2026 El Paso Borderlands

  Our final day started at the crack of dawn, as we woke up at 6:00 and arrived at the cafeteria (with some stragglers) for breakfast at 6:30. After our daily AMP session, we headed off to Terry's farm.  Terry is a retiree who has started a farm that has donated over a million pounds of vegetables to organizations serving people with food insecurity. Picking and cleaning onions, we managed to harvest 1277 pounds in total! Then, we departed to the Border Servants Corps facility for lunch, where we had a delicious Venezuelan-style meal with world-class plantains. Next, we headed to Milagro Coffee and had a mid-afternoon caffeine boost to keep us going.  The highlight of the day was our conversation with Professor Nicholas Natividad at New Mexico State University. We had an open-ended, academic, and enlightening discussion, which contends for the best presentation for the week! His help on our research questions was also much appreciated. To cap off a week o...

  Holaaaaa Today we had breakfast at 8am where we had hashbrowns, eggs, and sausages! Yum! We then proceeded to talk to the people from Border Servant Core and learned lots about what life's like after you illegally cross the border, and how they were able to help migrants that needed support.  We then departed to The Shed for lunch, where we had some delicious Mexican food. While eating we all played Black Magic and Grandma loves Coffee and Hates Tea riddle games! It was quite fun!!!  After that, we drove to Jasmine's house to make aguas frescas and to prepare for our journey to the White Sands. We made lime, mango, and cantaloupe aguas frescas and we also made salsa. On our one hour ride over to the White Sands, we listened to some music and talked to pass the time. Once we had arrived at the White Sands we sledded down the hills, took some gorgeous photos with the sunset, and ate the delicious dinner that Jasmine and her family had prepared for us. Now you might all be...

  Dear Menlo,     We woke up to loud knocks on our doors at 7:30 this morning. For breakfast, we were treated by the excellent staff at Holy Cross with pancakes and fried eggs. After our daily AMP, we made our way over to downtown Las Cruces to a presentation by Weaving for Justice, a nonprofit organization that sells Mayan tapestry in the US to provide educational scholarships for students living in Chiapas, Mexico.     We then took a short ride to the farmers market in downtown Las Cruces. There, we had a few hours to explore local businesses and vendors. Our task was simple: find a piece of chili flavored food to share with the group. We found items ranging from chili popcorn, green chili pretzels, and green chili pistachio brittle.     We then returned to Holy Cross Retreat Center and ate a quick lunch before meeting with Brother Joseph for a presentation. Brother Joseph shared his experiences on the border, working to help immig...

  Hi Menlo! Welcome to day three of the blog, finally written by freshmen . Today, we started our day before 6:30 to get to the courthouse in time for immigration trial. Our guide today was Mateo (on the left of the picture) from Border Servant Corps (BSC). We were at a federal court dealing with around 60 defendants. The majority were immigrant cases where they were charged with entry or reentry without inspection. The atmosphere in the courtroom was heavy; we noticed repeated jingling of the chains binding the defendants. Because there were so many immigrants being tried, up to eight were even at the stand at the same time. After the trial ended, we were able to ask questions and speak to the judge. We asked him about his rulings and perspective on immigration issues. He explained his more lenient decision of not sentencing immigrants to extra time in jail, saying that it wouldn't further deter them from reentering the country anyway. Next, we had a delicious lunch a...

  Hola Familias de Menlo!  We have been off to a great start in El Paso, and really Las Cruces too. Our day began bright and early as some of us woke up to go on a run at 6:30. The rest of us woke up at around 7:30 for a delicious breakfast burrito at 8.  After breakfast, we headed to  a vista point on a nearby mountain and were able to see the border towns of El Paso and its Mexican counterpart, Ciudad Juárez. Then, the group got in our vans and departed for a fascinating chat and snack with humanitarian Sigrid Gonzalez. We discussed the humanitarian aspect of immigration and its evolution over the last few Presidential administrations, as well as the consequences of different policy approaches made by different administrations.  After our chat, we hopped into our vans and headed over to the border wall where we saw various construction projects and waved at some friendly CBP agents.  We then drove to the Chamizal National Memorial to have l...

Hi Menlo Community! This is Arissa and Lauren and we're so excited to tell you about our packed day of travel!  We started off our day bright and early at 6:30 a.m. at SFO. From there we boarded and took our first flight to Phoenix, Arizona. After a short lay-over, we got on our connecting flight to our final destination, El Paso. While the smaller plane gave us a few more bumps and drops, we landed safe and sound ready to make our way to the Holy Cross Retreat Center. When faced with a little added delay in pickup, our new M-Term family persevered and bonded through different card games and activities. During our hour-long car ride, we shared some laughs and played some games and spent some great quality time getting to know each other better as we embark on this adventure.  Once we arrived at the retreat center, we met with our new leaders from the World Leadership School (WLS) and ran over our goals, values and fears for the trip.  Following this gathering we gathered ...

 Quick update:  The El Paso group has arrived in El Paso. All is well. 

  Welcome to the official Menlo Borderlands: El Paso blog! We are so excited to have you join us on this journey. Whether you are a parent, family member, or friend, we invite you to follow along here for daily updates as our students embark on a deeply transformative experience. For the past two days, our classroom has been a whirlwind of energy and focus. Before we head to the southern border, we’ve been busy building our team community, playing icebreakers, and laying the intellectual groundwork for the days ahead. From diving into the complexities of U.S. immigration law and policy to exploring rich border culture, the students have already shown incredible curiosity and empathy. Today the students were working in project groups, posing thoughtful research questions and gathering sources to build a strong foundation for their learning on the border. All of this preparation and learning will culminate in next Friday's Borderlands / MTerm Expo, where they will proudly...