In honor of Hispanic Heritage month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, Point Loma Nazarene University’s Center for Justice and Reconciliation (CJR) and the Office of Multicultural & International Student Services (OMISS) partnered with Ministry with Mexico (MWM) to host a faith-based talk about the social and legal issues surrounding immigration.
This talk was part of the CJR’s Cup of Culture series, a project aiming to cultivate diverse perspectives and foster dialogue about reconciliation and inclusion.
Marissa Salgado, the new coordinator and student initiatives lead at the CJR who was hired in September, hosted the lecture and panel discussion on Oct. 9 in Colt Forum.
“We wanted to incorporate the idea of engaging faith and immigration and their intersection,” Salgado said.
As of 2023, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 6.8 million people made their way on foot from Tijuana through the San Ysidro port of entry annually, making up 17.4% of the total volume of pedestrians traveling across the San Diego-Tijuana border.
According to Salgado, immigration is a relevant issue for PLNU students in San Diego, as a city with so much cross-border traffic.
“As someone who lives in San Diego and as students at Point Loma, the topic was really impactful for me,” third-year psychology student Lirah Packman said. “We can use biblical discernment in creating positive change.”
The speakers and panelists at the Cup of Culture discussed how they reconcile their ideas of immigration with faith, indicating how Christians should respond.
Jeffrey Jimenez, PLNU’s director of border engagement ministries, was a speaker and Eliana Sagastume, second-year political science student and MWM student leader, was a panelist at the event.
“I believe this month’s cup of culture was not only informative for students but transformative” Sagastume said in a text message interview. “[Students] heard about the issue of immigration from diverse perspectives that challenged what it looks like to love our neighbors across the border.”
During the event, Salgado discussed how Christians should care for migrants through a biblical lens, spiritually and physically.
“We don’t get to ask, as people who are made in the image of God: ‘who do I love and who can I get out of loving?’” Salgado said at the event. “God’s love, care, mercy and justice is for all people.”
Salgado referenced the Bible story of the good samaritan, illustrating that those who follow Christ have an obligation to empathize with people who are in desperate need.
“We are called to enter into the struggle and the pain of their stories and to let our hearts be moved in compassion for them,” Salgado said.
At the event, Jimenez talked about the political discord surrounding immigration.
“Immigration is a politically radioactive topic, especially right now,” Jimenez said at the event. “We’ve all been hearing so many things about [immigration and immigrants]. Some things that are true and hard and then some things that are just racist.”
Jimenez talked about an incident that he said happened on PLNU’s campus a week prior involving unspecified people being verbally harassed under the presumption that they were migrants.
Jimenez said that he felt the incident was “heartbreaking.”
MWM partnered with the CJR to help students learn and form their own opinions about immigration in San Diego by developing the Border Pilgrimage program, a 30 year old program that runs once a semester. The Border Pilgrimage is a weekend trip, during which students cross the San Diego-Tijuana border.
“[The Border Pilgrimage] is different from a border tour. It’s different from a service project or a mission trip,” Jimenez said.
Students and faculty participating in the pilgrimage spend the night at a migrant shelter, interacting with people working at the shelter as well as sharing meals with migrant families.
Sagastume said she attended two Border Pilgrimages and the diverse perspectives represented in the program significantly broadened her perspective.
“One of my favorite parts of the Border Pilgrimage is the fact that we’re hearing from all sides of the spectrum,” Sagastume said at the event. “We’re hearing from border patrol but we’re also talking one-on-one with families that are in the depths of this immigration process and experiencing the pains, the struggles and the hardships of it.”
