No mas muertes

Two volunteers from the organization No More Deaths/No Mas Muertes in Tucson were arrested on Saturday morning because they had migrants in their car. No Mas Muertes is a faith-based group and key CPT partner in our work here. They staff a migrant camp in the desert south of Tucson on the US side, while CPT staffs a migrant camp, along with our Mexican partner, on the Mexico side. It could have been any of us arrested. I was at the Mexico camp when the arrest took place.

Here is what happened, in the words of the NMD press release:
On Saturday morning, July 9th, two NMD volunteers came on a group of nine migrants in varying degrees of distress. They had been walking for several days, lost in the desert. The volunteers provided food and water to these persons and they washed their feet and cared for their blisters. The volunteers treated these friends as you and I would wish to be treated if we fell into such straits; they showed human compassion to those our government degrades as less than human. Three of these persons reported vomiting, diarrhea, and one reported blood in his stool, all conditions which are symptomatic of extreme and life-threatening dehydration. After consultation with No More Deaths vounteer medical personnel and legal counsel, the decision was made to medically evacuate these persons to be treated by a doctor in Tucson.

Ms. Sellz and Mr. Strauss volunteered to take these persons to be treated by a No More Deaths doctor and they were arrested en route. Upon learning of the arrests, a No More Deaths volunteer doctor and nurse went to the border patrol station where they were being held and asked to see the migrants. The border patrol turned our medical volunteers away and later a border patrol spokesperson said the travelers were "ok" and did not require treatment. We know they were far from "ok."....end of press release quotation

The two were charged with 2 felonies. They are college students volunteering for the summer. One was obstruction of justice and the other was particular to the statute concerning transportation of undocumented persons. The statute reads that you cannot transport an undocumented person if it is "furtherance or abetting" illegal migration into the US. The border patrol has chosen to interpret this to mean any transportation of undocumented person illegal.

If I put an undocumented person in my car to go to the movies, is it furtherance or abetting illegal migration? What about if I am driving them south? Do I have to ask for documents every time someone gets into my car? Do I only have to ask for documents from Hispanic people, or do I have to card everyone? I'm no expert, but the law seems extreme to me. What are we, the Soviet Union?

Militarization of the Border

On Friday we did a prayer service in front of the border patrol station in Douglas, Arizona. It is the largest border patrol station in the world, they claim. As part of the prayer service, I poured blood (actually, it was strawberry marguerita mix) in the shape of a cross in the soil in front of the station. It was a symbolic way of stating that the desert soil has become marked with blood, making it both tragic and sacred, like the Cross.

It would have been nice to use real blood, but we did not have the technology. This action had some meaning for me beyond the obvious targetting of the border patrol. I marked the sign of the cross in blood in the desert soil here; but my own blood is in the desert soil of Tuwani, and that event and place has become for me both tragic and sacred.

We have had some discussion about why target the border patrol. The reason is that some of the policies of increased militarization originate with them; the other reason is that no matter what the origin, the border patrol is responsible for implementing them. We don't want them to learn to live complacently with atrocity. We want them to think about the consequences of what they do, and hopefully lead them to become compassionate.

Border Patrol militarization includes highway checkpoints, helicopter patrols, video surveillance, infrared sensors, drones, the border wall, and a very high presence of border patrol agents. It reminds me a lot of Palestine and makes me wonder where we are headed. (In Palestine they are called border police. I don't know if they have any stations larger than the one in Douglas.)

Last weekend we heard that vigilantes were going to be out in full force, because of the 4th of July holiday. The Minutemen held a rally in Phoenix, and they had some small patrols in the Tucson area. But the Minutemen are the least of our worries here. They are just the ones who have gotten the most attention. They are minor compared to the ones who claimed on their website that they were going to greet people attempting to cross the border with AK-47s. We patrolled around, but didn't find anyone. These are white nationalist hate groups, primarily. Some of them are local ranchers.

This weekend we are part of a migrant camp in Mexico. Our Mexican partners only have the resources to hold it about every two weeks; when they have one, we help to staff it because they believe that the presence of internationals deters violence from gangs, drug runners, and Mexican military. There is violence against migrants on both sides of the border; they are very vulnerable.

The purpose of the camp is to be a safe place where migrants in distress can get water, food, and medical attention. We place it at a high crossing point. Some legal advisors have told us that we could be at risk, even doing it on the the Mexican side, of prosecution by US authorities for aiding and abetting illegal immigration. We can see US border patrol vehicles parked across the fence from the camp.

The biggest problem for me is not the legal risk, but the fact that it is just unbelievably hot.