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Recap: Humanitarians Receive Littering Tickets |
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Monday, 13 July 2009 23:27 |
The July sun beat down, and by mid-morning, there was no avoiding the heat. We departed from Tucson two hours earlier and now gathered 40 strong on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. Soon, the Arivaca Cienega parking lot was filled with cars bearing No More Deaths’ trademark green crosses and the red placards of Los Samaritanos. In spite of the temperature nearing 100 degrees, the group was upbeat and looking forward to getting out on the trails.
The July sun beat down, and by mid-morning, there was no avoiding the heat. We departed from Tucson two hours earlier and now gathered 40 strong on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. Soon, the Arivaca Cienega parking lot was filled with cars bearing No More Deaths’ trademark green crosses and the red placards of Los Samaritanos. In spite of the temperature nearing 100 degrees, the group was upbeat and looking forward to getting out on the trails.
By 10 am, the anticipation rose with the heat as nearly 40 humanitarian volunteers gathered in a parking lot just outside the small desert town of Arivaca. Our goal was simple, with 110-degree heat predicted for the coming weekend, we came to put jugs of water out for migrants.
The trails we hoped to cover were on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge starts at the border and extends north 30 miles in one of the most active migrant corridors in Arizona. Law enforcement for the refuge had issued five littering citations to humanitarians in 2008, leading to two convictions in federal court.
Just days before, Refuge Manager, Mike Hawkes, declined a request for a face-to-face meeting with humanitarian and environmental groups. The groups wanted to sit down with Mr. Hawkes and hash out a plan to provide more effective humanitarian assistance on the refuge. Instead, he suggested a “virtual meeting by email.”
Gathered in a circle, Rev. John Fife reminded us of our community’s commitment and responsibility to provide humanitarian aid everywhere that it is needed. We recalled two important anniversaries for human rights: the nearly 20 years that have now passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the arrest of two of our volunteers exactly four years prior to the day. The gathering ended with a prayer led by Rev. Gene Lefebvre, summoning strength for volunteers, relief for migrants on the trails at that moment, and the ability to preserve our desert with the end of deadly border policies. With strong resolve and hopeful hearts, volunteers from No More Deaths and Tucson Samaritans departed to begin our water drop route on Buenos Aires.
We arrived at the first water drop after a short drive west. Our caravan stretched up and down both sides of the road, and our first three volunteers, with gallon jugs in hand, started up the trail amidst applause by onlookers. Soon afterwards, U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents arrived and followed them up the trail. Several minutes went by before our volunteers returned, followed by the agents carrying out the jugs. One by one the water droppers were called over and cited for littering. The group included a nurse, a retired professor of social work, and a Presbyterian minister.
We drove on to our next stop with law enforcement vehicles now in the caravan. Reverend Fife, a resident of Cascabel, and a Hamilton College student took their jugs and placed them on another migrant trail. Fish and Wildlife agents immediately confiscated the water and, again, cited these humanitarians for their respect of life—both wild and human.
We continued west to the third location, which was quite a distance off Arivaca Road and required some hiking. Upon our arrival we found that our expert in mapping and GPS, and the former Dean of Geo Sciences at the University of Arizona, was also ticketed for littering, but in his case for giving us guidance to the trail-heads. The contrast between the two options for water that day were striking: a gallon of clean, pure drinking water on one hand, and a muddy pool of day old rain water in the other. Four more volunteers, including a preschool teacher and a librarian, placed water along a trail as onlookers pleaded with the agents to leave the water, “Please don’t take that water; there are women and children dying out here,” then solemn chanting began as the agents moved to their trucks, emphasizing each word, “No-more-deaths! No-more-deaths!”. The message fell on deaf ears as agents for a third time immediately removed all water and wrote four more citations.
As the summer sun continued to bear down on us, we arrived at our final planned stop. A Franciscan priest and retired clinical psychologist proceeded to the last drop, but certainly not least! With abundant enthusiasm they ducked under the barbed wire to place desperately needed water jugs on known migrant routes—only to be met and cited, as had all the others.
After nearly four hours we gathered again, this time on the side of the road, to celebrate the courageous resistance of 13 people of conscience and the communities that stand with them. As the caravan departed in mid-afternoon, we left hopeful and still committed, yet at the same time saddened, as dozens of life-giving jugs of water sat confiscated as ‘evidence of a crime’ in the back of a truck instead of on the migrant trail where it is so desperately needed. We also left burdened by the knowledge that, as weekend desert temperatures reach 112 degrees, we will soon hear the news of the next unnecessary deaths that will undoubtedly come. Indeed, as our migrant brothers and sisters continue on this journey, forced to cross in more dangerous areas, we must keep the resolve to continue this work by their side. |
Cialis AU
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