wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Church groups patrol border areas,

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Note #8790 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05356
July 7, 2005

Angels of the desert

Church groups patrol border area,
board landlocked 'Ark' for second summer

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - With a motto of "Ni una muerte más" - not even one more death -
volunteers like Holly Thompson helped reopen an around-the-clock immigrant
aid camp last month in the southern Arizona desert near the border with
Mexico.

	Thompson and dozens of other volunteers - including Presbyterian
church members - will take turns over the next three months helping stranded
border-crossers with everything from food and drink to medical assistance.

	The effort is a response to the rising number of illegal immigrants
from Central America, especially Mexico, who are dying in Arizona's scorching
deserts. 

	They are perishing at a rate that could make 2005 the worst year yet
in Arizona, where the toll has risen every year since migrants started
crossing in large numbers in the late 1990s.

	"We are in a crisis situation, and something needs to be done," said
Thompson, a 33-year-old Seattle native who recently graduated from Arizona
State University.

	The "Ark of the Covenant" desert camp, amid hilly terrain northeast
of Arivaca, AZ, reopened for its second summer with a dedication ceremony on
June 12. The outpost, along a popular route north, is expected to remain open
until Oct. 1.

	Undaunted by the triple-digit heat, search-and-rescue patrols from
the Ark will seek out immigrants in distress. Volunteers will roam desert
trails on foot and in four-wheel-drive vehicles packed with food, water and
medical supplies to provide assistance to anyone who needs help.

	The remote desert camp is operated by the humanitarian group "No More
Deaths," an effort involving a number of faith groups, human rights advocates
and grassroots organizations on and near the border.

	The coalition receives strong leadership and support from individual
Presbyterians and from congregations such as Southside Presbyterian Church
and St. Mark's Presbyterian Church, both in Tucson.

	Last year, about 500 volunteers, including doctors and nurses,
provided aid to 1,700 people at the Arivaca camp and another aid station in
southeast Arizona, according to No More Death officials. The aid mostly
consisted of water, food and on-the-spot medical care. In some cases,
volunteers took critically ill migrants to hospitals.

	So far this summer, Ark volunteers have helped at least 160 people,
said Beth Sanders, a spokesperson for No More Deaths.

	"I'm glad the Arks are back, but I'm devastated that they have to be
back," said the Rev. John Fife, pastor of the Southside church and a longtime
border ministry leader. "We set a new record for deaths again last summer. We
saved a lot of lives, but in spite of all of our efforts we still set a
record for deaths of migrants again last year. We're going to have to figure
out more and more ways to try and save lives."
 
	Fife, a former moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.), said the Arivaca outpost is the only camp on the U.S. side
of the border this summer. 

	However, he said a second Ark was been set up on the Mexico side of
the border, across from Douglas, AZ. That camp is sponsored by No More Deaths
and a Mexican organization that operates drug and alcohol rehabilitation
centers, Fife said.

	The 65-year-old Fife, who will retire July 10 after 35 years as
Southside's pastor, has worked with a humanitarian group called "Samaritans,"
and now with No More Deaths, which seeks to raise public awareness about the
border crisis and to prompt change in U.S. immigration policy, which is
widely blamed for the spike in deaths.

	Experts believe about 2,600 men, women, and children have lost their
lives trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border since 1998, when the U.S. Border
Patrol enacted a blockade strategy that forces migrants to take
ever-more-treacherous routes through the desert.

	"Our quarrel is not with the Border Patrol," said Rick Ufford-Chase,
moderator of the 216th General Assembly and a founder of BorderLinks, a
non-profit group that educates people of faith on border issues. "Our quarrel
is with the immigration policy that forces people out into the desert. If the
policy could change and people could have a legitimate way to come into the
country and find a job, we'd be happy to back off on what we're doing in the
desert."

	Ufford-Chase's BorderLinks group was one of the original
organizations participating in No More Deaths, along with Humane Borders, a
Tucson-based effort that maintains water tanks in the southern Arizona desert
for thirsty migrants.

