Building humane borders

Salt shakers
June 2001

Graduates pledge to consider consequences before cash
Bringing humanity to the desert and U.S. immigration policy

Bringing humanity to the desert and U.S. immigration policy
The news out of the Arizona desert could not have been more horrifying. Twelve people, migrants mostly from Veracruz, Mexico, had crossed the craggy desert into what they thought would be a promised land of new jobs and opportunity. But instead of the hoped-for new life in the United States, they met a terrible death in the desert, lost and abandoned by the "coyotes" who were supposed to guide them and finally succumbing to thirst and 115-degree temperatures.

Eleven others were rescued by the Border Patrol from the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and immediately hospitalized. Many of the survivors will never fully recover from their ordeal. Rescuers say many of the victims were discovered naked after discarding or losing their clothing, their bodies desiccated by the heat until they resembled mummies. The migrants were found scattered about 30 to 40 miles from the Mexican border and at least as many miles from their apparent target, Interstate 8 in Arizona.

The reports, terrible as they were, were not unexpected in some quarters. Rev. Robin Hoover may have been surprised by the high casualty figure from this one incident, but to him and other critics of US border policy, this was a tragedy almost bound to happen. Hoover coordinates the efforts of Tucson's Humane Borders. A faith-based volunteer effort to "take death out of the immigration equation," HB has been maintaining two water stations in the Arizona desert near Tucson. Hoover has seen increasing numbers of Mexican migrants making a dangerous crossing in the desert since the Border Patrol began a still-continuing campaign to tighten controls in urban zones such as Nogales and Douglas, Arizona that had become near-wide open avenues for migration into the US

Now migrants from Mexico and Central America have been taking greater risks to reach the US by making their cross border sojourns through unfamiliar and dangerous desert where border control agents cannot easily monitor their movements. The results have been a predictable increase in the number of fatalities associated with unauthorized border crossings. The number of migrant deaths along the southern border was 369 in the 2000 fiscal year, up from 261 in 1998, the Immigration and Naturalization Service says.

"There has been a phenomenal number of people coming up through the corridor where our existing stations are," says Hoover. "I encountered 22 out there the other day and only two of them were carrying water. A lot of them are teenagers, and they have no idea what they're getting into."

In an effort to cut back the casualty rate, Humane Borders refills its water barrels at least each week and marks them with tall flag poles. Hoover estimates at least 32 gallons of water a day are being consumed by migrants stopping off at these two stations alone. HB had hoped to expand its program into the Cabeza Prieta Refuge where the recent deaths occurred but were denied a permit to establish new water stations in April by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Agents of that federal agency were worried about the impact of Humane Borders' activities on the endangered Sonoran Pronghorned Antelope, says Hoover. In light of the recent tragedy, however, the service is revisiting its policy.—Kevin Clarke

For more information:
"People are dying to come to America"—from U.S. Catholic
"What's down the road for Mexico?"—from U.S. Catholic
Borderlinks
Border issues from the Smithsonian Library

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