A Line in the Sand

The play "A Line in the Sand" was really interesting and informative for me. I got to see immigration from a different perspective than I am used to and learned a lot. One thing I didn't know was what kind of hardships the people trying to cross the border face, or how many of them die a year. You just don't hear that kind of thing on the news or anywhere in the American media really. Another thing I had no idea existed are the "Coyotes", or the guides that lead immigrants "safely" across the border into America. Again, you don't hear about them, ever. They really seem like evil people, charging large amounts of money for their services and then extorting all of the money they can out of the people who want to cross without a second thought. They are even know to murder people, threaten those who they are supposed to be leading, or they may sexually assault women whom they are supposed to be helping. Sometimes the "Coyotes" lead people out into the desert and then leave them to die after they have taken all of their money. All of that is really disheartening to me and I wish that both the United States and Mexican government would work to put a stop to that sort of thing.

All of the stories in the play were really touching and educational, some of them though, were just plain sad. The first one that comes to mind is the story of the mother and her two kids who go as far as they can and all eventually die or exhaustion, dehydration and starvation. That really brought the immigration debate into perspective to me. The fact that people are dying out there is a real problem and what we need to realize is that this isn't about money or losing jobs. When it comes down to it, it is about people and we should work as hard as we can to keep those people from suffering. Not to say that economics isn't a big factor, I just believe that we should be focusing on what is more important, and that to me is human lives.