	More than 110 illegal immigrants have died in Arizona's desert this
year, according to medical examiners' offices, setting the pace for the
deadliest year yet. Border Patrol statistics for the Tucson sector put the
number of deaths at 73, an increase of nearly 25 percent from this time last
year. The statistics are for the federal fiscal year, which started on Oct. 1

	Last year, the bodies of a record 219 undocumented immigrants were
found in Arizona, according to medical examiners' reports.

	Thompson described how volunteers helped two undocumented entrants
who were lost and without water for two days. One of the men couldn't get up
because he was so sick. The other used two empty water bottles to flag down
Ark volunteers.

	She said both men were vomiting and dehydrated when they were found
along a desolate stretch of Arizona highway somewhere between Sasabe and
Tucson. 

	They were given food and water and taken to Tucson for medical care,
Thompson said by cell phone from the Ark shortly after returning from a
desert patrol.

	"It's just a pretty emotional experience to be talking to folks like
that and knowing that help for them is at the point where it's really life or
death," Thompson said.

	The Ark of the Covenant camp is named after a wooden box that in the
Old Testament symbolized the presence of God traveling with the people of
Israel when they were wandering through the desert.

	In this case, the Ark is a mobile home parked on property in Arivaca
- owned by noted Southwestern author Byrd Baylor - about 20 miles from the
U.S. border with Mexico and 60 miles southwest of Tucson.

	The summer-long Ark campaign is modeled on the Mississippi Freedom
Summer of 1964. The freedom riders headed south to register blacks to vote;
the No More Deaths volunteers are trying to reduce and prevent deaths of
migrants in southern Arizona.

	One factor the humanitarian group is watching closely is the activity
of the Border Patrol, which plans to monitor the immigrant aid station around
the clock this summer, according to Tucson sector spokesperson Andrea
Zortman.

	Traditionally the Border Patrol has taken a "hands-off" approach to
Tucson aid groups, leaving them alone to do their work. 

	However, that changed when Border Patrol Chief Michael Nicley came on
board late last summer. That's when No More Deaths volunteers began noticing
a constant Border Patrol presence, Fife said.

	Zortman said agents would monitor the camp in case "individuals need
emergency services." If so, she said, "There will be a law-enforcement agent
to provide immediate access to such services within minutes, if not seconds."

	She said the agency could immediately dispatch its rescue crews and a
helicopter. Zortman said that the Border Patrol has rescued hundreds of
migrants so far this year.

	She didn't say whether agents would try to apprehend illegal
immigrants at the camps, but did say: "If we, in the process of us just being
in the area, come across illegal aliens, whether they be in the camps,
outside the camps, or whatnot, they will of course be taken into custody."

	Fife described recent meetings with Border Patrol officials as
cordial but said he could not predict what might unfold this summer. 

	"It's hard to tell, so far we haven't seen them," he said of the
Border Patrol. "But we have gone out of our way to make this a public issue.
So I think they've backed off a little. But you don't know. They may keep
surveying us through some concealment. You just don't know."

	The desert camp initiative is in line with an overture addressing the
increasing number of migrant worker deaths in the borderlands that was
approved in 2003 by the PC(USA)'s 215th General Assembly.

	The measure, submitted by the Presbytery of de Cristo, which
represents 30 Presbyterian churches in southern Arizona and western New
Mexico, calls on Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) to be in relationship
with congregations and middle governing bodies in the border areas to provide
appropriate ministries and assistance to migrants in life-threatening
situations. 

	In mid-April, the PC(USA) and the Synod of the Southwest sponsored a
three-day conference in Tucson called "Death & Life on the Border," which
detailed the crisis. 

	PDA provided $15,000 to the Synod of the Southwest to help finance
the conference. The synod kicked in $12,000. PDA also contributed $20,000 to
the Presbytery de Cristo to support a number of border projects, including No
More Deaths. Money for the grants came from designated disaster funds and the
One Great Hour of Sharing offering.

	"I'm pleased that there are churches willing to go out and do what's
necessary to try and save peoples lives again," said Ufford-Chase, an elder
at Southside Presbyterian Church. "I'm just sorry the situation hasn't
changed so that it wouldn't be necessary to go out into the desert."

	For more information about No More Deaths, or to ask about
volunteering at the Arivaca aid camp, log on to the Web at
www.nomoredeaths.org.

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