Migrant Trail

This experience is highly recommended for a deeper understanding of what thousands of migrants endure each day....

Tucson, AZ-    On May 25, 2009, a diverse group of individuals will begin a 75 mile walk to call attention to the human rights crisis occurring on the southern border. The sixth annual Migrant Trail: We walk for Life is a joint endeavor of community groups and individuals from both sides of the border walking in solidarity with migrants to demand an end to the deaths in the desert. 

 

Sponsors include the Migrant Trail Walk Committee, Coalición de Derechos Humanos, BorderLinks, Mennonite Central Committee US, Catholic Relief Services - Mexico Program, No More Deaths - Phoenix and Tucson, 8th Day Center for Justice, Coloradans for Immigrants Rights, Frontera de Cristo, Humane Borders, American Friends Service Committee, JPIC Office of the St. Barbara Province Franciscans, Shalom Mennonite Fellowship, Casa Maria, and Church of the Good Shepherd. 

 

"For the sixth year we stand together in solidarity with migrants in our call for action to prevent the tragic deaths and division of communities along the U.S.-Mexico border," says Tom Kowal of AFSC Colorado.  "Thousands of men, women, and children have died due to failed border militarization tactics and unjust immigration and international economic policies.  This must stop."

 

Since the 1990s, it is estimated that more than 5,000 men, women and children have lost their lives crossing the U.S./Mexico border.  As the summer approaches, and Arizona is already seeing triple-digit temperatures, the number of migrants dying in the desert will begin to increase dramatically.  Many will die the horrible death of dehydration and exposure. These deaths, a direct result of failed and flawed border and immigration policies, must be prevented.

 

The Walk will begin Monday, May 25 at 2:00pm in Sásabe, Sonora.  Carpools will depart at 11am from Southside Presbyterian (317 W. 23rd Street).  Walkers will arrive on Sunday, May 31st at 11:00am at Kennedy Park, Ramada #3, for a closing ceremony. The Migrant Trail is a non-violent event, and is free and open to the community.  Participants and organizers of the Migrant Trail call on all people of conscience to stand in solidarity with our migrant sisters and brothers. 

 

"The Migrant Trail is an important spiritual witness to the challenging reality of our borderlands today," says Brother David Buer, a Franciscan brother serving in Tucson.  "It is a moral imperative that we embrace our desperate migrant brothers and sisters with more humane policies and action."

 

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The Migrant Trail

c/o Arizona Border Rights Foundation

P.O. Box 1286 Tucson, AZ 85702

Tel: 520.770.1373

Fax: 520.770.7455