Part 1: Border Images

Ayuda humanitaria nunca es un delito. Translation: Humanitarian aid is never a crime. Read an article about helping migrants at No Mas Muertes web site. Photo by Jennifer Solis

We walked into the desert with Maiko Zambrano, who has for the past four years been taking water and food to places where migrants have died. Photo by Jennifer Solis

We walked some of the paths where migrants travel through the desert to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. This is a stunning article written by an individual who is being targeted for the “crime” of helping with humanitarian aid. Photo by Jennifer Solis

We wrote messages on the water bottles that were left along the path of migration. The messages encouraged migrants to take the water, that it was not left by anyone wishing to harm them. Photo by Jennifer Solis

Our guide who led us into the desert with “No Mas Muertes” (No More Deaths) was Maiko Zambrano. Photo by Jennifer Solis

Phillips Theological Seminary group with Ken Kennon, humanitarian activist, at the Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona. We listened to Ken Kennon tell about being incarcerated for activism in the 1990s.

We heard Honduran Derik Alvarez tell his story. He left Honduras when his life was in danger and sought asylum after crossing into the U.S. He was taken in by a Good Samaritan woman after he dropped dehydrated and hungry after walking several days in the desert. When later he was picked up by ICE, Maiko Zambrano helped him bail out and apply for asylum, but he still owes the bail bond, and has an ankle monitor to track him. He left to seek freedom and has been shackled.

Our Phillips Theological Seminary group had daily conversations over meals and guided discussions led by Borderlinks Program Assistant Natalie Maxson. Photo by Jennifer Solis

In front of court where every day seventy migrants are led through a mass proceeding by the judge. Here Borderlinks Program Assistant Natalie Maxson is guiding us in how to observe in the court. For two hours of proceedings, every one of the migrants makes the same guilty plea of crossing the border illegally. A felony charge is waved but a misdemeanor is on their record and they are detained for 30-120 days in U.S. prisons before being deported. Photo by Jennifer Solis

Phillips Theological Seminary classmate, Mike Williams, and I traded t-shirts. I wore the Black Lives Matter t-shirt to the streamlining court. I was asked to turn my shirt inside out by the marshal at the security check on the way into the court. Regretfully, I covered the shirt with a jacket Mike Williams also gave me. My friend Mike covered me with grace in more ways than one. Another member of the class, Paige Clark, bravely offered to wear the shirt into the court, but I did not offer to take it off and give it to her. We had come for another purpose and the majority of voices who spoke suggested we cover the shirt and go about the business we had come for, to observe a streamlining court proceeding.

We went across the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales. The city is horribly divided by a thirty foot wall that was built in 2011 during the Obama Administration. We learned that walls have been built under many presidents. Why are we building walls like this that separate families and neighbors in cities? Photo by Jennifer Solis

Jose Antonio Rodriguez was killed by U.S. Border Patrol when he was allegedly throwing rocks. The agent who killed Rodriguez was not convicted of the crime. Photo by Jennifer Solis

Photo by Jennifer Solis

We spent the day at the TOHONO O’ODHAM cultural center, learning about the people and lands. We learned of possibility of the 30-foot border wall being built on the U.S.-Mexico border, which would divide TOHONO O’ODHAM land. I committed to contacting Cherokee Nation to ask if plans are being made to support any resistance to a border wall being built. There is currently a small barrier along the border but nothing like a large border wall. People along the border are constantly made to endure checkpoints on both sides of the border.