After two wonderful entries written by Maddie and Caroline, I just wanted to add my own bit to the powerful day that we had yesterday. Sorry if it's long!

As we were standing and looking at the wall art in Nogales, Mexico, I became a witness to something that I didn't think that I was going to witness on this trip. I saw 4 trucks with 4 "Policia" each in them. Now I am fine with seeing police but the thing was, these Police were not the run of the mill police. THESE guys had loaded machine guns complete with bullet-prof FACE MASKS and full body armor. As these police were driving down the street, I finally realized how real the issue of immigration is and how complex it is. These police were here because of the drug cartels in Nogales. For those of you who don't know, Nogales is currently in a turf war between the different drug cartels. And the drug cartels are assassinating the Policia. Which is why they are in Nogales.

The border area is a war-zone. Now it's a low level one, but it's a war zone. For the past two nights, I have seen border patrol helicopters fly over Tucson with search lights looking/following immigrants. I have seen Border Patrol not even care what I am up to because I am white. I have been though many Border Patrol checkpoints MILES from the border. I have seen so much racism and hatred and tension between Americans and Mexicans. I have seen loaded machine guns 10 feet from my face. I feel like I am in a war-zone and I am scared. No joke. I didn't realize that there is a low-level war zone in my country's own back yard. I am so mad that I didn't realize this until yesterday when I went to Mexico. And then I started to think that if every politician/person went to the Border and SAW what I saw yesterday, this issue of immigration will better solved and solved faster. It makes me SO MAD that I can't see a clear answer to immigration and I have decided that I want to work on this issue even more and I want to help find a way to fix this.

This morning we went on water runs with Humane Borders. This was AMAZING and I couldn't image the immigrants being able to cross the desert without water. As Karl from Humane Borders said--"When I found out that people were dying in my backyard, I knew I had to do something about it". And this is what I found out yesterday as I was standing in the 100 degree heat in Mexico by a wall that is causing so many deaths.

-Clara

P.S. Hey Hey fam and love you-- I am so thankful that I was able to grow up in a household without violence and with a great sense of security. I am so happy for that.