Day Laborers

Today we got up really early (on our staff day I might add) to go and make lunches for the day laborers that stand outside Home Depot everyday looking for work. We were each assigned a food item to bring so that we could put together the lunches. Although a few people forgot, so I had to make a couple of extra trips to Food for Less before we could complete the 50 lunches. At around 10am we set off with sack lunches, hot chocolate, and bottled water to hand out. At each place we went, we spent a little time talking to the day laborers about what their life was like. At one home depot, a man confided in us that he lived in a tent he had built in the nearby canyon and then he showed us where he lived. We took a short walk until we came upon a hidden neighborhood of the homeless. There was a wooden table with a fire pit, pots, pans, and remnants of food. There were piece of foam taped and tied to rocks as makeshift pillows and plastic trash bags opened up amongst the trees to make walls. As much as we see homeless people everyday, it's strange to think that people who are technically "working" are still forced to sleep on the ground with rocks to rest their heads on. The man was so kind and allowed us to take pictures and explained to us how many people lived with him and told us of how he had left his family behind in Mexico. As hard as it was to comprehend, he said that he was the sole provider for his family and that living in the canyons and working as a day laborer here in the United States made a better life for both him and his family than it had been when he was in Mexico.

**6 Hours

5/3/2011

Today we met at the Haven to make more crosses for the next trip to Holtville Cemetery. I was a little confused at first as to why we were continuing to make them when we had already placed one in every available spot before. Apparently the groundskeepers of the cemetery remove the crosses every time Border Angels puts them down. I was a little taken aback by this because I don't understand why we leave them then. I understand that it's a nice memento to pay respects to those who have died, however I feel like it may be a tad disrepectful to the cemetery owners if we are doing something that they do not allow. However, i didn't fully clarify the situation so I'm really not in a place to make any sort of assessment. After we made over 100 crosses, we watched a movie called "The Visitor." The movie was about a man who unknowingly befriended an illegal couple sharing his apartment. The man and his wife are kind to Walter (the main character) and just as Tariq (The husband) is becoming close to Walter and opening his eyes to a world Walter never knew existed, Tariq is arrested and put in a detention center. While Walter throws away the life he knew before to help Tariq, he becomes aware of the injustive that illegal immigrants are faced with. When detained, it is like being in a prison, even though they have committed no crime. The movie ended with Tariq being deported back to Syria and his mother - who had formed a close relationship with Walter - going back to be with her son as well. I enjoyed this movie and think that it held a lot of valuable lessons. I'm also really glad that we watched a movie about an immigrant community outside of the latino one. Living in San Diego, I think that we forget that immigration means more than just coming from Mexico. Hopefully, this will help me and everyone else who watched yesterday, that the concept of illegal immigration is much bigger than the tiny amount we see everyday.

**7 Hours