When we arrived to Tucson one of the activities was to witness Operation Streamline. Operation streamline is a “zero-tolerance” approach to unauthorized border crossing and deters in a criminal proceeding for those who engage. From my personal observations of my experience in the federal court of Tucson, I would ask “how is this even ethical?” In the courtroom there were many attorneys waiting for their client’s turn to be next. This is because in Operation Streamline there is about 17 who get their sentencing at the same time.

            There were about two groups of proceedings that we got to witness and they were extremely fast. It consisted of the judge letting the migrants know what they did wrong by crossing the border illegally and asking them if they agreed to be charged as guilty. Once they admitted to their charge they were sentenced. What confused me pertained to how the judge decided the number of days that a migrants were sentenced to before they are deported. My confusion still hasn’t been clarified.

Later, when the group leaders of Borderslinks explained Operation Streamline to us they said that usually the defendants meet with their assigned attorney’s only hours before their sentencing.  Not only that, but this meeting occurs where they will be sentenced. These are people who usually don’t have any knowledge of what is going on and don’t have a say in anything, except to agree with the only option they are given. Yes, there are people who migrate for the wrong reasons but most others are people who migrate for hope.  This brings me to the book Lives on the Line, by Davidson that speculates that the push for border enforcement has created confrontations some might say even abuses, that continue to affect those who choose to migrate. (Davidson, 107).

The next topic that impressed me is pertaining to Nogales, Sonora and its industrialized economy. The activity was to observe how the industrialization has taken over some of the areas of Nogales such as the Colonia Colosio. What I observed was a street that divided the big companies and the Colonia Colosio, which is a neighborhood where many maquiladora workers live. In the industrialized side there are big modern structure companies (maquiladoras) with security gates around them very similar to those in the US. Colonia Colosio does not have regular type of housing. Instead, houses were self-built by these very owners of the homes and they did not look very livable.

On this visit to the street that divided these two areas, we were guided by Manuel. Manuel lives in Nogales and works with Borderlinks. His input on this topic was very valuable because he explained how many of the people who live in Colonia Colosio are those same workers from the maquiladoras who don’t make more than about $18 US dollars a day. 

Lives on the Line also mentions about the overcoming of Nuevo Nogales. For example, asserts that as previously mentioned maquiladoras were being built to US standards and therefore are easily noticeable. Also, the book touched based with something that Manuel from Borderlinks mentioned regarding jobs at maquiladoras: that they were never steady. This is because the factories can always be moved to another country willing to do more work with cheaper labor. However, even in that case Davidson says, “Nogales will remain the industries heart and soul” due to their location the border with it easy access to those Americans who are part of management and ease of transportation (Davidson, 172-173). 

Last, in Nogales I got to learn about a young boy by the name of Jose Antonio Elenes Rodriguez. This was the first time I heard of his story and I felt really impacted by it. A border patrol agent shot through the fence from the American side and killed Rodriguez. The Borderlinks leaders explained what happen but specifically Manuel from his personal experience living in Nogales. He explained the side of the story that he and the people who live nearby International Street remember.

As Manuel was explaining the story I observed the bullet holes on the wall and the cross placed there as a memorial to this young 16-year-old boy. I also looked up and saw the border wall right in front of me with an immense amount of security cameras pointing in every direction.  I had a hard time trying to connect how a boy who was unarmed got shot on the Mexican side of the border. Mark Binelli in “10 Shots Across the Border” from the “New York Times” elaborates that sometimes “rocks are thrown from the Mexican side to distract agents and force them to take cover while smugglers pass contraband or make their escape.” However, it is not really certain that this is what happened in Jose Antonio’s case, but shots were still fired with no witnesses. Binelli reports that Zuniga, who was there, explains that he heard shots but didn’t know who fired them.