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Dangers along the road less traveled
Desert deaths continue to rise
For the last several years, the American bishops have lobbied Congress for a comprehensive immigration reform plan. After an immigration reform bill stalled last June, experts are predicting that it may take another two years before any meaningful attempts at fixing the situation will see the light of day. Meanwhile, families remain divided and lives continue to be lost in the desert.
By J.D. Long-García, The Catholic Sun
September 20, 2007
ARIVACA, Ariz. — If you ask people working in the desert, they’ll tell you that water can be deadly.
Water makes puddles. Puddles make soggy socks. Soggy socks make for nasty blisters that you can’t walk on.
For people crossing the desert, this kind of blister will get them left behind in a hurry.
“Rains make this time of year more dangerous,” said Joe Shortall from Los Angeles, volunteering with No More Deaths, a humanitarian group that patrols the Arizona desert for illegal immigrants left behind by smugglers.
Rainfall and sweltering heat made crossing the Sonoran Desert as dangerous as ever for illegal immigrants this summer. The U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson sector reported finding 186 bodies so far this year, 26 more than the same time last year.
Border Patrol Agent Dove Haber said environmental factors, like puddles that lead to debilitating blisters, could explain changes in the death toll.
“Did we have a harsh drought season? Did we have a very hot summer?” Haber said. “We see fluctuations.”
Yet the number of humanitarians and Border Patrol agents patrolling the desert continues to grow and the Border Patrol, reporting fewer apprehensions this year, estimates fewer crossings.
“Despite the increase in presence, there’s an increase in deaths,” said Franciscan Brother David Bruer, who walks desert patrols with No More Deaths on the weekends.
So why does the death count continue to rise?
More security, more deaths
Walt Staton with No More Deaths didn’t think changes in the weather were enough to explain the increase in deaths this year.
“Every mile of fence creates a more dangerous situation for those people who are crossing,” he said. “It’s meant to be a deterrent, but it hasn’t happened. It’s not going to happen.”
Current security measures build walls and beef-up enforcement near large, urban centers. According to an August 2001 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office, the strategy has diverted immigrants away from the Border Patrol to more remote regions of the desert.
Staton suggested that there was a direct correlation between the miles of fence built and the number of migrants who died crossing the border. The claim is difficult to evaluate since there is no official record of the number of people who have died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Traffic patterns really do ebb and flow in reaction to where we respond,” Agent Haber said. “We need to still do what we’re hired to do.”
The reason why the Border Patrol places particular emphasis on urban centers is because border crossers are able to “blend into the environment of that surrounding community,” she said.
Last year San Bernardino Bishop Gerald R. Barnes, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ migration committee, formally asked President Bush to veto a congressional proposal to erect a 700-mile fence.
“In our estimation, the erection of a border fence would force migrants, desperate to find employment to support their families, to seek alternative and more dangerous ways to enter the country, contributing to an increase in deaths, including among women and children,” he wrote on behalf of the bishops’ conference.
“The U.S. Catholic bishops are supportive of efforts to enforce immigration law and secure our borders, as long as the mechanisms and strategies applied toward this end protect human dignity and protect human life,” the bishop wrote.
Recognizing human dignity
Whatever the cause, the Church and humanitarian groups such as No More Deaths continue their efforts aimed at preventing death in the desert.
“What our Church is trying to teach us is that we are in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, and we need to respond with love and compassion,” said Bro. Bruer of the San Xavier del Bac Mission in southern Arizona.
In 2005, the Arizona Catholic bishops released “You Welcomed Me,” a pastoral letter on migration. In it they outlined steps Catholics can take to respond to the immigration crisis through education and civil public discourse.
“The final principle underscoring all Church teachings on migration is that the human dignity and human rights of all migrants, regardless of their legal status, should be respected and upheld,” the bishops wrote.
No More Deaths volunteers echoed the bishops’ sentiments during a discussion Sept. 4 at the Arivaca camp. A beat-up thermometer measured the 101-degree temperature while a baby tarantula nestled into the waterproof awning overhead.
“Jesus equates Himself with the stranger, the hungry, the naked,” Joe Shortall said, referring to the Gospel of Matthew. “That pretty much fits the migrant.”
Most volunteers are Anglo so they don’t get much trouble from the Border Patrol while scouring the desert for immigrants. They come to the desert from all over the country to get a better, albeit more complicated, understanding of the complex immigration issue.
“God calls me to give water to those who need it, to try to be Jesus’ hands in the world,” said Rachel Brocker from Portland, Ore. “God calls me to work for the good of those who are oppressed.”
On the afternoon patrol, Staton and Dane Rossman from New Jersey hiked through the desert, passing clothes, empty water bottles and Red Bull cans border crossers left behind.
“Somos de la iglesia. ¿Necesitan ayuda?” they called out, letting whomever is within earshot know that they have come to help. Staton emptied a jug of dirty water he found in the brush so that a thirsty migrant wouldn’t be tempted to drink it.
He wrote “Agua Pura. ¡Vaya con Dios!” on gallon jugs the two volunteers left for future crossers. They didn’t find any immigrants on the three-mile patrol.
“I always say it’s good when we don’t find anyone. It means there wasn’t someone in need on that trail,” Staton said.
“But we’ll keep coming out there until we have a whole summer without finding anyone,” he added, “until there are no more deaths.”
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