Mexico/Arizona Migrant Study Tour, Fall 2007

"No Mas Muertes……No More Deaths"

By Patricia Shaver

I sat beside her at dinner. Her name was Juana. We were in a relief centre for migrants in Altar, Mexico. I tried to talk to her. Her face was drained of hope. What could bring her to such despair?

October 21 - 27, 2007: Migrant Mission Study Trip Participants

She, like hundreds of others from the impoverished south of Mexico, had tried to cross the border to find a new life in the United States. But something went badly wrong. Her ‘coyote’ ( hired guide to cross the desert) had abandoned her and two others. They had left them to die in the desert, but they had taken their two daughters, two young women. Did she have any idea what their fate might be? From the look on her face, I think she did.

Since the introduction of NAFTA, over 1000 people have died trying to cross the desert at the Arizona border alone. The number could be much higher if all the bodies were found. Each month, each week, each day they continue to come. Clearly, people who sell everything they own, leave families and friends, entrust themselves to unscrupulous guides, and risk their lives in 40+ degree temperatures and perilous desert conditions are desperate. Why?

The wall along the Mexico/USA border

Simply, they have no work. No jobs, no food, no medical care. Subsidized American corn flooding the Mexican market, huge multinationals setting up factories with cheap Mexican labour and putting Mexican companies out of business, the Mexican government’s own lack of support for its farmers….the reasons for the poverty are multiple and the situation complex. But one thing stands out. NAFTA is not working for Mexicans. The terms need to be changed to protect human rights and allow Mexicans to achieve a living wage in their own country.

In the meantime, people die. The Americans put up walls. They militarize the border. The Border Guards round up people without documents and send them back. Right wing American groups feed on post 9-11 paranoia and form vigilante lines to keep Mexicans out. And people die. Every day. People die.

Posters along the border

“No mas muertes – No more Deaths” This is the name of a loose umbrella organization of church and other humanitarian organizations from both sides of the border trying to assist migrants. ‘Borderlinks’ provides educational opportunities, such as the study tour which provided the background for this article. ‘Los Samaritanos’, provide medical care, food and water. Volunteers search for people in the desert, sometimes finding them alive, sometimes dead. ‘Humane Borders’ and others put up water stations in the desert. These stations can mean the difference between life and death for lost migrants. Without them, Juana and her two companions would never have made it back to Mexico alive.

More must be done. The root causes of the despair must be addressed. NAFTA must be revisited, because people are still dying. Every day. People die.

Patricia Kendall Shaver was a participant in the Migrant Study Tour, 2007 to the Mexico-Arizona border. This mission study opportunity was sponsored through The Presbyterian Church in Canada and organized in cooperation with Borderlinks, USA. It was lead by Stephen Allen of Justice Ministries of The PCC.

Other 2007 particiants include:

Mark Gedke
Geoff Olsen
Randy Purdy
Gloria Nafziger
Leslie Walker
Stephen Allen