Detroit Mercy Biology/Pre-Dental student Qamar Elia reflects on her experience at the border on a University Ministry immersion trip to El Paso in 2024. She shares her own experiences as an immigrant and of those struggling to make a new home in the U.S. today.
“The realization that Congress has not passed any major immigration reform since the 1980s made it clear to me how deeply broken the system is. While immigrant families continue to face unimaginable risks and hardship, the policies meant to protect or support them have barely changed in decades,” she wrote.
“Hearing that made it even more clear how deeply broken our system is. To realize that while families continue to face unimaginable risks and hardship, the policies meant to protect or support them have barely changed in decades. More than anything, what mattered most was not what we could do, but how fully we could be there to honor the weight of the stories being shared, hold onto them long after we left and to keep questioning the deeper injustices that shape these realities.”