Day 2: US District Court, Old Mesilla and Public Defender
Dear friends and family,
¡Hola de Las Cruces! Today (some of us) woke up bright and early at 6:30am before we all ate breakfast and headed out to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico in downtown Las Cruces. We watched nearly 3 hours of criminal court proceedings, ranging from probation violation to Entry Without Inspection prosecutions. Watching the dozens of immigrants facing legal actions was emotional but also very eye-opening. One man came to the U.S. because he wanted to work to pay for his mother's surgery bills, and his testimony had to be remotely translated from his indigenous language from central Mexico. Afterwards, we got to interview the judge about his decades on the bench in New Mexico, from trying tribal cases in state court to sentencing federal crimes as a magistrate judge now. The rest of the day was spent exploring and shopping in the historic Old Mesilla. We later met a public defender that works extensively with immigration cases, and we had the opportunity to interview him about his experiences and views on the issue.
The group is not missing their phones, instead spending our nights playing bonding games and having energetic bus rides. We're excited to see and hike White Sands National Park tomorrow, and hope all is well at home.
Most sincerely,
Declan Sitter, Julia Capasso, and Geoffrey Franc
P.S.
Give Roxie a pet for me - Declan
Make sure Liv is doing her summer homework and Lucas is getting his steps in during his Outward Bound. Also, please put my packages in my room, thanks crew. -Julia :)
Matthew, I hope the A's are doing well. -Geoffrey
Very limited pictures from the day (and evening prior) are below. Apologies for the few pictures taken today. For a large part of the day, even faculty was without a phone because of District Court security. More pictures to come tomorrow!
