Tucson Region

Motorcade to memorialize dead migrants

A motorcade and memorial service for migrants who have died crossing from Mexico to Arizona on foot is planned to begin in Tucson today. Volunteer members of the faith-based No More Deaths coalition say they will drive in cars draped with black ribbons from Tucson to Arivaca, where coalition members have been camping since Memorial Day, offering food, water and medical aid to border crossers. The public is invited to take part in the procession, which organizers expect will include at least 50 vehicles. The caravan is scheduled to leave at 5 p.m. from Southside Presbyterian Church, 317 W. 23rd St. A memorial service will follow at the biblically inspired Arivaca Ark of the Covenant camp - a 24-hour aid station that has been staffed by volunteers all summer. They plan to continue at the camp at least through the end of September. "We solemnly mark the tragic loss of life and call upon our community to refuse to accept this rising death toll simply as business as usual," said the Rev. Sue Westfall of St. Mark's Presbyterian Church, 3809 E. Third St., another church that is part of the coalition. Since Oct. 1 of last year, 99 illegal entrants are known to have died in the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, said spokesman Andy Adame, down from 122 at this time last year. The figure includes six migrants who died in the desert near Gila Bend the weekend of Aug. 7 in what is believed to be one of Arizona's deadliest border crossings. However, Arizona Daily Star data on known migrant deaths, which include deaths reported by county medical examiners' offices and Mexican state department records, show at least 178 people have died in the Tucson and Yuma sectors in the same time. The figure includes 155 deaths in the Tucson sector, 20 in the Yuma sector and three in Sonora. No More Deaths has operated two Ark of the Covenant camps - one in Why and the other in Arivaca - since Memorial Day. About 250 volunteers have helped at the camps. The two camps reported providing help to a total 542 migrants through the end of July. "The humanitarian aid offered by the Samaritans is an ancient tradition practiced by all faith groups, is legal, and has most likely prevented dozens of deaths in the Arivaca region already this year," a No More Deaths press release states. But the Border Patrol's Adame said that while coalition members may have good intentions, their concept of giving out water and food is "fatally flawed" because smugglers use the workers to lure immigrants into the punishing desert heat. "The publicity the humanitarian groups get makes it sound like they are out in every corner of the desert, and that is not the reality," he said. According to Adame, the number of people attempting the trek across the border since March has sharply declined. In March, the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector made 71,251 apprehensions of migrant crossers - an average of nearly 2,300 per day. That number has been steadily dropping and now is down to an average 1,151 apprehensions per day, he said. Adame credits the decrease to the Arizona Border Control Initiative, which has put more agents and resources into patrolling the border since March. However, No More Deaths members contend that increased border enforcement is a failed policy.