Sentenced to death in the desert

     The president and members of congress sentenced a woman from Guatemala to capital punishment for crossing an imaginary line in search of work.  The sentence was carried out on June 30 in a remote section of desert 50 miles southwest of Tucson.  The woman was struggling to hike up a hill, collapsed face down on the ground, and died.  Her body was found two days later by a University of Michigan archaeology team that returned on July 15 to create a memorial.  It appears she was in her early 30s and her name is unknown.      

     Professor Jason DeLeon showed us the place where she died - a dark stain marked the ground.  He has hiked that trail many times in his work to preserve migrant artifacts (items left behind on the journey) and he often rested in the shade of the mesquite tree where they were building the shrine.  The view looking down the hill from there is starkly beautiful, but she was heading uphill and not able to focus on the scenery.

     Her sentence was imposed by the individuals responsible for policies and laws that enable U.S. corporations to freely move their products around the world while placing severe restrictions on the movement of workers.  The border city of Nogales, Sonora has nearly 100 assembly plants that manufacture goods for export to the U.S.  More than 3,000 people work in the Chamberlin factory producing garage door openers.  Those openers cross easily into Nogales, Arizona but the people that make them would have to hike for days in the southern Arizona desert if they dared to seek better-paying work in the U.S.

     Since the North America Free Trade Agreement was implemented in 1994, the border with Mexico has been enforced through a policy of “deterrence.”  Unauthorized immigrants are forced to cross through the most isolated and dangerous areas along the border.        

     The Border Patrol station in Nogales is the largest in the U.S. and a 20-foot-high border wall separates Nogales, Sonora from Nogales, Arizona.  The woman was prevented from safely crossing between the two sides of the city and, instead, had to cross through the remote desert about 30 miles to the west.

     A patrol from the Samaritans organization was driving along Batamote Road on June 30 when they encountered a young man from El Salvador who was in very bad condition.  He said he walked an hour to reach the road and he was seeking help for a woman from Guatemala who was dying.  He asked that the Border Patrol be called to rescue the woman.  The Border Patrol didn’t find her, but they did apprehend the young man and he was then taken to the hospital.

     The mission of Samaritans is to save lives in the Southern Arizona desert by providing humanitarian aid to migrants in distress.  It is an expression of compassionate resistance to policies and laws that enable garage door openers to cross the border while punishing people that are crossing in search of a better life.

     

Vigil at the Tent City jail

     Three men dressed in camouflage and armed with assault rifles were watching us as we stepped off the bus to protest sheriff Joe Arpaio’s tent city jail in Phoenix on June 23.  Sheriff agents on horseback and with an ATV, patrol car, and SUV were posted just down the street.  They weren’t concerned about the armed civilians but they did video people who walked by porting “Standing on the Side of Love” placards.

     The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) was holding its general assembly in Phoenix and more than 3,000 people participated in the candlelight vigil outside the jail.  Peter Morales, UUA president, was given a tour of the jail by Arpaio and he said it seemed like “what you’d see in a fascist country.”  Geoffrey Black, president of the United Church of Christ, called it “a national disgrace.”

     We all chanted “Close it down!” with enough force to be heard inside the jail.  The inmates are kept in tents where they have to endure the heat of summer and the cold of winter.  The temperature reached 106 degrees that day and was still over 100 at 9 P.M.  Arpaio calls himself the “toughest sheriff in America.”

     The sheriff has ordered sweeps of Latino neighborhoods to round up people suspected of being unauthorized immigrants.  A Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation concluded that Arpaio oversaw the worst pattern of racial profiling by a law enforcement agency in U.S. history.  The sheriff and his commanders created a culture of abusing the rights of Latinos.  The DOJ filed a lawsuit against Arpaio last month because of “unlawful discriminatory police conduct directed at Latinos.”
     Standing on the Side of Love is a campaign sponsored by the UUA to “harness love’s power to stop oppression.”  The day after the UUA assembly ended, the Supreme Court upheld the clause of Arizona’s law SB1070 that requires police to check the immigration status of people they stop and suspect are unauthorized immigrants.   UUA moderator Gini Courter said, “It violates our faith to comply with SB1070 and we are called to resist the mass detention and deportation of immigrants.”

