A couple of weeks ago, The New Yorker magazine published a fabulous profile of a Jesuit priest: Fr. Brian Strassburger, SJ, who lives in a Jesuit community that’s serving migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas and the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The piece went deep into Fr. Brian’s vocation story and how he wound up at the border as his first assignment after ordination to the priesthood. The article is also theologically rich, politically astute and paints a vivid picture of the harsh reality the migrants the Jesuits accompany are facing every day.

The author of the story is a freelance reporter named Jack Herrera whose work on immigration, among other topics, has appeared in places like The Atlantic and the Los Angeles Times. Jack is our guest today.

In reporting the story, Jack spent hours and hours with Fr. Brian and his fellow Jesuits in their ministry. Host Mike Jordan Laskey wanted to know what Jack learned from his experience: What most surprised him as he accompanied the Jesuits on both sides of the border? What stories and research got left on the cutting room floor? How did the project come to be in the first place, and why was The New Yorker interested? If you have read the story already, we hope this conversation will be a helpful supplement to what made it onto the page. If you haven’t read the story yet, we can’t recommend it highly enough.

“The Betrayal of American Border Policy”: https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-betrayal-of-american-border-policy

Jack Herrera: https://x.com/jherrerx

Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries, where Fr. Brian serves: https://www.jesuitscentralsouthern.org/our-work/del-camino/

How Jesuits Accompany Today’s Holy Families on the Border: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85U1B3zECU4

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