wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Arks in the desert

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Note #8271 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

04280
June 10, 2004

Arks in the desert

Medical aid camps assisting border crossers 24/7

by Evan Silverstein

ARIVACA, AZ - Presbyterian clergy and lay members joined faith-based and
human rights activists last week in proclaiming a remote swath of land in the
southern Arizona desert "holy ground."

	The earthly blessing was part of a ceremony May 31, dedicating a new
24-hour migrant aid camp here on what is now considered sacred land.

	The "Ark of the Covenant" desert camp near the Mexican border is
providing undocumented immigrants food, water and medical attention as they
cross through the desolate, blistering southwestern desert.

	As one of three aid stations planned for the Arizona border this
summer, the outpost is staffed around-the-clock, seven days a week, by a
rotating group of volunteers, including Presbyterian church members.

	With a credo of "ni una muerte mas" - "not even one more death" -
volunteers are working to prevent a rising number of illegal border crossers
who die each summer in Arizona's desert borderlands while traveling on foot
from Mexico.

	"What we are doing here is a direct response to this crisis
situation," said Lisa Lieber of Tucson, AZ, a volunteer with "No More
Deaths," the group organizing the camps. "We're mobilizing to go out and put
aid stations in the desert to save lives in the most urgent sense."

	Mexican nationals and others crossing illegally into Arizona, often
to find work, are dying at nearly three times the rate of last year, the
deadliest year on record, according to the Tucson Sector of the U.S. Border
Patrol.

	The desert camp initiative is also inline with an overture addressing
the increasing number of migrant worker deaths in the borderlands approved
last year by the 215th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

	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 borderlands to
determine appropriate ministries and assistance for migrants facing
life-threatening situations.

	Experts believe that more than 2,000 men, women, and children have
lost their lives attempting to cross the border between the U.S. and Mexico
since 1998, many of them because of dehydration.

	Between 1,000 to 3,000 people are believed to cross the U.S. border
from Mexico every day. The Border Patrol reported in April that more than
200,000 illegal entrants had been apprehended so far this fiscal year, which
ends Sept. 30.

	The agency listed 84 migrant deaths in the Tucson Sector since Oct.
1. At this rate, last year's record-setting toll of 139 deaths is expected to
soon be eclipsed.

	Organizers said the hundreds of desert deaths and thousands of
apprehensions of undocumented crossers point to a failure in U.S. border
policy. They said a blockade strategy by the federal government along the
border that has intensified since 1995 is failing miserably and has only
increased the risks of border crossings.

	"Since 1995, the number of deaths each summer here in the Tucson
Sector has increased and set a new record every year," said the Rev. John
Fife, pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, and a longtime
border ministry leader. "We felt we needed to make a clear statement that any
more deaths out here is a moral tragedy and a sin."

	Fife said U.S. Border Patrol officials agreed in meetings not to
target the camps in its operations to apprehend illegal migrants. He said
agents have kept their word in the past by not deliberately staking out other
humanitarian projects aimed at providing assistance to undocumented border
crossers in distress.

	Border Patrol officials reminded the volunteers that it is a federal
crime to aid any migrant "in furtherance of their illegal activity," but said
that humanitarian aid is an acceptable activity.

	"I want to emphasis that this is not against the law," Fife said of
the desert camps. "It is never illegal to provide food and water and medical
aid to the migrants who are in danger of dying and are in medical distress."

	At the desert camp, two white flags were hoisted skyward, one with a
green cross indicating that first aid is available and another with blue
spots shaped like water drops.

	The three Arks of the Covenant camps, which will operate until at
least Labor Day, are 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 about 60 miles southwest of Tucson.

	The other Arks of the Covenant camps, which are expected to open this
month, will be situated near the Arizona border communities of Douglas and
Why.

	With prayer and a Spanish version of "Amazing Grace," the religious
leaders asked for God's blessing to help them do their work in the desert as
a few dozen supporters looked on.

	"We take our church to the desert," said Rick Ufford-Chase, a
Presbyterian elder, missionary and co-director of BorderLinks, a cross-border
(U.S.-Mexico) organization supported by the PC(USA)'s Worldwide Ministries
Division. "To the travelers who will continue traveling and traveling and
traveling, we dedicate this spot as a holy spot. We are now on holy ground."

	Those present at the ceremony took a few moments to recall the life
of the late Matthew Michael Foster Moore, a Presbyterian activist and
humanitarian from Tucson in whose honor the camp in Arivaca is named.

	Moore, 23, died last year from causes related to a genetic heart
defect, said Ufford-Chase, who was friends with Moore. Chase said the former
youth director at St. Mark's Presbyterian Church in Tucson was a strong
advocate for migrant rights and helping stranded border crossers in the
desert.

