He was, walking northward from Nogales to Tucson, carrying a backpack and an empty water jug. When asked if he needed anything, he said "agua." We gave him both food and water. .
His name was Allan and he was only 16. This was his third attempt at crossing from Mexico, each ending in detention and deportation. He had hoped to reach Utah to take a motel job. But he had been walking for five days, seemed discouraged and disoriented, and was ready to turn himself in. But five Border Patrol vehicles had passed without picking him up.
Allan had crossed in a group of 11, who had scattered when surprised by the Border Patrol. Now there was only him, and he just wanted to go home. We called the BP and after a 45-minute wait he was picked up and we went on our way..
My encounter with this Mexican migrant took place last week near Tucson, where I was volunteering with Humane Borders, a church-based humanitarian agency that puts out 55-gallon water drums identified by tall blue flags, so migrants won't die of thirst. With other volunteers I helped fill the barrels and pick up trash left by migrants in their daytime campsites--excess clothing, backpacks, food containers, water bottles--everything they could no longer carry on their journey north.
Allan was one of the approximately one million persons who attempt to cross the Sonora-Mexico border each year. Of these, more cross between January 15 and May 1 (when nights are less frigid and the desert is not yet unbearably hot) than live in the city of Tucson--650,000. There were only 356,000 migrant apprehensions in the Tucson sector last year--many of which involved the same persons caught over once--meaning that about half get through. Betweem 200 and 300 bodies are recovered in this sector every year--and many more are never found. Overall, the Border Patrol apprehends 875,000 each year nationwide, which includes persons who enter legally but overstay their visas (a whopping 43% of the total) or had been working and paying taxes here, often for many years and with American-born children, but who are swept up in ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids and found to have "no-match" Social Security numbers.
I had encountered the disastrous effects of these inhumane raids while spending Christmas with my daughter in a Minnesota town which had a small meatpacking plant. Detentions in a recent ICE raid led other workers to leave out of fear, causing a severe labor shortage. In order to maintain production the manager brought in some Anglo workers, having to pay more than the Mexicans were getting, and rushing them onto the line without adequate training. As a result one a new white worker had his hand completely severed by a machine, and uttered such excrutiating screams that the whole work force was traumatized and the plant was shut down for the day. Also, the local merchants were worried about the effect on their trade of the forced departure of many Mexican customers, with whom they had developed good relationships. So our flawed immigration policy is having a ripple effect on the white community as well.
But back to Humane Borders. As well as putting out water and picking up trash, I helped take a load of donated clothing and blankets across the border at Nogales, where a Catholic rescue station was providing food, clothing, shelter, and medical care to deported migrants, who were being dropped across the line with nothing but the clothes on their backs. There they would have to decide whether to try to cross again (many do) or to find money to return home. There I met a pregnant young woman waiting for her husband who had been detained in Tucson and was expected any day, and a man who had worked in the US for 28 years, and had a wife and four children here who were American citizens, but had been deported because he had been caught in the "catch-22" situation of having to choose between going to work and taking the anger management training required by a judge. He chose his job and was deported for violating a court order.
Out of this first-hand exposure to the migration situation I have come to several conclusions:
(1) Migrants who come here without documents are motivated by the "pull factor" of plenty of jobs needing their services. Most work hard, live responsibly, contribute to our economy as workers, consumers and taxpayers, and support their families back home. The amount they contribute exceeds the costs to us of providing health, education, law enforcement, and social services.
(2) They are also driven by the "push factor" of an economy in their home country shredded by NAFTA trade policies, which force US-subsidized farm products like corn onto their markets, underselling their produce, and causing them to lose their lands and livelihoods.
(3) The militarized border and ICE policies--the steel walls, high tech sensors, helicopters, prison-like detention centers, swarms of agents and vehicles, "no match" raids, increased detentions and deportations--sometimes brutal--are not working. The migrants keep coming, skirting the walls and controls by an ever-wider margin--because of the pull and push factors just mentioned.
(4) No human being is "illegal." All are children of God and must be treated with dignity and respect regardless of their immigration status. This, in spite of criticism, is what groups like Humane Borders, are doing. Government agencies and officers must do likewise. Even one desert death due to having to evade detection rather than being allowed to cross legally is unacceptable.
(5) A sane, just, equitable, and workable immigration system is desperately needed. This must include provision for regularized, renewable work visas, an expedited and reasonably priced application process, allowance for family reunification, respect for human and civil rights, freedom from fear and intimidation, prohibition of the use of US military forces on domestic soil, and strict separation of police law enforcement and immigration control functions.
Once these provisions are in place, "humane borders" will be not only an organization but a description of the area where I just spent a very worthwhile week--and a signal to all that the Statue of Liberty is once again standing upright as a beacon welcoming the world's "tired and poor" to our borders just as our forebears were welcomed in the past.
Doug Wingeier retired in 1997 after 27 years of teaching practical theology
at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill. He spent eight years at Trinity Theological College in Singapore. He also served six years as a reserve member of Christian Peacermaker Teams. He lives in Asheville.