CPTnet June 4, 2002 ARIZONA: CPTers aid migrants in need, join migrant walk

by Mark Frey

My lips were cracking and it was only 10am. "If you feel thirsty in the
desert, you haven't been drinking enough," says Rick Ufford-Chase. Rick is a
CPT Steering Committee member and co-Director of Borderlinks. He was showing
our new CPT Arizona team the ropes. (See
(http://www.cpt.org/arizona/arizona.php)

CPT was invited to participate in the No More Deaths (www.nomoredeaths.org)
summer movement. As part of that work we'd been driving around since 6 am
with the "Samaritans"--community members who seek out migrants in need --and
had just left a group of six migrants. The young men , aged approximately
fifteen to twenty-two were hunkered down in the desert shade a couple miles
north of the Mexico-US border on their way to Phoenix. Around them lay
"migrant trash": empty water bottles, discarded clothes and backpacks.
(Picture
at:http://www.cpt.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album61&id=Immigr
ant s_encounter)

We'd walked around for twenty minutes shouting "Tenemos agua, somos amigos"
before the eldest sought us out. I'm sure they'd been watching, assessing if
we were "la Migra," the Border Patrol. "We have eleven people in our group,
the others are in the next arroyo looking for water," they explained. The
eldest said he'd worked last year in Denver, and had actually run into
Samaritans as he traveled north at that time. It was the first trip for the
other boys.

Last night, they said, the Border Patrol was searching in their area with
helicopters and spot lights and at 4am had caught a large number.

We left them with water, snacks, a blessing for safety, and a plea that if
they required medical attention, that they seek out any help, including the
Border Patrol. Being returned to Mexico is a small price to pay for life.

We returned to Tucson for a No More Deaths press conference at which CPTer
Elizabeth Garcia explained, "While we have violence reduction projects
abroad, we forget to look at our own backyard. That's why we're here.
Borders are choices of the heart. We're here to work for 'no mas muertes!'"

(Picture at:
http://www.cpt.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album61&id=Elizabeth
_speaks_at_Press_Conference)

My cracked lips got worse as we traveled to Sasabe, AZ on the Mexico border.
CPTer Cliff Kindy was joining the week-long 75-mile Migrant Walk for Life
from the border to Tucson. We laid hands on him and asked for God's blessing
as he and forty others began the solidarity journey carrying large wooden
crosses. (Pictures at:
http://www.cpt.org/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album61)

In Mexico, I looked over the chain-link fence into the vast expanse of
Arizona desert and marveled at the courage, and perhaps insanity, of the
young men we'd met trying to cross the arid landscape with a gallon jug of
water. I drank more water and gave thanks that I had some. And I marveled at
the destructive social and economic forces that drive desperate people -
thousands a day - to attempt that journey. Something is very wrong.....
(Picture at:
http://www.cpt.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album61&id=the_view_
from_Mexico)