cross the river. Covid-19 has not stemmed the tide of people escaping dangerous situations back in their home country.

The surges in border crossings is nothing new, but still, it seems that the United States is hamstrung in its commitment toward solving the ongoing issue of people seeking a better life in America.\\xa0 In addition, there are factors that play in the migrant surges, such as hurricanes, gang warfare, narcotic trafficking and human trafficking as well. \\xa0

When illegal immigrants do make it to the United States, they are in a legal no-mans-land of identity, status and any opportunity to turn them into tax-paying, economic opportunities.\\xa0 Add in politics and the true battle emerges in which many of those crossing are pawns in a larger American political battle for primacy. \\xa0

Images like the drowned father and 28 month daughter from El Salvador haunt us all. \\xa0
For this podcast, I interview Nadia Minor who has worked as a paralegal for Immigration Lawfirms for the past 11 years.\\xa0 Herself once an undocumented child, who made the crossing across the Rio Grande at age 10, she has an amazing sense of a person who has her feet in both worlds.\\xa0 Now, about to enter law school, she sees that her American Dream she has achieved is easily denied to others.\\xa0 Her insights into the working (or non-working) of the US immigration system offers not only\\xa0 the complexity of the issue: the emotional, fiscal and political ramifications of not being able to create a system that can handle mass migration.

\\xa0Yet, it is refreshing

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