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Amherst Bulletin: “Human rights at the border: Young local man joins efforts to stop deaths of migrants” |
Amherst Bulletin, July 9, 2010
By Nick Grabbe
SHUTESBURY, MA—Remy Fernandez-O'Brien just returned from the Arizona-Mexico border, where he got a perspective on the immigration question that few lawmakers have.
Fernandez-O'Brien, 20, of Shutesbury, spent 16 days with a group that provides food, water and medical care to Mexican people who are trying to enter the U.S. on foot through the desert. He spent one day on the Mexican side of the border as a translator at a medical aid station for people who had just been deported.
"What we were doing is Band-Aid work," he said. "We were just trying to stop people from dying."
The group he was working with, No More Deaths, keeps a running tally on its website of the number of deaths along the Arizona-Mexico border since last October. It currently stands at 128. The group, whose mission is "to end death and suffering through upholding fundamental human rights," is also advocating against the tough new law in Arizona on undocumented migrants.
Border encounters
Fernandez-O'Brien spent most of his time in Arizona in a sparsely populated, very hot area south of Tucson. He set off every day in a group of five to hike along trails used by migrants and drop off jugs of water. At every hilltop, the group would shout, "Don't be afraid, we're not border patrol. We are volunteers and we have water and food."
They encountered migrants who were suspicious and didn't want to talk, and also desperately sick people who just wanted help turning themselves in to the border patrol, he said. They often saw poignant evidence of migrants' presence, such as empty water bottles and abandoned backpacks, shoes and warm clothes, he said.
The group observed a moment of silence at a shrine built to remember a 14-year-old girl who had died trying to make a new life for herself. "It reminded us of why we were out there," he said.
At one point, the group was approached by a U.S. agent in camouflage clothes who pointed an assault rifle at them. “When he realized we were white, he just said, ‘What are you doing here?’” he said. "If you're white, they say, ‘Have a nice day’ and if you're Mexican it's, ‘You're under arrest.’”
In Mexico, he met a man who lived in the U.S. for 10 years and has a wife and children here, but has been deported twice and decided not to try to come back. He also met a man with a family here, who had a fever and severe blisters but said he would try to cross the border as many times as it takes.
"He said I was the first white American to show him any compassion," said Fernandez-O'Brien.
Every migrant he met was coming to the U.S. for economic reasons, he said.
"The media story is that they're horrible people who commit crimes, don't pay taxes and take other people's jobs," he said. "Everyone I met was honest and generous and had a family and was doing what they could to survive."
Some Arizona restaurant owners are worried that they will face a labor shortage if the controversial state law goes into effect and their illegal employees move to another state, Fernandez-O'Brien said.
"The current border strategy isn't working, whether you're a conservative and want a sealed border or if you're a liberal and don't want to have people die out there and recognize that they're important to our economy," he said.
A completely sealed border is not possible, and in some places the border fence is "easier to climb than a ladder," he said. A completely open border "would be an improvement on what we're doing now," he said.
Fernandez-O'Brien is bilingual. His father is a physician from Puerto Rico and his mother is a longtime teacher at Wildwood School in Amherst. His parents were "scared to death" about his trip because they were worried about anti-immigration vigilantes, he said.
He's planning to go back next summer, and some friends have expressed an interest in coming along. Next fall he will start his junior year at Brown University, where he first heard about No More Deaths by attending a lecture.
He hopes to create a slide show on his experience and talk about it at Brown and at Amherst Regional High School, from which he graduated in 2008.
"Anyone can stand up and do something," he said. "You don't need to have a special idea to help people around you. Ordinary people can do amazing things." |
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