Memorial Day in the desert

     We commemorated Memorial Day by hiking to three shrines in the Sonoran desert and leaving water and food along the trail in an effort to prevent the creation of future shrines.

     We were walking along the side of a hill when Bob stopped and began peering around.  He stepped off the trail and started working his way up through the spiny ocotillo.  After a few minutes he saw the cross and a small pile of rocks.  He took some rope out of his pack, knelt down, and lashed the cross solidly together again.  Bob had found the remains of a migrant there in March of last year.  We sat down in the scant shade of a mesquite tree and contemplated the tragedy that had occurred at that site.

     The trail continued up to a saddle between the hills a quarter mile away.  This is a resting place for migrants where Bob and Dorothy had hung four packs beside the trail a week before.  They checked the packs and the water and food they had placed inside was all gone.  We unloaded the water and food packets we had carried and restocked those packs.  It felt like an appropriate way to honor the person who had died just down the trail.

     We continued hiking and after a while Bob led us to a tree which has a cross and a candle at its base.  That marks the site where he found the remains of a migrant in February of this year.  We again sat in the shade for a long moment of silence.

     A short distance away, Bob brought us to the third shrine.  He found the remains of another migrant there on that same day in March 2011.  The bones he encountered were of a small person, probably a woman. 

     I asked Bob a few questions about the shrines and I started to feel overwhelmed – sadness at those painful deaths and anger over a border strategy that deliberately funnels people into such remote and deadly terrain.  I took a few steps away and tried to focus on the mesquite trees and the feel of the breeze on my face.  The cactus behind the cross was in bloom – beauty and tragedy, side by side.

     “I don’t want to have to place another shrine in the desert,” Bob told me.  “It hurts to do so but I don’t want people to be forgotten.”

     

Alone in the desert

     We had been hiking for a couple hours on May 5 when we saw a man walking towards us on the ridge.  We were following the trail south towards Mexico and he was heading north.

     “Are you OK?” we asked.  “They chased us this morning,” he replied.  “I got separated from the group and I’m lost.”  “Who were they?” we inquired.  “La Migra (Border Patrol).” 

     “Do you have water and food?” we asked.  “No,” he said.  Al gave him a pint bottle of water which he quickly gulped down.  It was just 10 A.M. and it was already getting warm.

     “Have you seen a group of people?” he asked.  We did see a group about an hour earlier.  We had reached the edge of a cliff and were looking into the canyon when Al saw four people walking down an ATV (all-terrain vehicle) trail.  We watched as a Border Patrol truck came into the canyon and drove towards the bottom of the trail.  We heard some noise and saw two Border Patrol agents on ATVs riding down that same trail.  The people, ATVs, and truck disappeared from view behind the trees and we couldn’t see what happened next.

     We told him what we had witnessed and pointed out where it had occurred.  He was hoping to catch up with the group but that no longer seemed possible.  “Can I go with you?” he asked.  We explained that we’re members of the Samaritans and put water and food along some of the trails.  We were just out for the day and we weren’t going to be hiking further north.        

     We gave him bottles of water and food packs, and talked about the danger of continuing the trip alone (see photo of the terrain heading north).  He said he was going to wait and see if another group came along that he could join.  If not, he would walk back to Mexico.

     We asked where he was from and he told us Guatemala.  I asked where in Guatemala and he said Quetzaltenango.  I had gone to language school there twenty years ago.  Quetzaltenango is in the western highlands of Guatemala at an elevation of 7,500 feet – a world away from the arid landscape of the Sonoran desert.   

