United Church members visit border

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By Robby McKittrick
Hometown Weekly Reporter

On Saturday, October 20, Lois and Philip Czachorowski gave a presentation at United Church in Walpole about their trip to the border with Mexico.

The church was packed for the lecture, with around 75 people in attendance. Before the talk, the couple explained why the immigration topic is an important issue to them.

“Migrants are human beings, just like all of us,” said Lois Czachorowski. “These people are our neighbors, and they are our brothers and sisters, and we have a responsibility to come to their need.”

“It’s so horrendous what’s going on with immigrants,” added Philip Czachorowski.

The couple visited Arizona with 100 other United Church members from all over the United States. There were 13 members from Massachusetts who went on the trip, and it was an impactful experience for the couple.

“It was a life-changing experience when we went down to the border,” said Philip Czachorowski at the beginning of the presentation. “It’s every day that [the immigrants] face a tremendous amount of hurdles and injustice.”

During the talk, the couple shared a PowerPoint presentation with a video and pictures of their time in Arizona. They described the many different experiences and things that impacted them on their trip, such as the stories they heard about many different immigrants, their time at the courthouse and a memorial site, their experience at the Border Patrol Center and different shelters, and what it was like walking through the Sonoran Desert.

Lois Czachorowski began the presentation by telling a story about an immigrant from Honduras who had to leave her country to go the United States. However, during her journey, she was kidnapped and raped along the way. She was then sent back to Honduras and placed in detention for a month before ultimately seeking asylum after a two-year process.

“This is a real humanitarian crisis,” said Philip Czachorowski.

Philip Czachorowski explained that the only option for these immigrants is to leave their country.

“Young people have no hope,” he said. “They are forced to flee because it’s so dangerous [where they live].”

The couple then described their experience at the courthouse and said that they saw 75 people sentenced in two hours.

“This eliminates a lot of the possibilities for their legal admission into the United States,” said Philip Czachorowski.

“What really struck me is that … not one person [from the courthouse] knew where they were going to sleep that night,” he added.

After describing their other experiences in depth, they then ended the talk by sharing their thoughts on walking through the Sonoran Desert.

“It was possibly the most profound [experience],” said Lois Czachorowski. “We were very conscious that our experiences did not compare to the risks the migrants undertake in their search for safety. One participant reflected on the migrants desert journey as ‘a flight from death, risking death in the hope of finding life.’”