Monsoons and Floods

The monsoon season has finally arrived. This means we have heavy rain almost daily and the weather is much cooler in the late afternoon. Different from the rainy season in Palestine, where it rains nearly nonstop and is freezing cold, here the rainstorms are short but heavy, just enough to cool everything off a bit but not so much that we actually need rain gear. But the ground is so dry that it takes awhile for the rain to soak in, so there are sometimes flash floods.

I think in my last email I wrote about the arrest of two volunteers from our partner organization, No More Deaths, for transporting a migrant to the hospital. Where that case stands is that the government offered them a plea deal (the exact details of which have not been made public) whereby the charges would be resolved in exchange for 12-18 months of probation. The two turned it down and are going to trial. The government dropped one charge, obstruction of justice, but continues to pursue the felony charge of transporting an undocumented person. It is unclear whether the Border Patrol will continue to arrest for this activity---so far it has continued with no further arrests.

In response to the arrests, NMD launched a campaign to "flood the desert" with volunteers searching for migrants in distress, which we participated in. I volunteered to be on call to transport to the hospital if needed and if the other volunteers did not want to risk arrest. Luckily, it was not needed. Chances are, though, that I would not have been arrested, because I think the BP doesn't want two cases going on at the same time.

We have continued to paint crosses on the border wall for every death in Cochise County this year, and so far we are up to 11. Every time we go to paint a new cross, we find the old ones painted over with black paint, so we end up painting all new ones every time. We do not know who is responsible. So far, the BP monitors our action but does not try to stop it. Presumably they could arrest us if they wanted to (for doing it on government property), but to their credit, so far they have refrained from that. The crosses are harmless, make the wall look better, and are meaningful to those of us painting them.

After we paint the crosses, we always hammer on the wall to symbolize our desire to break down the barriers between people and nations. We may start doing other kinds of symbolic actions at the wall---it is under discussion. At this most recent cross painting we invited local media, and there were a couple of newspaper articles about it in the surrounding towns.

In addition to increasing desert patrols, we have also started more intentional monitoring of the Border Patrol, similar to what we do in Palestine. Although there is no evidence of anything systemic, we do know there are abuses, and abuse can only take place if no-one is watching. With this high level of militarization, I think it is a good idea for them to know they are accountable. There was a case this week where a local BP agent blew the whistle on the deplorable conditions in their holding facility and was fired for it. So locally, although we have not seen any abuses on the street, we think there may be some inside.

I'll be leading a group to DC September 14-16 to lobby for comprehensive immigration reform. If any of you are interested in participating, especially all you nearby Maryland folks, let me know. I can email you detailed information and a registration form. It should be fun---a bunch of our local partners are sending people, all of whom have lots of experience on the border. They have voices that need to be heard in this debate, and it feels good to be able to facilitate that.

Some Mexican documentary filmmakers interviewed me this week about the similarities between the border wall here and the security wall in Palestine. It is so interesting to me that even here people continue to want to talk to me about my experiences in Palestine. What goes on in the Holy Land is important for many people.