     He looked to be about my age and all he was carrying was a sweater, and no pack.  He thanked us, gathered up the water and food in his arms, and walked south back up the ridge.  We turned around and started down the ridge into the canyon.  Shortly after reaching the canyon road, we passed two Border Patrol trucks parked (with engines running) in the shade of some trees.

     We continued on to the main road and began walking back to where we had parked the truck.  Along the way, we saw a road sign: “Travel Caution: Smuggling and illegal immigration may be encountered in this area.”

     

Images from the migrant trail

     I hiked along the U.S.-Mexico border with two other members of the Samaritans organization on January 21.  We were looking for active migrant trails where we could leave water and food for people that might be in distress.  The images from three scenes that day have stayed with me.

     We started off hiking along a streambed that parallels the border.  After an hour of walking, we passed a pool of water and Bob noticed a piece of clothing under the water.  We were both intrigued and haunted by that sight.

     A few hours later, we found an active trail and followed it south towards the border.  We saw occasional footprints made by tennis shoes and then came upon a resting area.  A small shrine had been erected beside a tree - a cross, candle glasses, and Bible.  There was also a photo of a woman hugging her two daughters.  The photo was next to a prayer to Saint Gabriel – “May your divine providence extend over my family so that together we may give thanks to God.”

     At the end of the day, as we drove back to the main road, we passed a Border Patrol truck parked alongside another truck with a portable surveillance tower.  They were on top of the highest hill in the area – waiting to detect and apprehend people for crossing an imaginary line in the desert in order to provide for their families.

     Just a few days earlier, the Border Patrol announced they are going to launch a new program – the “Consequence Delivery System.”  Unauthorized immigrants will be classified into seven different categories that will receive varying degrees of punishment – which could include a criminal conviction and being sent back to distant areas in Mexico.  One of the unmentioned consequences of the system will be increased profits for the corporations involved in the detention and deportation industry.

     I’ve been able to talk with many courageous migrants in Nogales – some on their way north and others who have recently been deported.  Their motivation for risking arrest and death in the desert is either to provide for their families in their communities of origin or to be re-united with their families in the communities in the U.S. where they have established their lives. 

     I believe that a parent’s love for their child is ultimately more powerful than the heartless technology and policies created to enforce inequality and exclusion.

     

Josseline's shrine

     I visited the shrine for Josseline Hernandez during a hike along the migrant trails on October 8.  Josseline was a 14-year-old girl from El Salvador who was traveling with her 10-year-old brother.  They were going to Los Angeles to reunite with their mother.  After crossing Guatemala and the entire length of Mexico, they hiked 20 miles in the desert of southern Arizona. 

     Josseline became ill and they were still 20 miles from the pick-up spot.  The “coyote” (guide) left her behind because he had to get the group there on time to meet their ride.  Her brother didn’t want to leave but she told him “You have to keep going and get to Mom.”  Josseline died in the cold of winter in the desert on February 20, 2008.

     Focusing my attention on the task of taking photos allowed me to ignore any feelings about what had happened there.  I pulled out the plants that were obstructing the view of the cross so that I could get a clearer picture.  Then I started removing a few of the plants that had grown up behind the cross and I remembered watching Isabel cleaning the grave of her brother Reyes for the Day of the Dead in El Salvador.  It felt as if I was doing something for Josseline but it was more about soothing my own emotions.

     I took the photos and put the camera back in my pack.  That’s when it hit me and I started to sob.  Sonia, Josseline’s mother, wrote a poem that is inscribed at the base of the cross: “When you feel that the road has turned hard and difficult don’t give up in defeat.  Continue forward and seek God’s help.  We’ll carry you always in our hearts.”

     Josseline died alongside a dry streambed in a small canyon.  As we were hiking up the hill, I looked back and was struck by the beauty of the scenery.  The contrasting emotions of the sorrow for her death and the peace from that view are still with me.

     The sorrow also alternates with anger about the policies that killed Josseline.  Sonia was unable to find work in El Salvador and she went to Los Angeles to earn money to send back for Josseline and her brother.  She had worked for years in L.A. and finally saved up enough money to bring her children there.  Her dream turned to tragedy when Josseline became the victim of a militarized border created by successive administrations in the U.S.

