Arizona Presbyterians patrol desert to keep migrants alive

Sonoran Samaritans Arizona Presbyterians patrol desert to keep migrants alive by Evan Silverstein
	TUCSON, AZ — The Rev. John Fife, a former moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), pointed toward the rugged Baboquivari Mountains recently as he drove along a stretch of desert highway outside Tucson. Fife, a longtime leader of humanitarian programs along the U.S.-Mexico border, said the mountain range in the Sonoran Desert is “the center of the universe” for undocumented migrants trying to enter the United States.		The Rev. John Fife, pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, and Dr. Norma Price, a retired oncologist, are volunteers in a program that patrols the desert with food and water for illegal immigrants from Mexico. Photo by Evan Silverstein
	It is also the final resting place of many who freeze to death high up in the mountains, said Fife, the pastor of Tucson’s Southside Presbyterian Church. Illegal immigrants are dying in record numbers along Arizona’s southern border areas, as Mexicans continue to cross into the United States in search of work. “A storm blew in from the west a couple of years ago, around January, and 400 people came into the desert and died out there,” said Fife, who was moderator of the PC(USA)’s 204th Assembly, in 1992. Many border crossers who escape freezing instead bake under the summer sun, dying of thirst, heat stroke or exhaustion. “There is no shade or water available to the crossers,” said Rob Daniels, a spokesman for the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector, which takes in much of Arizona. “They’re at the disposal of the elements. They really face an uphill battle of Herculean size.” Some others are killed by bandits who prey on immigrants traveling on foot across one of the hottest, driest deserts in the world, where ground temperatures sometimes reach 140 degrees. “That literally cooks the body from the inside out,” Daniels said. And there are other challenges, including snakes, scorpions and vultures, twisted ankles, dislocated knees, broken bones and severely blistered feet. But Fife and a group of volunteers, including doctors and nurses, are trying to prevent as many deaths as possible. That’s why Fife, representatives of nine faith communities and others formed the Samaritan Patrol in July 2002. Volunteers called Samaritans roam the desert in Jeeps and vans, looking for stranded migrants, to whom they offer food, water and medical help. “The bottom line is to save as many lives as possible,” Fife said last month as he patrolled the desert in a 4-wheel-drive Isuzu Rodeo. Dr. Norma Price, a retired oncologist, was Fife’s co-pilot for the early-morning patrol. Temperatures were already nearing triple digits. “It’s about saving lives,” Price said, “but even if you haven’t saved a life, if you’ve helped make their day better, relieved their anxiety, their hunger, their thirst, that’s rewarding. Even if at the time it wasn’t a life-saving issue. Of course our primary mission is to save lives but it isn’t always that dramatic. Sometimes it’s just giving water to the person.” The need for the ecumenical Samaritans is clear. Last year a record 139 undocumented migrants died after crossing into Arizona from Mexico. The U.S. Border Patrol said last month that 84 migrants had died near the border since its fiscal year began on Oct. 1. That’s the most deaths ever recorded in the same period. And the hottest, deadliest season is just beginning. Since 1995, when the Border Patrol implemented a blockade strategy along the border, about 2,600 men, women and children have died after crossing the border. Thousands continue to take on the risk of making the dangerous trek. “If you step back and you take a look at what’s happened over the last eight years, 2,600 deaths is a disaster of major proportions,” Fife said. Samaritan volunteers, who attend training sessions before heading into the desert, begin their searches at daybreak and patrol the most popular migrant trails for six to eight hours. The Samaritans work separately from Humane Borders, another Tucson faith-based volunteer organization that has set up more than 40 water stations in the desert for thirsty migrants. The Samaritans program, whose strongest supporter has been Fife’s Southside Presbyterian Church, is funded through contributions, but it has also received Presbyterian Disaster Assistance grants. During the summer — the “season of death,” in the volunteers’ words —Samaritan volunteers patrol the desert seven days a week. In the winter, when conditions are less hazardous, they go out only two or three days a week. They travel along dirt roads on public land, covering a territory 115 miles long and 80 miles wide. On May 27, after passing a Border Patrol bus returning illegal immigrants to Mexico, Fife stopped his vehicle at a spot in the desert near the Mexican border, about 50 miles southwest of Tucson. That’s where he and Price started their search. “We usually find them in large groups of 10 to 20,” Fife said. “That’s what makes it profitable for the ‘coyotes’ (who smuggle people across the border).” Price used binoculars to survey the desert landscape. Then she and Fife separate, each shouting, in Spanish, “We have food, we have water.” On that day they got no response. The desert in the area was littered with garbage left behind by previous crossers — empty plastic jugs, discarded clothes, backpacks and toilet paper. “They’ve been here,” Price said, surveying the litter. The Samaritans then walked, checking out dry gullies and thickets of mesquite, but found no illegals. “It’s about a 50-50 chance, maybe a little higher this time of year, that we’ll encounter someone,” said Fife, whose also involved in the “No More Deaths” movement that is putting medical aid stations along the Arizona border. Fife said helping stranded migrants is only part of the mission, that the volunteers also want to encourage southern Arizona residents to practice hospitality and offer aid and oppose the U.S. government’s “beef-up-the-border” policy, which forces migrants to take ever-more-treacherous routes through the area. Church leaders said the hundreds of desert deaths and millions of captures of undocumented border-crossers demonstrate that the U.S. policy has failed, that its strategy of trying to deter the migrants has only increased their risks. “It’s important that we understand this, because as the failed policy of militarization of the border has proceeded, a record number of deaths have occurred year after year after year,” said Fife, noting that no migrant deaths were reported in 1994, the year before the more stringent border policies were enacted. For some, Samaritans may recall the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s, in which churches and other religious groups aided people fleeing war-torn Central America. That movement was co-founded by Fife in 1981 and quickly spread nationwide. Sanctuary workers helped smuggle the immigrants into the country. Fife and 10 other people were indicted on federal smuggling charges. Eight, including Fife, were convicted but not sent to prison. Fife said the Samaritan effort is based on similar faith-based principles but is not a Sanctuary revival. He said no laws will be broken, and the effort falls within the federal provisions of humanitarian assistance. Federal law prohibits anyone from aiding illegal immigrants “in furtherance of their illegal entry,” including sheltering them, Fife said, but “it is never illegal to provide food and water and medical aid to the migrants who are in danger of dying.” Daniels, of the Border Patrol, said: “There is a difference between humanitarian (assistance) and harboring. It’s very clearly defined, and we’ve had discussions with Rev. Fife and others.” He said Samaritans is like “many of the churches (that) run soup kitchens or feed the homeless.” Fife was one of at least 150 religious leaders from across the state who gathered on the lawn of the Arizona capitol in April to protest the federal government’s border policy. The group called for an employment-oriented program that would allow workers and their families to enter the United States through recognized ports of entry and live and work safely and legally in the country. The religious leaders said the root causes of illegal migration are environmental, economic, and trade inequities.