Twelve Saint Mary's College students and two staff members experienced the "El Otro Lado," immersion in Tucson, Arizona during Jan Term break
Students Experience “El Otro Lado”: The Other Side
The Mission & Ministry Center Launches a Lasallian Educational Border Immersion
During this year’s Jan Term break, 12 Saint Mary’s College students journeyed together with staff trip leaders Brother Steven Vasoli, FSC, (Mission & Ministry Center) and Karla Henriquez (Office of Financial Aid) to Tucson, Arizona to participate in a Lasallian Educational Border Immersion. The El Otro Lado Program, sponsored by the Lasallian Region of North America, hosts high school and college students to learn about immigration from a variety of perspectives.
The group was hosted by San Miguel High School in Tucson, and during the week the group experienced Federal Immigration Court hearings, conversations with federal judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys, a visit to the Mexican Consulate and the Nogales International Border Crossing, as well as the Nogales Border Patrol. They also visited Native American tribal lands, and participated in a “water drop,” alongside an organization called the Tucson Samaritans, in which they left water and food at one of the immigration routes near Arivaca, AZ.
Students came away from this week-long experience with a better understanding of the complexity of US immigration policies, a clearer picture of the suffering that immigrants often endure, and the role of faith in the formation of conscience when considering the issue of immigration. The Lasallian core principle of Concern for the Poor and Social Justice was at the forefront of group de-briefing sessions. Participants shared what they found most meaningful about the experience, including, “walking the canyon path where immigrants cross” and “talking with those who work in the judicial system and what their work is like.”
Xochilt Delgado, ’25, MA ’27, who went on the trip reflected, “I have heard countless stories and ways that family members and other people within my community have crossed through the desert. It’s one thing to hear it, it's a different thing to actually see it… it really opens your eyes to see how difficult it is to cross. It’s not something that is easy at all for people to do to come into the United States to look for that better life and better opportunities that they can’t find in their own home countries.”
This immigration-focused immersion trip was new this year, and we hope it can become an annual offering, as was a previous annual immersion trip to the U.S./Mexico border, which had to be put on pause in 2020. The trip was initiated by the Mission and Ministry Center, which also sponsors an immersion during October’s fall break to the Salinas-Watsonville agricultural area, called the “Human Cost of Food.”