Border Honors Immigrants

By Natalia Pavlina

Santa Clara's Mock Border Wall was first brought to campus last year, inspired by the 1,000-foot-long mock border at the University of Arizona .

"We wanted to create dialogue," said Laura Santamaria. 

The Environmental Law Society on Campus program coordinator for Santa Clara Community Action Program shed some light on the Mock Border Wall that was on campus this past week. The wall was built to bring awareness to illegal immigration in particular, and get to students talking about immigration in a way that is "more than a policy decision."

Santamaria said that SCCAP hoped to "look at the issue of immigration beyond politics and focus on the human aspect of the issue, while at the same time offering the space to talk about the different ways in which immigration affects us."

This year SCCAP took on the theme "Migration is Beautiful" and used the border as a palette for visual art.

"We wanted it to be educational and to present some of the intersectionalities in immigration, such as the UndocuQueer movement, homelessness and immigration, Jesuit higher education and undocumented students, and spiritual solidarity with the immigrant population," said Santamaria.

The future goals of the wall are to "continue to be a space for the voices of an underrepresented community." 

Contact Natalia Pavlina at npavlina@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.