This week the team camped out and fasted for the last three days on the border wall at the place where we paint the crosses. Border Patrol had painted over them again, and we spent three days repainting all 12 crosses, for the 12 who have died in this county this year crossing the desert. While we were there, we came across of number of groups of migrants who were walking along the Mexico side of the wall, presumably to cross farther down the border, where there are fewer border patrol present. We could see and hear them through gaps in the wall.
On Wednesday late afternoon some of us were driving out to the camp at the wall and came across a woman walking along the road. I asked her if she was ok, and she said yes, but then she asked if I would give her a ride. I put her in the van and drove her (past 2 BP jeeps and 2 ATVs with BP agents dressed in jumpsuits, black helmets and gas masks) to our campsite, because Scott has better Spanish and we needed more details about her situation.
We gave her food and water, as she explained that her group left her behind because she was having leg cramps and she could not keep up. She also said that BP agents had passed her on the road and not stopped. Strange as that sounds, we hear stories like that all the time. She was wise to stay on the road, because it is the ones like her that end up dying, left behind in the desert because they cannot walk fast enough. She had no food or water on her. The only thing she was carrying was a copy of the Gospels.
She explained that she was trying to join her husband in Phoenix, that she came from central Mexico on a 30-hour bus trip to the border, and that she had been walking about 4 hours when we picked her up. She had no idea where she was or how far from Phoenix. She did not know whether Douglas was in Arizona or Mexico. She was very young, maybe 21 or 22. We decided to help her make some phone calls to try and meet up with her husband.
Scott and I brought her back to the house (past a large gathering of BP agents and trucks) to use the phone. It was funny to hear her explain to her husband that she was picked up in the desert by "unos gringos" who are Christian. She showered, we gave her some clothes, she ate and drank, and eventually she made arrangements to meet a ride in the McDonald's parking lot. She and I walked there, and there were more BP jeeps, so we had to walk back to the house, where some people picked her up late in the evening. I hope she found her husband and that she is ok.
On Thursday morning at the camp we entertained a visitor from border patrol. He was plainclothes and drove an unmarked car, but would not give us a card, so we don't know his title. He was a talker and stayed for a long time. It was interesting to learn more about him---things like he has two daughters who are drug addicts and one is in jail (crystal meth). He is raising his grandchild. His youngest daughter is at home, and she has "experimented" with illegal drugs because of her sisters, and that is ok with him. Yet there he is out on the border, doing his job to intercept illegal drug shipments, among other things. He is former "Special Forces" and has served in various US wars all over the world.
He is from the area, and he talked about what it was like when he was growing up, when Mexicans came across the border all the time to work, but then went back home. We all agreed that people would rather be able to go home. He also understood as clearly as us that there is a whole system of exploitation going on here, starting with the organized crime syndicates on both sides of the border who are people-smuggling. His view is that there is less risk and more profit in people-smuggling, so that many of the drug smugglers have changed over to doing that.
He also agreed that employers are benefitting from being able to hire cheap labor and not obey US labor laws, because illegal migrants are too afraid to report exploitation. He did not seem to think that it would therefore make more sense to increase enforcement against employers instead of punishing the poor people crossing the border looking for work. That was too much of a stretch for him! He did understand, though, that it is a supply and demand issue, and that as long as there is work in the US (and nothing but low-paying crappy work south of the border), the people will come. But at the same time he thinks that the solution is increased militarization of the border. There is no logic to it.
We asked him what we would have to do to keep BP from painting over our crosses. He said that there was nothing we could do--that they were going to keep painting them over in black. He said he was under pressure from Tucson to charge us with vandalism for it. He acted like he was not inclined to do so, but we were unsure if it was a good cop-bad cop thing and he was just warning us that arrests were about to come down, or if he was letting us know that he was not going to charge us. I guess we will see.
We did make a point of saying that the cross-painting is harmless, so why would they bother to press charges for it. He suggested that we make a proposal for artwork on the wall and submit it to their community relations folks. I asked if we could do that with the crosses, and he said no way. I wonder who defines what is art!
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