El Comedor - part 2

Carol, a member of a UCC church in Tucson, comes to El Comedor every Tuesday with a group of the Green Valley Samaritans that delivers blankets and hygiene kits. She invited me to walk with her around the corner to a bus company. “When people are deported here – they walk back into Mexico with what they’re wearing. No one I’ve seen arrive at El Comedor, lives here in Nogales – they’re all from somewhere else in Mexico. Our work is to help stabilize them and help them get back to their homes. The man we’re going to see has a local bus company. He offers the returning migrants ½ price bus fares and free phone cards, so they can call friends and family to wire the other ½ of the fare.

“It’s not much of a place, you’ll see, but he’s put in showers and created shade, they can get water – it’s all free. He's a good man.” In front of the dirt yard, there’s a sandwich board sign that Carol translates. ‘Migrants you are welcome here. You can take a free shower, rest in the shade, get a drink of water. We'll help you get home.’”

She continues, “I’m stopping by because I’ve found someone who will donate some solar hot water heaters and I need to find out if this fellow can use them and if so, how to get them across the border to him.” The Mexican border guards can be picky about what they let in. Bring clothing and supplies over in plastic bags and they may decide to not let them them in. Bring then in a suitcase and all's well.

We walk into the bus yard. The office is a battered trailer. Next to it is a large shaded pavilion created by stretching blue plastic tarps between poles. Underneath are banks of what looks like greyhound bus seats – probably 50 seats in all – and a quarter of them are filled with men resting and waiting for their turn in the showers.

“We want to help them get home. Providing this kind of support helps. But also, we talk with them about the dangers of illegal crossing and living as a undocumented worker in the U.S. We do our best to discourage them. Most are uniformed about what they face. A good number are picked up and deported after living and working in the U.S. for several years. When they first entered, it was much easier, much safer. The new policies have funneled people deep into the desert and the mountains. They don’t have a good idea of the distances involved or of the dangers.

“Some of the women and men I talk with are determined to try and get into the US – that’s the only future my family has, they say. I don’t know the answer. We have to have secure borders, but we also need ways to allow people to immigrate into our country – that’s our history…and our future. What we have now isn’t working."