Tucson Region

Aid station for migrants blessed

ARIVACA - A group of religious leaders spent Memorial Day afternoon blessing a remote patch of land here that throughout this summer will serve as a 24-hour aid station for illegal entrants crossing the desert. The biblically inspired "Ark of the Covenant" camp - one of three planned for the Arizona border this summer - is on property owned by popular Southwestern author Byrd Baylor. Baylor's land, about 20 miles from the U.S. border with Mexico, will be used by a rotating group of volunteers who plan to live here with the aim of preventing a rising annual tally of illegal border crossers who die each summer in Arizona's desert borderlands. The U.S. Border Patrol met with Ark of the Covenant volunteers last week and officials are aware of the locations of their camps. Border Patrol officials reminded the volunteers that it is a federal crime to aid any migrant "in furtherance of their illegal activity" but said that humanitarian aid is an acceptable activity. "I am just delighted to be a part of this," Baylor said Monday as she stood by a colorful shrine featuring Roman Catholic saints that volunteers made for the entrants. Then she joined the gathering in singing "Amazing Grace" in Spanish. Like other residents of Arivaca, Baylor sees firsthand the men, women and children who walk across the desert each day looking for better lives in the United States. She said she has seen groups as large as 30 entrants pass by her home. The camp is marked by two white flags - one picturing three blue drops of water and the other showing a green cross, which volunteers say is a recognizable symbol for a nonprofit Mexican medical and rescue group called Rescate. Though organizers have already been criticized by individuals and groups like the private Sierra-Vista based American Border Patrol, who say the camps will only exacerbate a problem of illegal entry into the United States, the Ark of the Covenant volunteers say they have a moral obligation to help people who are at risk of dying by offering them safety and refuge. The other Ark of the Covenant camps will operate near the communities of Why and Douglas, and volunteers have come to the Sonoran Desert from across the country to help. The camps are one facet of a new Tucson-based group that calls itself the "No More Deaths" movement and expands on existing programs, such as the Humane Border water stations. The religious leaders on Monday dedicated the campsite land here as "holy ground" and asked for God's blessing to help them do their work. They also offered the federal government a message: A blockade strategy along the border that has intensified since 1995 is failing miserably. Based on their own conversations with Latin Americans at migrant centers south of the border, religious leaders and other No More Deaths volunteers say the reason people continue to come from Mexico into the United States illegally is that they would rather gamble a fatal desert crossing than die a slow death of poverty in their own communities. "We are here to change the hearts of people," said the Rev. Robert Carney of St. Luke's Catholic Church in Douglas during a blessing ceremony at the shrine, when volunteers poured water into a large bowl and then adorned the shrine with full bottles of water. "May this water symbolize life, the giving creation of our God and Father." No More Deaths is working with agencies in Mexico to warn people of the dangers of crossing the border, said Rick Ufford-Chase, a Tucsonan who is part of the local effort. "These are normal, everyday people trying to provide for their families," said Ufford-Chase, an elder at Southside Presbyterian Church, 317 W. Third St., which is a lead organizer of No More Deaths. The Rev. John Fife, the pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church, counts more than 2,000 men, women and children who have lost their lives attempting to cross the border since 1998. Those statistics alone point to the failure of federal immigration policy, he said. Brandon Wert, director of youth ministry at Southside Presbyterian, will be living at the Arivaca camp this week, sleeping on a cot outdoors. He will be keeping in touch with other volunteers, including pilots who have offered their services and private planes to survey the border area for illegal entrants who may need help. "We have shade and a lot of water and enough food to keep us healthy," Wert said. "But we will experience a bit of what the migrants do, just by being out here." Since Oct. 1, at least 84 people are known to have died while crossing the desert from Mexico into the United States. Last summer, men, women and children were dying along the Mexico-Arizona border at a rate of nearly one per day, usually succumbing to heat and dehydration. About 30 volunteers and activists are taking part in a 75-mile "Migrant Trail" walk that began Monday afternoon on the Mexican side of the border near Sasabe, Ariz. The walk will end Sunday, in front of U.S. Border Patrol offices at 1790 W. Ajo Way in Tucson.