New Mexico State University sits approximately 40 miles from the United States border, one crossing point located in El Paso, Texas, where migrants travel from around the world after extensive journeys in pursuit of a new life. NMSU students and students all around the country have the opportunity to conduct firsthand research on immigration policy and understand migrant experiences with the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program.
“We know this is a big issue, nationally and internationally,” said Neil Harvey, NMSU government professor and principal investigator of an NSF REU program. “That is not going to go away anytime soon, so for us, it's important to educate and provide students hands-on opportunities to meet with a variety of agencies and organizations that are responding to this issue, including migrants and asylum seekers themselves.”
Harvey’s three-year grant has one more year before he applies to renew it for a third time.
Since its beginning in 2018, the NSF-REU program led by Harvey in partnership with co-principal investigator Jeremy Slack from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Texas, El Paso has been able to train 50 students from universities around the country. Over the past five years, undergraduate students have gained experience working with community partners by conducting research to better understand the impacts of U.S. immigration policy. Ten of them have been from NMSU.
“We are proud to say that we are meeting that goal by providing many students who may not have had those opportunities to do research, particularly at the undergraduate level,” Harvey said.
Students participating in the program are tasked with choosing a topic of their choice to conduct fieldwork and interviews with various community partners such as Border Servant Corps, Kiki Romero Municipal Shelter for Migrants in Ciudad Juárez, and Sacred Heart in El Paso; this also includes interviewing migrants to understand more about their topic and the journey they have faced.
In July, students from six universities including NMSU and UTEP gave presentations about their summer research.
Two NMSU students were selected to participate in the program this year: Andres Uribe, a sophomore double majoring in social work and government; and Alejandra Camacho, a junior majoring in government with a supplementary major in law and society. Other students came from institutions such as Centenary University in New Jersey, University of California Berkeley, University of Texas at San Antonio, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, University of North Carolina, and Duke University.
Uribe focused on incorporating social work by using Eco-Maps to provide a holistic approach to immigration and migration policy. Eco-Maps are tools used by researchers to assess family, social, and community relationships by mapping out their social environment. Uribe used Eco-Maps to understand how different systems interact with one another and impact migrants’ behavior when coming into the U.S., as well as their overall journey.
“What people are facing when it comes to migration are their hardships and difficulties with the CBP One (Customs and Border Protection) mobile application when applying for an appointment to seek asylum,” Uribe said. “What I learned from the shelter is that there is a lack of institutional support where there is an imminent concern for funding to preserve jobs doing this great work.”
Camacho’s research addressed violence and extortion of immigrants by Mexican officials.
“We saw the repeating pattern of Mexican officials—whether it was police officers or the National Guard,” Camacho said. “There were just a lot of instances where migrants told us their stories about how they were abused either physically or verbally.”
Camacho analyzed 25 out of 45 migrant interviews conducted by her cohort members.
“It's quite transformative. I think it’s one thing to read about all these topics at a distance... However, it is another thing entirely to spend time with migrants...and meet representatives of Border Patrol,” Harvey said.
Both students discovered a lack of financial support for organizations needed to assist asylum seekers.
“What shocked me most was how little funded these organizations meant to help migrants actually are,” Camacho said. “It’s really shocking...to see these very helpful organizations receive such little funding.”
Camacho's REU experience further motivated her career aspirations as an immigration attorney while hoping she can continue her research involvement through volunteering opportunities offered by various organizations she visited during her studies.
“Doing research as an undergraduate student...makes you think about things differently,” Uribe noted regarding his interest in pursuing graduate school following his participation in this program.
Harvey has been working with colleagues at NMSU on creating a PhD program called Transborder & Global Human Dynamics which begins next year.
“I could see from undergraduate-level interest...we can continue that at graduate or Ph.D levels," he stated proudly announcing its establishment set for Fall 2025."
