Seventh Annual Migrant Memorial And March

First Christian Church, Sept. 30, 2007

 

Humane Borders first put out a water station late in the fall of 2000. The very first day, more than half of the water deployed was taken. Food and clothing were also taken.

March 7, 2001, we placed our first two water stations in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. March 27, we completed our application to put water on the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. April 18, the application was denied. May 23, the US Border Patrol picked up 14 dead migrants. That startled southern Arizona. Several died that year, but nothing like this year. This year, some 275 bodies of migrants will be recovered from our deserts, and it is unfortunately becoming commonplace and increasingly accepted by the public, by the media, and by officials.

May 30 of 2001, was a week after the deaths of the 14. They became known as the Yuma 14, even though twelve of them died in Pima County. On May 30, I said these words at a press conference:

"We are here because migrants are systematically being herded onto death trails. The immigration policy of the United States is fatally flawed. Some of America's most eager and desperate workers are having trouble getting to work. Far too many people have died crossing deserts, canals, and rivers. Now is the time to take death out of the immigration equation. Many of us are trying, but our efforts are frustrated by federal, state and district agencies with competing visions of what it means to serve the public.

We are representatives of a very large movement of individuals and organizations dedicated to changing the immoral and unconscionable U.S. border policy that forces migrants into the deserts. The deaths of 14 migrants in the West Desert symbolize this failed policy and strategy. We now call upon the public, elected officials, and public administrators to assist us with a comprehensive plan to immediately address the problem of death in the desert."

Well, very little has changed since then, we just have more of everything. More agents, more deaths, more water stations, more volunteer groups, more media. We also have less. We're on the downside of public interest, the low slope of congressional activity, the low side of the administration's concern, and we're experiencing low interest in the Federal, Tribal, and state agencies that should have very high interest in preventing deaths.

Beginning tomorrow, October 1, we will increase the pressure on elected officials and public administrators, law enforcement officials, land managers and owners, and anyone else we can to not only change policies but to work in a concerted way to ameliorate the deadly effects of US immigration and border policies upon migrants. They are tearing at the fabric of our society.

For the record, Humane Borders is not a charity. We do not receive tax-deductible gifts. Humane Borders is a 501(c)(4) organization that can lobby. We will. Additionally, large numbers of our supporters far and wide are organized, in congregations, in denominational organizations, members of human rights organizations, connected to universities, and representatives of civic society. We have been constrained. We will not be restrained.

Today we renew our call to the public, to elected officials, and public administrators to assist us with a comprehensive plan to immediately address the problem of death in the desert.

In August of 1994, Doris Meissner, the former Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service signed off on a report that actually estimated the numbers of migrants that would die in the Sonoran desert if the government continued the then current strategies. More have already died than were ever even estimated.

The Department of Homeland Security and the United States Border Patrol have excused the deaths by saying that they were an unintended consequence. We disagree. But, even if there were even minimal credence to that statement, these years later, the Border Patrol has not initiated any new policies to ameliorate the situation. Congress gave a mandate to the Border Patrol in 1998 called the Southwest Border Safety Initiative. Result: more migrants dead. Where's Congress? Where's the Executive that once spoke of compassion?

The President of the United States apparently picks and chooses projects to implement from the list of things passed by Congress. His Department of Homeland Security has been given vast discretion and almost unrestrained funding with virtually no oversight or accountability. In one day recently, President Bush signed 26 new policies and packages of projects to deal with the border. New fences, new towers, new cameras, new aircraft, new this and new that.

We should have a rule. If the government wants to do something, it first needs to see if it works. Aircraft. No. Ground based radar. Can't see the difference between a cow or a person, and no jokes, please. Fencing. Well, first they crossed them, then they torched them. Now, they're going to Phoenix to steal cars, drive south across the delicate deserts and then picking up their loads and driving north, thus doubling the number of miles driven in the desert. Well, by the numbers: When I was a child, elected officials, military personnel, teachers, and business men told us all about the cold war and "them." God help us from "them." They're different. In their countries, they have internal checkpoints, and lots and lots of police. Soon, my friends, there will be no difference. We either learn how to live in an open society, or we fail.

As to our immediate concerns:

We've been told by a solicitor of the United States to quit asking for water station permits. We will not cease doing that. They work. They are statistically significant in reducing deaths in the desert, and this is a democracy. We're willing to receive letters from the land managers telling us that we can't put life saving waters on public lands. We'll share them with the media. They will be on TV. We believe in government in the daylight.