	 Presbyterian Brandon Wert, who was also a friend of Moore, recalled
when Moore suggested the need for stronger measures to help undocumented
entrants.

	 "When Matt and I sat down to a lunch he said, 'You know, we
shouldn't just be sitting around Tucson waiting for folks to show up beaten
and dehydrated and half dead,'" said Wert, the youth director at Southside
Presbyterian Church. '"We need to be out there walking the trail with our
brothers and sisters.'"

	Wert was stationed at the camp during its first week in operation.
While no official numbers have yet been compiled, those connected with the
camp say the ark has already assisted a number of border crossers.

	The Rev. Sue Westfall, a co-pastor at St. Mark's church, which is
active in the campaign against border deaths, said it's important for
Presbyterians to be aware of the federal government's suspect policy along
the border so they can help fix the problem.

	"The issues of border policies that really create the fact that
people are dying is very much at heart a religious issue," she said after
leading a blessing for the camp and a prayer of remembrance.

	Standing behind a small shrine featuring Roman Catholic saints, Fife
urged those staffing the camp to make the outpost a place of refuge and to
always show compassion.

	"You are charged to keep this place in the tradition of Abraham and
Sarah," he said. "In the tradition of all the saints, a place of hospitality
and safety."

	Volunteers poured water into a large bowl and then adorned the
colorful shrine with full bottles of water.

	The medical aid stations are just one focus of the No More Deaths
coalition, which refers to itself as a movement. It formed to push for
changes in U.S. border policy that will eliminate the "militarization" of the
border, which has made it more dangerous for immigrants to cross, volunteers
say.

	The No More Deaths coalition is comprised of individuals, faith
groups, human rights advocates and grassroots organizations from around the
country. It receives strong leadership and support from individual
Presbyterians and congregations such as Fife's Southside Presbyterian Church.

	The coalition brings together the resources of organizations and
efforts -- like Southside's Samaritans program - that are fighting the
increasing number of deaths on and near the border.

	"This is a movement, not a new organization," Fife said. "It is
designed to bring together all the separate efforts that have developed in
the borderlands since this disastrous, failed, deadly (border) policy began."

	Other organizations involved include BorderLinks, which was
co-founded by Ufford-Chase, and Humane Borders, a Tucson-based effort that
maintains fixed water tanks in the southern Arizona desert for thirsty
migrants.

	As with the Samaritans, search and rescue patrols from the Arks of
the Covenant will seek out immigrants in distress. Volunteers will roam
desert trails in four-wheel drive vehicles packed with medical supplies to
provide assistance to anyone who needs help, Fife said.

	He said some of the volunteers camping out and waiting for immigrants
in need of assistance will be medically trained. Volunteer pilots have agreed
to provide air surveillance to help track undocumented immigrants wandering
the desert in need.

	Volunteers from the international Christian Peacemaker organization
will operate the Douglas camp, while the camp near Why will be manned by
students from Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO. A third team of
rotating volunteers, including Presbyterians, will be stationed at the
Arivaca camp.

	The protocol, Fife said, is to provide food, water and medical
attention. Volunteers will only call the Border Patrol after immigrants ask
them to do so and will call for emergency responders if necessary.

	The camps have already drawn criticism from some groups and
individuals who say they will only worsen a problem of illegal entry into the
United States. But volunteers say they have a moral obligation to help anyone
in danger of dying.

	"We're on biblical ground," said the Rev. Gene Lefebvre, a
Presbyterian pastor and No More Deaths volunteer from Phoenix. "It's a
biblical mandate for us, Old and New Testament. In fact, it says it very
clearly about strangers and offering hospitality (more) then it does even
about loving your neighbor."

	 Following the dedication of the first camp, about 30 people
participated in a 75-mile march from the Mexican side of the border at Sasabe
to Tucson to highlight the migrants' plight and call for border policy
reforms to stop the deaths.

	"This is a cry of desperation, a cry of anguish," said Patricia Jesus
Torres de Hernandez, a Catholic nun from Nogales, Mexico, as activists were
preparing to march. "There have already been more than 2,500 deaths in the
desert. How many more do there have to be before we start addressing the
issue?"

	The long-distance walk from the border began May 31, and ended at the
Border Patrol's Tucson Sector Headquarters on June 6.

	Another march through part of downtown Tucson was staged May 28 to
draw attention to the problem of immigrants dying along the borderlands.

	"I'm just outraged that people here in southern Arizona are accepting
this as something natural that's going on in our backyard," said Lieber, the
No More Deaths volunteer from Tucson. "Some people see this as just the way
things are. I know that's not true. We can make a difference and we need to
be out there using our resources to save lives in the desert."

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