Back in Tucson: a Brief Narrative of the Past Week

Kyle here.

We got back into Tucson yesterday evening after spending about a week on the road in Douglas (AZ), Agua Prieta, Benjamin Hill, and Altar (all in Sonora). A brief round up of the week's activities include staffing a migrant resource center for migrants who have just been returned to Mexico by the Border Patrol, meeting with community organizers in Agua Prieta, visiting kitchens for migrants traveling north, meeting with a priest who was heavily involved in the Sanctuary movement of the 1980s who now works with migrants, and we observed as migrants got off the train in Benjamin Hill to rest on their way north. In Altar, we watched migrants get directly off buses from the south and look around a plaza for their next step in the journey, went to a house where migrants pay $4-6/night waiting for the last leg north, and we slept in a migrant shelter maintained by the Catholic church.

Yesterday was probably the most intense of the week. We drove north out of Altar towards Sasabe (I would recommend getting on Google Earth or a similar program to get an idea of where these places are) on a 60 mile long dirt road. Along the side of this road you can see the burnt out shells of vans with many, many bullet holes in them. Daily, hundreds of migrants drive north on this dirt road in vans that make the Altar-Sasabe trip with 20-40 people packed into what is really a 15 person van. The drug cartels charge a fee to the van drivers. The shot up, burnt out vans are the ones whose drivers didn't want to pay. Recently, there has been a spate of violence due to the drug trade, with something like 22 people (including police) murdered in one case.

So when we came to a checkpoint about 5 miles south of Sasabe, I was a tad worried. There were about eight heavily armed soldiers with a Hummer sitting beside the road. We pulled up and a young soldier told Rick, our van driver and team leader, that we all had to get out so they could inspect us and the luggage (presumably for weapons). Rick wasn't have any of it, and citing the recent violence, asked for some form of ID or a good reason we could trust them. (This conversation was completely in Spanish, and I was one of the few within earshot who could understand.) I was by that time quite nervous because of the whole situation. Eventually an officer came over, and the conversation dragged on while the rest of us engaged the young soldier standing in our doorway with an assault rifle hanging off his shoulder. Everything turned out okay, but for a while, I wasn't so assured.

Eventually we made it to the border, crossed without a problem, and were promptly pulled over by the Border Patrol within five miles. Instead of "probable cause," the Border Patrol only has to articulate "reasonable suspicion" to pull someone over. In this case, Rick assumed it was because the van was a rental and the woman riding in the front seat could vaguely pass for a Latina. Anyway, after following us a good 4-5 minutes, the agent finally put on his lights and got us to the side. We were in a bit of a hurry, so Rick didn't insist on some of the nuances that come with your rights. For instance, an agent is supposed to articulate their "reasonable suspicion" before asking to inspect a vehicle. He failed do this, but again, because of the the time constraint we simply went with the flow. We did have a bit of fun, though. When asked if all occupants were US citizens, Rick replied, "all but one." He then waited a few moments before adding that he was Swedish.

Anyway, that was our second direct run-in with the law yesterday. We passed a huge National Guard checkpoint a few miles later. Now, this was somewhat unnerving for me. When I'm in a developing country, I expect, or at least am not surprised to see a military checkpoint. But in the United States? That was pretty unsettling. And we came across a Border Patrol & National Guard checkpoint heading north from Nogales later on in the day. Again, it didn't sit well with me.

We arrived in Nogales in the early afternoon to volunteer at the No More Deaths tent for the afternoon. Here migrants who have just been returned to Mexico can come for some food and water, and get any blisters or scrapes they have treated. According to Border Patrol standards, migrants are supposed to be given food and water if they are held for more than 6 hours, but it seems to be the exception rather than the rule when this is actually the case. (Though I must interject that for the most part, migrants say they are treated well by the Border Patrol agents when in custody.) I've watched people scarf down burritos after having not eaten for two days.

Then a man told me that a women speaking on the pay phone across the street was missing a child. I told Rick and he and another volunteer went into action. It turns out that during the night, this woman and her for children, mother-in-law, and brother-in-law were crossing with a group. The coyotes (smugglers) were getting angry because she was unable to keep up with the kids, and nobody wanted to help her with them. Eventually, they got split up into two groups somehow, and when the Border Patrol surprised them, they got split up. This woman came into the No More Deaths tent with three children. The oldest, an eight year old boy, had been lost in the night with the mother- and brother-in-law, and nobody knew where they were.

Imagine that. Think of losing your oldest child in the attempt to find a better life. The wisdom of crossing with four children aside, try to grasp the desperation that would lead to you make that choice. And then try to grasp the anguish of having something so terrible as losing your child in the middle of the southern Arizona desert. There isn't much hope that the kid will remain alive. Adults die out there daily. Anyway, Rick and his counterpart across the border were calling all the people they knew: Border Patrol, consulates, Grupos Beta (a Mexican governmental organization trying to keep migrants safe and provide them ways to return home/south if they choose), and others. Though minors are often lost in the desert, it is quite an unusual thing for an eight year old to get lost. A full-blown Border Patrol search was waiting in the wings as we went into last night.

Long story made short, Rick and a few of our team arrived at No More Deaths' office in Nogales to the news that the boy, mother-, and brother-in-law had shown up in Altar. After getting separated in the desert, they happened to by with the coyotes, who took them back to Altar. But again, reflect on the desperation that would lead you to such a decision. Because apparently the next step for this family is to go to another part of the border, where the husband (who lives in the Seattle/Tacoma area) will meet them and try to help them across.

That was a relief, but the rest of us didn't find out until this afternoon. Tyler and I spent the day making little 2' x 1' white crosses for an action we're going to do tomorrow. We'll be following the Wackenhut buses that have been contracted out by the government to collect migrants as the Border Patrol captures them, take them to a Border Patrol station for processing, and then return them to the border. The problem here is that by contracting out this function, an element of transparency is lost in the process of holding migrants. Rick was telling a story about Wackenhut over dinner tonight about how they lost their contract to do security for the Department of Homeland Security building in DC over a horribly mishandled anthrax scare. So they lost their contract to keep the DHS safe while gaining another contract to keep migrants safe. That makes sense.

So tomorrow we'll be following one of the buses on its daily route. We'll try and offer food and water to the migrants (and we'll probably be denied). We'll have signs indicating solidarity with the migrants on the bus. And we'll be erecting Mexican-style shrines at each point where the buses stops, each with three crosses that say "NINOS" (children), "MADRES Y PADRES" (mothers and fathers), and "CUANTOS MAS?" (how many more?).

Anyway, enough for now. I might try and upload some pictures or something. Leave us a comment, let us know how you're doing. We'll be here until Sunday, and then the three of us head north either that night or Monday. We'll probably be in Denver by Wednesday. But look for more posts on here in the meantime. Sorry for the absence, but we didn't have internet in Mexico. Much love to all who read this,

Kyle