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  El Paso, Texas
Monday, February 25, 2008

I'm totally stealing this powerful entry from my friend West and his friend Dan (a volunteer for No More Deaths). Too bad that only the most dedicated will read it to the end. It gets more outrageous as it goes. First, West reports today's El Paso news:

Here in El Paso, the border patrol has announced that starting today they will enforce a new policy that will prosecute and jail immigrants (rather than simply sending them back) who cross into the United States in the downtown area, therefore sending more people into the dangerous desert.

Attitudes towards immigrants continue to harden as the calls for more walls and armed agents continues.  Please take time to consider what we can do to change this deadly and sinful policy. West
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Border Eclipse by Dan Mills
Right now I am trying to decide if I want to write this.  I think I do, because you need to know.  And you need to do something. We all do.

Yesterday afternoon three young volunteers and I were on a No More Deaths patrol in a remote desert canyon.  We were dropping off water, food, blankets, shoes and socks along some remote migrant trails. Walking up the canyon, I saw some green shoes, and, thinking they looked pretty new, began to yell, as we always do, "Hola, hola! Tenemos agua, comida, somos de la iglesia, blah blah..." I only got to the second "hola" before I saw her teeth, and spun around, and told my friends: "Stop."

I had never found someone dead in the desert before.  The feeling is horrendous. So ugly, frustrating, tragic.  I just looked at my feet and said "Goddammit."  I'm still mad. Joseline was only fourteen years old.  She was from El Salvador, heading to the West Coast to reunite with family members there. I can't stop thinking of all the freshmen I taught at VVS - she could have been one of them.

Because obtaining a visa through official means is next to impossible, she, and thousands like her, can't cross the border at a port of entry.  Instead, our spineless government builds walls to force them into the furthest, most inhospitable stretches of desert. As crossing without documents becomes more difficult, the price of the journey rises. Now smuggling people is as profitable as smuggling drugs, so cartels are more involved and violence is increasing. "Securing the border" is a stupid term that just means speeding up this vicious cycle. Each year, hundreds of people die trying to cross the southern borderlands, walking north for a better life.  Still, it is very rare for humanitarian aid organizations like No More Deaths to find a deceased migrant in the desert. It only happens about once a year. I guess this year my friends and I are the unlucky ones.

I'm not writing this message asking for sympathy.  I'm asking for action.  Though the many calls and kind words I've already received are appreciated, I don't feel comforted.  How can I take solace when what we ran across yesterday is a regular occurrence here in the U.S?

...How can we feel secure when our neighbors are being rounded up and scapegoated in our own communities, far from the border? (See link below to Arpaio article) How can anyone feel comforted when a kangaroo court called "Operation Streamline" is forcing poor and hungry people to beg a judge for forgiveness for their "crime" of trying to feed their families? or face jail time and criminal records?

U.S. border policy is designed to neglect, berate, scapegoat, humiliate, torture, and kill innocent people.  Let's change it. Now, goddammit!
Sincerely,
Your friend Dan

Link to Arpaio article: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-12-27/news/flushing-them -out

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Congratulations, Dedicated Reader!! You are rewarded with the following news item your friends and family likely will not see on the syndicated news reports. Read on.  Dan's trials continue....
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Daniel Millis (928) 821-0331 daytime or evening (Spanish/English)

Humanitarian aid work results in citation, confiscation.  Tucson, AZ-Friday, February 22, 2008.
Four border environmental and humanitarian aid volunteers hoped to make a difference along the border by picking up trash and leaving water for people in need. But the water they left along trails north of Sasabe on Friday did not quench the thirst of ailing migrants.  Instead, it resulted in a citation for littering.

Dan Millis, 28, was presented with a $175 littering ticket by U.S.Fish and Wildlife law enforcement officers after they found several sealed gallon containers of drinking water that he and three others placed for migrants to find.  If he does not pay, he could face six months of jail time or a $5,000 penalty.  The four volunteers are from No More Deaths, a Tucson-based aid group that seeks to end death and suffering of migrants along Arizona's border with Mexico by providing food, water, and medical aid.

The volunteers were surprised to learn that they had violated regulations not only by leaving water for migrants, but also by picking up trash.  A government-issued Special Use Permit is required for either activity.

"I had no idea it was wrong to pick up trash," stated volunteer Chris Fleischmann, 47, a licensed EMT from Phoenix. "It makes no sense."

Officers Kirkpatrick and Kozma seized twenty-two gallons of drinking water from the trails, along with eight gallons from Millis' vehicle. They also took photographs of the volunteers, the exterior and interior of the vehicle, and the contents of Millis' notebook. "I was kind of bummed they didn't take the trash too while they were at it," stated Millis. "We had at least five crates of it."

One of the volunteers, Max Garcia, 26, showed the officers pictures of a fourteen year-old girl whose remains he, Millis, and other No More Deaths volunteers discovered on Wed. "I tried to appeal to their sense of responsibility, so we could continue this lifesaving work," said Garcia.  "Unfortunately, the appeal did not work. Instead, I got yelled at."

238 migrants were found dead in the Arizona borderlands during the 2007 fiscal year. No More Deaths has been working to provide humanitarian aid to people in need since 2004.  Vandalism of life-saving water and other humanitarian aid supplies is an egregious offense that is becoming all too common in our desert. This case is
particularly ironic and absurd, given the US government's responsibility for creating the problem, continuing human rights abuses, and impeding attempts at direct relief.

"When we got in the car to leave, I told officer Kirkpatrick that humanitarian aid is never a crime," states Sebastian Rodriguez, 25, the only female among the four volunteers. He replied, "It is a crime, and you're about to find out that it is."
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Border Explorer asks: "What kind of a world is it when getting fined for picking up litter is more surprising than finding dead 14 year old girls in the desert?"

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