Students passing Low Steps Monday would have found it difficult to avoid the border wall set up by College Walk. With immigration law currently a hot-button topic, Columbia activist student group Lucha is working to bring awareness of immigrant rights to campus.
The border wall event was originally scheduled to begin Lucha’s Immigration Week, an effort to promote advocacy for immigrant rights through panel discussions, documentary screenings, and a candlelight vigil. But it was rescheduled due to inclement weather.
“The issue of immigration on campus seems to be disconnected from students,” Lucha leader Malena Arnaud, BC ’11, said. The group “wanted to bring it back to campus because it is such a big topic now on a national level.”
The Low border wall featured pictures and handwritten messages about immigration, as well as facts about immigration law.
“A lot of people have asked questions,” said Lucha member Philip Verma, CC ’12. “People didn’t know the facts.”
After reading Lucha’s information sheets, “People were thankful for them,” Verma said.
Despite the scheduling delay, organizers found the wall effective in drawing passing students into conversations about immigration. Jonathan Ricketts, SEAS ’12, was one of the students who stopped by the wall.
“Illegal immigrants should be offered the same benefits as naturalized citizens because they play such an important role in America’s work force,” Ricketts said.
Conor Skelding, CC ’14, advocated for a larger-scale border wall in the United States.
“The reason these people [immigrants] are blighted and mistreated is because there is a surplus of labor that is too cheap and isn’t regulated,” he said. A wall, he added, “keeps unregulated labor out.”
He added that America should “assimilate immigrants to raise minimum wage so people can adequately raise families."
The border wall has sparked mixed, but generally positive reviews, according to Verma. Arnaud said she was approached by students who were excited by Lucha’s activities.
Lucha members said they hope that the border wall will humanize the issues some immigrants face in the United States.
“Through the wall, I believe we injected a human element into the immigration debate that is often lost as the immigration issue is debated on television and in congress,” Lucha member Melquiades Fernandez wrote in an email. “At the end of the day, this issue deals with more than just this supposed wall dividing two countries. It deals with the lives and families of people, and we cannot forget that.”
Arnaud added that the border wall is “showing what border security means through photographs—human beings being affected by it.”
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