The Trail Less Traveled

Faith-based group works in the desert to save migrant lives

By J.D. Long-García
The Catholic Sun

ARIVACA, Ariz. — Four young adults piled into a beat-up ’92 Nissan Pathfinder late one recent afternoon to scour the desert for illegal immigrants.

The beat-up SUV bounced down the rutted back roads, occasionally causing the passengers to bang their heads against the windows as they drove to a walking patrol.

“I’d hate to try to get away from Border Patrol on one of these roads,” one said. They weren’t listening to the radio because it had been ripped out.

The young adults — two teachers and two college students — volunteer for No More Deaths, a faith-based coalition that works to prevent migrant deaths on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Since October at least 79 migrants have died in the desert.

Dan Millis, who volunteered last year and will serve throughout the summer, held a map and directed newcomer Micah McCoy, a college student from Texas, as he manned the wheel.

Millis learned about No More Deaths at a justice awareness camp at Arizona State University.

He’s now in his fourth year teaching high school Spanish in Sedona and organizes field trips to educate his students on the border.

“The students really experienced a lot of emotion. There were a lot of teary eyes,” he said of one trip in which his students encountered migrants.

“Kids really relate to the physical challenge migrants go through and that ‘game over’ ending when they get caught,” he said.

No More Deaths relies on volunteers from around the country to staff their camps.

The camp in Arivaca is in the middle of a major migration path. Volunteers rally at an encampment and walk desert patrols in search of migrants in need of food, water or medical attention all summer long.

“They’re not finding many migrants,” said John Matthew, a retired Presbyterian minister who has volunteered with the group for three years. In the first two weeks of operations, the group only came across seven migrants.

“We think that’s because of Border Patrol’s high activity and also the National Guard on the border,” he said. “It may be slowing down migrants coming across.”

No More Deaths reports encountering 750 migrants at the Arivaca camp in 2005. The group also staffs camps in Cochise County and Agua Prieta, Mexico.

“One of our particular interests is the fact that we get these young people that come in from all across the country,” Matthew said. “They’re building their social conscience and their understanding of the border.”

Last year, 300 people volunteered from 25 different states, many of them college students and young adults who gave up a summer vacation for a shot at saving lives in the desert.

“If nothing else, the camp serves as a good place for young people to see what life is like in the desert,” Matthewt said. “It’s great to see them grow.”

When the young adults arrived at the patrol site June 12, they filed out of the vehicle armed with emergency migrant packs of food and water, first aid and trash bags.

Volunteers walk through dry riverbeds and over desert plains searching for migrants in need. When the group does find migrants, they’re usually tucked away in an embankment under a tree.

Millis came across a child’s backpack in an area strewn with empty water bottles, clothes and shoes. He inspected it for identification papers, as is the group’s practice, but found a pair of adult socks instead.

“They just leave their things behind on their journey,” he said. “The extra weight is a lot in this heat.”

The temperature peaked in the high 90s that day but can get well over 110 degrees in the summer months.

Half way through the patrol, McCoy called out in Spanish to migrants who may have been hiding.

“We’re humanitarians,” he said. “We’re not the Border Patrol.”

He stopped short and looked at the scattered garbage left by migrants. “We’re going to run out of trash bags,” McCoy said.

“If there was a legal, temporary visa — whatever you want to call it — the environmental impact alone would be incredible,” he said.

In addition to being educated about proper hydration, volunteers also learn how to treat blisters and what steps to take when encountering a migrant in dire need of medical attention.

“A blister can kill you just as surely as heat stroke because it can slow you down and the coyotes will leave you behind,” said Steve Johnston, an experienced volunteer heading up the camp.

He said the group often comes across migrants drinking water from cow tanks, which will make them sick and even more dehydrated.

But the harsh desert climate isn’t the only threat the volunteers might face. Smugglers and what the Border Patrol terms “bandits” routinely cross the terrain.

“The smugglers are working with the bandits,” said Agent Sean King of the Tucson sector Border Patrol. He said smugglers often tell bandits where they’ll be passing so the bandits can rob the migrants.

“That way the smuggler is guaranteed a certain amount of money,” King said. It’s not a lot of money, he added, since most illegal immigrants don’t carry more than $80.

The young adults didn’t come across any smugglers or bandits on their afternoon patrol. In fact, No More Deaths has yet to encounter a smuggler in its three years working in the desert.

Johnston explained that the group is pretty noisy when it walks through the desert.

“We’re Samaritans. We’re from the church. Do you need water or medical assistance,” volunteers will call out in Spanish, announcing their intentions.

“We don’t want to run into smugglers and they don’t want to run into us,” Johnston said.

The U.S. Border Patrol took 150 agents from San Diego and Texas to help guard the area No More Deaths is working in this summer.

Since October, Border Patrol agents have detained nearly 170,000 illegal immigrants in the West Desert Corridor, which spans the area between Sasabe, a border town, to the Yuma county line.

That number is up from nearly 144,000 at this time last year.

No More Deaths volunteers learn to work with the Border Patrol as well as with each other to save lives. They are committed to non-violent action and openness to differing opinions and ideologies.

Volunteers sign a statement reading, in part, “I will respect the protocol of this movement and act in harmony with my fellow volunteers to not jeopardize future humanitarian efforts…”

Millis said volunteers are very different and bring different gifts. That’s why on the second patrol of the year he let McCoy drive.

“That way I can learn the routes,” McCoy said. The Texan, who is fluent in Spanish, will be driving all summer long.

No More Deaths maintains that the current border enforcement policy has driven migrants into dangerous remote desert regions and has not stemmed the flow of migrants into the country.

They would like immigration reform to address the status of the undocumented, make family reunification a priority and allow workers and their families to enter legally in an orderly way.

No More Deaths believes a reasonable and lasting reform would identify the root causes of migration: environment, economics and trade inequities.

When they finished the two-hour patrol, the young adults had not come across any migrants or any Border Patrol agents. The worn-out crew piled back into the vehicle, adorned with an Our Lady of Guadalupe sticker, and made their way back to camp.

Why give up a summer to do this kind of work?

“How many times has someone said to you, ‘You saved my life’?” Johnston asked. “It may never happen to you except when someone’s joking. But I heard that six times last summer.”

No More Deaths reports medically evacuating 68 migrants in 2005.

“We come out here and we spend hundreds and hundreds of hours walking the trail and we don’t see anyone,” Johnston said. “It’s that one person we find that needs us that really makes the difference.”

For more on No More Deaths or to volunteer, visit their Web site at www.nomoredeaths.org.