The 2026 midterm cycle will turn immigration into one of the defining political pressures in the United States. Debate will intensify. Narratives will harden. Very few people engaging in that debate will have ever stood in the borderlands, listened to the people who live and work there, or traced the routes that shape the movement of tens of thousands of migrants each month.

This CIEL community trip is built to correct that gap. It places participants directly inside the human, political, and geographic realities shaping the US–Mexico border in 2026. The program operates on both sides of the border and draws on CIEL’s core approach: structured immersion, conflict-adjacent fieldwork, and direct engagement with people whose perspectives rarely make it into national conversations.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The journey begins in San Diego with two days focused on US policy, enforcement, and community impact. Participants meet with border officials, local organizers, legal experts, humanitarian responders, and residents whose daily lives intersect with migration policy. Field visits include time with the US Border Patrol and civil-society groups working along desert routes, demonstrating the operational and ethical tensions produced by record-high encounters and shifting federal and state responses in 2026.

The group then crosses into Tijuana to examine the migration system from the Mexican side. Participants learn from shelter operators, asylum-seeking families, local journalists, and nonprofit leaders navigating the rising pressure on northern Mexico as US immigration frameworks harden ahead of the midterms. The visit also contrasts Baja California’s tourism economy—thriving just steps away from migrant encampments—revealing the layered social and political dynamics that define the region.

WHY THIS MATTERS IN 2026

Migration will be one of the most polarizing issues of the 2026 midterm election year. Public discourse will revolve around numbers, slogans, and televised border imagery. This trip replaces abstraction with on-the-ground complexity. Participants analyze push and pull factors, humanitarian conditions, enforcement strategies, cross-border political tensions, and the narratives shaping voter sentiment in 2026.

CIEL’s role is to make that complexity legible. The program uses facilitated discussions, structured debriefs, and conflict-learning methodology to help participants interrogate competing claims, understand policy trade-offs, and build an informed perspective grounded in lived experience.

WHO SHOULD JOIN

Open to anyone interested in understanding the border beyond headlines. No prior expertise required. The trip is designed for people who want to build literacy in migration, US–Mexico relations, grassroots activism, humanitarian practice, and conflict-sensitive policy debates—especially in the context of a high-stakes election year.

ITINERARY SNAPSHOT

San Diego (US side)

• Meetings with elected officials, legal experts, and community leaders

• Field visit with US Border Patrol

• Engagement with humanitarian groups operating desert water stations

• Analysis of 2026 federal and state migration policy shifts

Tijuana & Rosarito (Mexico side)

• Visits to migrant and asylum-seeker shelters

• Conversations with local activists, city officials, and journalists

• Examination of Mexico’s evolving role in US border enforcement

• Exploration of Baja California’s rapidly growing tourism zones and the contrasts they expose