MLAW298V Study Abroad Winter 2020
McAllen, Texas
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| The Border Wall separating the U.S. and Mexico |
Why I Went:
During the Fall 2019 semester, I was taking a course on Immigration Law for my minor in Law & Society. At the time, I had aspirations to go to law school and practice immigration or civil rights law. I was excited when one of my favorite professors announced in class that he would be leading a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border to study Immigration Law first hand. I immediately signed up and was so excited to be accepted into the program.
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| Our class outside of our housing for the week |
This was about a week long trip to McAllen, Texas from Jan. 5th - Jan. 13th, 2020. This class had about 10 students in it, all who have a special interest in immigration. We had to write small reflections, create a website to show our day to day activities, did some service activities, got to speak with people involved in the legal aspects of immigration, others who were part of the rehabilitative aspect of immigration, and to see the border wall for ourselves and speak with those who are advocating against the wall being built.
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| One of my favorite foods: Ceviche! |
We all met up at Reagan Airport very early in the morning and proceeded on two flights to get to Texas. We did a lot of driving once we got to Texas to experience the immigration checkpoints and to get some real Tex Mex food (Tex Mex is my favorite, so I was really excited). We ended up staying in a student hostel type of situation that was pretty minimalist but had all the accommodations that we really needed. I thought it was kind of fun to sleep in barracks with my peers and spend time with them in this way; it was kind of how I remembered Girl Scout camp. There was a Walmart not to far away that we would walk to get any essentials that we ran out of which allowed for a lot of bonding time. On the last day, we got to relax and destress at South Padre Island in the Gulf of Mexico. It was really cool for me because that was my first real time in Texas.
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| Me in South Padre Island, Texas on our last day |
I was exposed to so many things that we learned about in class, but are really hard to fully grasp if you don't get to experience it in real life. We got a chance to talk to military who were patrolling the border to hear their perceptive on things. We got to sit in on a court hearing to watch Operation Streamline with our own eyes. We got to go to centers where some immigrants were staying temporarily and interact with them. We got to meet people who have been fighting the wall legally for months.
There was so much that happened that it's hard to do a recap of it all. However, we make a blog of everything that we did, so I will link that here for more information. The class instagram is @umdmlaw298v
Overall, it was a great trip and I learned so much about inequalities that immigrants face when they try to come to the U.S. and after they've finally made it. It made me into an even stronger advocate and ally. Even though I'm not necessarily interested in pursuing law school anymore, I will still fight for rights for Immigrants in anyway that I can.