The Governor of Arizona is apparently uninterested in the plight of the migrants in southern Arizona. For that matter, almost no one in the Legislature has ever said even a kind word. Humane Borders is not allowed to operate water stations on Arizona State Trust Lands. We're not allowed to go on Arizona State Trust Lands to even look for deceased migrants. We're not even allowed to go across Arizona State Trust Lands to enter properties where we have federal permits to operate water stations. The State of Arizona is not willing to work cooperatively with the U.S. government to reduce deaths in the desert. There's something wrong with that picture. One can hunt, kill, recreate, but not save lives on public lands. What part of public doesn't Arizona understand?

The Tohono O'odham Nation leadership has recently taken a step forward. On numerous recent occasions, Humane Borders volunteers have, in the company of members of the Nation, searched respectfully the lands owned by the Nation for fallen migrants. Still, the deadliest migrant trail in the United States is across the Tohono O'odham Nation's lands, and very, very little is being done to reduce deaths and relieve human suffering. No access for Humane Borders water stations.  We are grateful that there are a few United States Border Patrol rescue beacons on the Nation's lands. We were told by the Border Patrol that they wouldn't be there if we hadn’t advocated for putting water stations there. Humane Borders enjoys wide support for our work among O'odham people. We would call upon them all to work with their legislature to allow more proven life-saving technologies to be deployed on their lands.

Pima County Government is a shining example of a government that is responding to the needs of the migrants. To that end, many of us wish Pima County owned more of Pima County. The County has allowed Humane Borders access to county lands, funded operations, and cooperated with some Global Information Systems technologies. They've taken heat for it, but they've made decisions that are, in the last analysis, good politics, good policies, and good financial decisions. The county has also spent enormous sums to identify recovered bodies and to unite them with families. We are grateful.

The City of Tucson has enabled us to have access to City of Tucson water properties to operate water stations and to monitor the migrant traffic for changing patterns. We are grateful. Several migrants have been rescued from these lands because of our presence.

Eighty-six percent of the land in Arizona is public in one way or another. Therefore, we have only a few private water station locations. Still two new ones will come on line this fall, and there are many opportunities for private land holders and even Arizona State Trust Land lease holders to make available life-saving waters for migrants.

Water is not the only solution.

We've plotted all of the cell phone towers in southern Arizona onto complicated topography maps using our $20,000 computer program. We've shown where migrants die and on whose land.

By the way, in November, we will make public the numbers of deaths according to surface management responsibility and also the numbers of deaths per 1,000 square miles of federal, tribal, state, county, city, and private lands. We promise some heartburn.

Most migrants die where there is no cell phone service is available. Federal, Tribal, State, County, City, and private land managers, law enforcement personnel, security personnel, Homeland Security personnel and the general public would all be served by increasing the numbers of cell phone towers in the desert. More than half of all of the rescues performed by the Border Patrol Search Trauma and Rescue volunteers are self-initiated by migrants using cell phones. Our country and its servants would be more secure with greater communication capabilities and many, many lives would be saved.

The greatest objection to new service was environmental. Now that the government no longer cares about the environment expresses little concern for local democratic processes and is putting towers up here and there willy nilly, they should at least have the equipment to field 911 calls from the desert. Who knows, even a Minuteman's life could be saved.

All of us could agree on a few things, and everyone in Arizona could agree on them, too. We all want some level of national security. We all agree that a stable, available, legal workforce is a plus to the country. We all agree that extending and enforcing human rights is a good. And, there's no one who is awake who doesn't want less political noise on the border about the border. The more noise, the more the racists, bigots, and cultural imperialists come to the forefront, not to mention their representatives running for office.

Our deserts are dangerous for people, and they are also delicate. We've stayed on that message for seven seasons. We picked up tons of trash yesterday at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. We pick up tons every year. We also had to pick up some water stations for the season yesterday because certain federal land managers don't want the stations out there during the winter time, during peak migration and when the peak numbers of tourists visit the federal lands. It seems the stations are unseemly. Well, we're part of the public, and we think death is unseemly.

There are many ways our leaders can help change this situation. We'll be reminding you of some of them by and by. The crosses we carry today are very visible reminders. We'll all be more visible this year.

For more information, please contact us.