Developing a Biblical Worldview Toward Undocumented Juarenses Living and Working in El Paso, Texas

The purpose of this project is twofold: (1) to develop a pilot border immersion program using ten members of my own congregation, challenging them to develop a biblical worldview toward Juarenses (residents of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico) living and working in E Paso, Texas, as well as to identify ministry applications transferable to my own context; and (2) to determine whether that pilot program could form the basis for a viable, on-site, graduate-level border immersion experience. El Paso/Juarez, the world’s largest border metroplex, is home to over two million people. Before the rise of Mexican drug cartels as conduits through which illicit drugs flowed to the north, and guns and money flowed to the south, El Paso/Juarez was an interdependent border community.
The new millennium, however, marked the rise of the Juarez drug cartel and made that city the murder capital of the world, witnessing massive femicide, drug-related and street violence, a six-figure murder rate, compounded by corruption at all levels of government. In the two-year period between 2010 and 2012 alone, approximately 230,000 Juarenses fled the city, abandoning more than 32,700 homes. Most have come to El Paso, including at various times, the Juarez mayor and police chief. Some entered legally; many others did not.
The pilot border immersion began with an initial questionnaire that served as a benchmark establishing certain elements of the participants’ worldview toward the undocumented. Perhaps the most useful question asked of the participants was to mark their initial positions on a continuum between Matthew 25:34-40 (“whatever you do to the least of my brothers”) and Romans 13:1-7 (admonition to obey the law). The
participants then embarked on an intensive border immersion weekend conducted entirely on U.S. soil. Participants who had lived in El Paso thirty, forty, and possibly fifty years had never been exposed to any of the dozen or so venues and/or presenters. Particularly helpful was an immigration attorney who clarified uninformed or misinformed understandings of current and proposed immigration laws.
Following the immersion, participants completed a final questionnaire, which also asked them to mark their position on a continuum between the same passages from Matthew and Romans. Everyone who answered that question on both questionnaires changed positions significantly. The question allowed for the expression of willingness to engage in civil disobedience. Civil disobedience inherently entails elevating individual conscience above the law, and individual conscience necessarily constitutes an independent variable, uncontrollable in any study. Therefore, regardless of the size of the group engaging in this exercise, the result should not be a singular, definitive, biblical worldview but rather an acceptable range of biblical worldviews toward the undocumented, each determined as a matter of conscience. Such was the result of this study.
The results of the pilot border immersion experience strongly suggested that it could form the basis for a viable, on-site, graduate-level border immersion experience. Moreover, graduate programs seeking to offer a truly global experience should include the world’s largest border metroplex, especially as Congress considers immigration reform. Finally, considering the plethora of border issues, including healthcare, education, the environment, social justice, violence, and critical poverty, to name just a few, each immersion could be tailored to the interest of its participants.