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Immigration

Border Immersion Experiences

Mercy sponsored trips to the US-Mexico border provide opportunities for learning, reflection and advocacy.

Border immersion trips are educational experiences. They are designed to prepare participants to return home and take action by raising awareness about immigration and its root causes, as well as engaging in advocacy for justice based immigration reforms.

The Mercy Justice Team is hosting two border immersion experiences in 2023:

June 4–9, 2023, El Paso, Texas, United States/Juárez, CI, Mexico, hosted by the Columban Mission Center. Special focus will be on U.S. policies contributing to the root causes driving migration.

October 1–6, 2023, Rio Grande Valley, South Texas (McAllen), hosted by ARISE and its Mercy associates. Special focus will be on the community-organizing work being done by ARISE.

For more information on these trips, view the informational flyer by clicking here, and click here when you’re ready to apply. Mercy staff members click here instead to apply. Contact the Mercy Justice Team with any questions at justice@sistersofmercy.org.

Watch the video to learn more about Mercy border immersion trips.

Three recent border immersion participants share their experiences:

Three recent border immersion participants share their experiences:

  • story

    Border Crossings

    December 7, 2022

    I am living proof that the journey and challenges immigrant parents face can well be worth it for them and their future families. It brings me great sadness to see what immigrants face when I remember and reflect that my parents were once also facing the same challenges: not knowing the language, not knowing the process of how to apply for a visa properly, not knowing how to enter the country properly, not knowing their rights or having anyone to help.

  • story

    Bringing the Border Experience Home

    July 5, 2022

    By Elnora Bassey, Policy Advocate, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) — In early May 2022, I arose from my cozy bed hours before sunrise to catch an early flight to the U.S.-Mexico border. An advocate attorney with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), which works to protect immigrant and humanitarian rights, I was participating in a week-long border immersion experience to El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to learn more about immigration issues facing migrants during and after their journey to the U.S.-Mexico border. The program was sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy and hosted by the Columban Mission Center.

  • story

    Walking with Saints at the Border

    June 25, 2022

    By Joanne Castner, Mercy Associate — On May 8, 2022, 13 of us from across the United States gathered in the living room of the Columban Mission House in El Paso, Texas, the beginning of an immersion trip to meet with people who find ways to organize their communities and improve living conditions for those in need, and to discover why so many people from other countries are seeking to cross our nation's borders.

Sister Betty Campbell, 87, in her backyard shrine at Casa Tabor, her Juárez home where she has lived for over 25 years. On the shrine’s walls, she and visitors write the names of people who have died violently along the border, as well as names of thousands of Mexican women who have disappeared.
View a border immersion photo essay from staff person Cathy Walsh

Hear and read what participants and staff have to say about their border immersion experiences in these videos: