Cross the border from Nogales, AZ to Nogales, Mexico and one of the first buildings you come to is El Comedor, a Kino Border Initiative center providing food, clothing, blankets, hygiene kits and first-aid to people who've been deported from the US. Men and women come with only the clothes on their back, many of them are injured from having tried to walk the desert. Some of the most common routes are from the border to just south of Tucson - that's 90 miles.
I spent Tuesday morning, at El Comedor with a group of volunteers from Green Valley Samaritans - an ecumenical group that provides humanitarian aid. (The Samaritans partner with ranchers, the county, and the park system to place barrels of water in the desert They clean up the camps they find, where migrants have changed into their one set of clean clothing and then left everything else behind - so they will blend in better as they leave the desert. They help injured migrants they come across. )
Last year there were 253 confirmed deaths in the desert sector from the border north toTucson. That's just the persons that were found in this rugged terrain...and just the ones in this sector. Many are young women. Many are children. Last year, volunteers found a child nestled in mother’s lap, under a bush, both dead. Estimates are that 5 times those counted in the Tucson sector died. In just this past year…after the border was "closed." For the Samaritans, the issue is, "people are dying in our back yards. It's inhumane and unchristian to not provide aid." Border control appreciates their work - they don't want people dying in the desert either.
Back to main story...El Comedor started in 2006 when 8 area families simply began serving breakfast one day a month. That moved to twice a month, then others started joining in - the sisters, the jesuits, Kino - now it's twice a day, every day of the year. I was there with a group of pastors from our conference who'd come to Arizona to learn about immigration and border issues, issues that directly affects Washington State and particularly my district.
Aldo, a young man doing his required year of community service as he heads toward becoming a Jesuit, met with us to talk about the ministry at El Comedor. The structure is built into a dirt hillside – dirt walls on the back and one side – open steel grating and tarp enclose the other two, corregated steel roof on top. The 16 x 20 room is filled with rows of picnic tables. At 9am and 4pm a simple meal is served by the volunteers– they go through ton of tortilla a month. After the meal, the tables are cleared and re-filled, this time with clothing, blankets and hygiene kits. Repatriated migrants are allowed back in, the newest repatriated first, to pick up one item from each area. A small health clinic is across the street. Foot injuries are common. Not knowing what lies ahead and having been told it's only a short walk, it's common for women to wear shoes they'd wear to church.
Many if not most who choose to walk across the border north into the US, are not prepared for the journey they face, particularly if they’ve come from the more verdant or tropical parts of Mexico or Central America. They are told by the “coyotes” they’ve hired (I was told the going rate is $1500 - $7000/person) that freedom and hope lie “just over the hill…an easy path!” They are totally unprepared for the heat of the day, for the below freezing temperatures at night, for the sand, for the lack of water. It’s five days if all goes well. Much longer if they stray off the very hard to follow paths.
Harry, one of the Green Valley Samaritans, gave us a nutshell briefing on the illegal economy of this border area. “Guns and money south into Mexico. Drugs and human trafficking north into the U.S.” Aldo adds, “we have a saying in Mexico – the poor are not criminals and the criminals are not poor. You can really see that here. There’s a lot of money to be made in this area if you’re doing criminal things (drugs, guns, money, human trafficking) – so those aren’t the people we get here at El Comidor… they generally aren’t the people who get caught, they know better.” El Comidor and other border area ministries end up working with men, women and children who are economic refugees. They’ve left home because there’s no way to support themselves or their families. They come to work. To stay is to die.
Aldo says that undocumented workers were the first in the U.S to know that a recession was coming. They were the first to get laid off from their low-paying jobs. "They'll also be the first to know that things are getting better." Grateful to work for less than minimum wage , they'll be the first for companies to re-hire.
I'm starting to understand that migration is driven by economies. And, that migration is a world issue - I've so much to learn.
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