{"id":1310190,"date":"2019-05-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-12T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/roaring-fork-valley-students-will-go-to-el-paso-for-deep-dive-into-immigration-issues\/"},"modified":"2019-05-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-12T06:00:00","slug":"roaring-fork-valley-students-will-go-to-el-paso-for-deep-dive-into-immigration-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/roaring-fork-valley-students-will-go-to-el-paso-for-deep-dive-into-immigration-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Roaring Fork Valley students will go to El Paso for deep dive into immigration issues"},"content":{"rendered":"
Carla Soto, left, and Gabriela Silva are juniors at Basalt High School and daughters of immigrants. They are among five Roaring Fork Valley students who will go to El Paso in June for immersion in immigration studies.<\/strong>
Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Basalt High School junior Carla Soto has vivid memories of when she was about 6 years old and immigration officials raided her home in Lazy Glen.<\/p>\n

Her parents shared the residence with members of their extended family. Immigration agents showed up in the middle of the night, announced that there was some sort of emergency and that everybody had to get up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey seated all my family members in our living area and surrounded the house,\u201d Soto said. \u201cYou could see vehicles with the police sirens and everything outside the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a child, I really didn\u2019t understand what was happening,\u201d she continued. \u201cWhat I vividly remember from then is watching my family members get taken away in a black van and driven off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her dad, aunts and uncles were taken away. The only people not detained were Carla and her younger cousin, both U.S. citizens, and Carla\u2019s mom, who had her residency. Other family members still are engaged in the court system to remain in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really affected me as a child, not knowing what was happening,\u201d Soto said. \u201cThat really stayed with me and now I really want to know what\u2019s happening with (immigration issues).\u201d<\/p>\n

She is one of five students from the Roaring Fork Valley who have the opportunity to do just that. The students \u2014 two from Basalt, two from Aspen and one from Carbondale \u2014 will travel next month to El Paso, Texas, ground zero in the immigration debate. The city is the destination of migrants hoping to gain entry to the U.S. and one of the places where the Trump administration has beefed up border security.<\/p>\n

The Aspen Chapel in partnership with a group called the World Leadership School organized a Border Immersion Program for valley students June 10 to 14.<\/p>\n

The participating students are Sota and Gabriela Silva from Basalt High School, Tilly Swanson and Carolina Robinson from Aspen High School, and Fiona Ritchie from Colorado Rocky Mountain School.<\/p>\n

Michelle Skagen, youth coordinator at the Aspen Chapel and an instructor for World Leadership School, said the students will be exposed to all angles of the immigration debate in El Paso. They will talk to border patrol agents, visit homeless shelters where migrants seeking asylum are staying, consult with immigration attorneys and get a glimpse of life across the border in Juarez.<\/p>\n

The idea is to immerse them in all sides of the immigration issue, unfiltered by other sources, so they can reach their own conclusions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of misleading information in the news media,\u201d Skagen said. \u201cIt\u2019s really easy to make assumptions. There\u2019s really something to be said about experiencing this firsthand. The assumptions just melt away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skagen will accompany the students on their border tour.<\/p>\n

There are so many residents of the Roaring Fork Valley who are immigrants and children of immigrants, she noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is clearly an issue we deal with in our valley,\u201d Skagen said. \u201cThis touches really close to home.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has facilitated three prior student trips to El Paso, while living and working elsewhere, and witnessed how it was a transformative experience for them. It\u2019s all about letting them see and hear information directly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about indoctrination,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silva, also a junior at Basalt High School and a good friend of Soto\u2019s, said they learned about the program in their homeroom class.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked at each other instantly and said, \u2018This sounds like a great idea,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She is a first-generation U.S. citizen. Her parents now have residency, but when Silva was younger her family lived with daily uncertainty due to the risk of deportation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always had that fear of \u2018what if?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWhat would happen to me and my brother?\u201d<\/p>\n

Silva has been to the border before, driving across with her family on visits to Mexico. Even in that safe setting, a border crossing was a bit unnerving.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just kind of go fast as we can because it\u2019s kind of a scary thing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Silva said both she and Soto have heard firsthand stories from their parents about the \u201cdangerous and scary\u201d experience of crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. With so many immigrants living in the Roaring Fork Valley, there\u2019s a lot of information about conditions that influenced people to come to the U.S. and what they experienced to do so, she said. Going to El Paso to see conditions at the border will add a dimension to their understanding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it will be really eye-opening for us because we live in a community where there are a lot of immigrants, but this (will be) firsthand,\u201d Silva said.<\/p>\n

She is particularly interested in talking to members of the border patrol. Silva said will undertake the trip with an open mind, but acknowledged it could be a challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it will be hard just because my parents are like, \u2018Well, ICE people are scary and they can deport you.\u2019 That will always be in the back of my head, what they do to people, but I\u2019ll try to go in with an open mind as much as I can to see why they do it and the reasons they have behind it,\u201d Silva said.<\/p>\n

Her parents encouraged her to take the trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey thought it would be a great idea for me to go,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Soto said she believes she can be objective despite her family\u2019s experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, actually I really want to look into their point of view (border patrol) and the reasons they do certain things,\u201d she said. \u201cI really just want to know both sides of the story because I\u2019ve seen one side and I want to see another point of view. So for me, I\u2019m going there with an open mind and taking everything into consideration of why it\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swanson, a sophomore at Aspen High School, said she\u2019s fascinated by current events and in learning all sides of issues as part of the school debate team.<\/p>\n

\u201cImmigration issues are such a big issue right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She relishes the chance to get a direct look into the issue and people involved in immigration rather than a filtered view from the media. She\u2019s hoping to learn more about the migrants\u2019 plights in their home countries and their motivations to try to gain entry to the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir experiences are something I will never be able to understand,\u201d she said. But the immersion trip will help.<\/p>\n

Swanson said she feels the immigration issue has become too politicized. That\u2019s preventing meaningful dialogue and action to solve tough issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would have a better idea if more people looked at it from a human (basis) rather than a political perspective,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Soto said she looks forward to meeting the other students from the Roaring Fork Valley and studying conditions in El Paso as a group. As a budding photographer, she plans to document her experience with a huge amount of photos.<\/p>\n

She received a $1,500 scholarship from the 5Point Adventure Film Festival as part of its Dream Program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to bring social awareness through photography,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Silva plans to use her brother\u2019s GoPro to video the various interviews and experiences in El Paso for a documentary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to show what we learned and how we can do better things and how we can avoid certain problems,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Both girls will report on their experiences as their Capstone Project, a major undertaking that Basalt seniors must complete to graduate.<\/p>\n

Skagen said the five participants also will be urged by the Aspen Chapel and World Leadership School to share their El Paso experiences with the rest of the Roaring Fork Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpon return, these students have the potential to educate our community beyond what we\u2019re seeing on television, in newspaper and social media,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

scondon@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carla Soto, left, and Gabriela Silva are juniors at Basalt High School and daughters of immigrants. They are among five Roaring Fork Valley students who will go to El Paso in June for immersion in immigration studies.Courtesy photo Basalt High School junior Carla Soto has vivid memories of when she was about 6 years old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1310190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 07:14:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1310190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1310190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1310190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1310190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}