     Bill Clinton began the policy that would lead to the death of Josseline and thousands of other unauthorized immigrants.  He pushed the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) through congress in 1993 and that destroyed the livelihood of more than two million small farmers in Mexico. 

     His administration then started building border walls and placing more Border Patrol agents to block the flow of migrants through Tijuana-San Diego; Nogales, Sonora–Nogales, Arizona; and Ciudad Juarez–El Paso.  This policy of “deterrence” funneled migrants away from the urban areas and into more remote and hazardous terrain.  Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, this militarization was escalated by George Bush and Barack Obama with the justification of “securing the border.”

     Not a single terrorist has been caught crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S.  Yet, the government continues to “deter” people that are seeking work, or to be reunited with their families, by pushing them into the deadliest terrain along the border.  That’s a political objective which is pursued through the use of armed force and causes large numbers of civilian casualties – including 14-year-old girls from El Salvador. 

    Photo of Josseline’s shrine:

Stop the deportation of Sandra Lopez

     Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 20-year-old Sandra Lopez to Nogales, Sonora on March 9.  She was brought to the U.S. when she was just two weeks old and she doesn’t know anyone in Mexico.  Sandra spent five days on the streets of Nogales and then ran for her life up through the lanes of traffic at the border and crossed back into the U.S.  She was arrested and taken into federal custody, and applied for asylum.  She is now at risk of being deported again.

     I attended a press conference at Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson on September 29 to call on the Obama administration to halt the detention and deportation of Sandra.  I was able to speak with her mother and father, and I told them I would spread the word about her case. 

     The No More Deaths organization launched a national campaign for Sandra on July 25.  More than 5,000 e-mails, faxes and phone calls have been made to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.  Please add your voice to the campaign by going to http://www.nomoredeaths.org/Updates-and-Announcements/stop-sandras-deportation.html to send a message.  

     Sandra graduated from high school in Tucson in 2009 and wanted to enroll in Pima Community College.  She was told that she would have to pay out-of-state tuition because she doesn’t have immigration documents.  Her family couldn’t afford that and she began working with her mother cleaning homes.

     She ran into a friend from high school in September 2010, and he asked her to mail a box for him and gave her $100.  Sandra had never sent anything from FedEx before and it cost $85 for the package.  She kept the remaining $15 and it turned out that the package contained marijuana. 

     Sandra plead guilty to “securing the proceeds of an offense” on February 8, 2011 and was placed on three years probation.  She was then transferred to ICE and placed in the Eloy Detention Center – a 1,500 bed facility owned and operated by the Corrections Corporation of America.

     She appeared before an immigration judge on March 9 and was told there was no possibility of relief for her case.  She became very distraught, started crying and signed a form that she did not understand which caused her to be deported to Nogales that night.

     “Strange men began to ask me to come with them,” wrote Sandra in her application for asylum.  “I had a little bit of money so I went to a hotel right by the border and got a room.  I saw men bringing girls a lot younger than me there and the girls looked really scared.  At night I could hear them scream.  I left the next morning.  I was really scared.  Several women met me outside and told me to come with them.  They told me they kept girls like me and gave them jobs.  I know they wanted me to be a sex worker for them.” 

     “I asked policemen for help but they would not help me.  They also tried to get me to go with them and I knew I would be raped.  I lived on the street for five days and nights - just running and hiding.  I was so scared I ran for my life up through the lanes of traffic back into the United States.”

     The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on August 18 that it would “execute a case-by-case review of all individuals in removal [deportation] proceedings to ensure that they constitute our highest priorities.”  DHS also stated, “It makes no sense to expend our enforcement resources on low-priority cases such as individuals who were brought to this country as young children and know no other home.”  Sandra’s case offers the Obama administration an opportunity to show that this is a change we can believe in.

    Photos of Sandra’s mother and father during the press conference: