Students' spring break addresses hardships of border-crossing
Alex Minkin
Issue date: 3/19/10 Section: News
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The trip was part of an alternative spring break program sponsored by an organization called No More Deaths (NMD) that aids immigrants crossing the U.S./Mexico border.
According to senior Raji Ward, one of the trip's coordinators, No More Deaths is a non-governmental organization that operates out of Tucson, Arizona.
"Overall the trip was very good," said sophomore Daryn Lane. "It was emotionally very intense."
Lane and a team of three others came across two different groups of immigrants making their way through the desert.
"We gave each of them food, water, dry socks and blankets. We were told not to ask too many questions but they understood what we were doing," said Lane. "It was comforting to see that they were all surviving. On the other hand, it was difficult to fathom how much farther they had to go and what might lie ahead."
NMD's Web site reports that 2,000 men, women, and children have died trying to cross the border since 1998. This drove them to organize and set up camp in the summer of 2004.
The mission statement of NMD is clear: "to end death and suffering on the U.S./Mexico border through civil initiative: the conviction that people of conscience must work openly and in community to uphold fundamental human rights."
The most immediate goal of NMD is to provide water, food, and medical assistance to migrants trekking through the Arizona desert. There exists still a larger goal of NMD: to monitor and check U.S. border operations and to bring the plight of the migrant to public consciousness.
The efforts of NMD, including the administering of basic humanitarian aid, have been met with much opposition. Certain events occurring in the solitude of the desert have underscored the tension between humanitarian aid and the law of the land.
For example, in July 2009, 13 NMD volunteers were given littering tickets for leaving water jugs in the same general area. Temperatures at this location in July can reach up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. On the student trip, Ward and other students also heard direct accounts of the Border Patrol slashing water jugs.
According to a report conducted by the Border Network for Human Rights, immigrants have been forced into these rugged parts of the desert because of current border enforcement strategies.
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