Faith Floods the Desert

These three Portland women, all members of the First Unitarian Church, prepared their minds and bodies for weeks in order to be fit and able to carry three gallon-capacity jugs of water a mile into the Arizona desert on a day in August when the temperature reached 116F/46.6C. They went as part of Faith Floods the Desert, sponsored by No More Deaths. “The mission of No More Deaths is to end death and suffering in the Mexico–US borderlands through people of conscience working openly and in community to uphold fundamental human rights.” 

In order to perform this act of humanitarian generosity, they had to lie. They had to sign a document saying they would not “litter” the desert by leaving anything behind, such as bottles of water, articles of clothing, or anything that might ease the suffering of migrants trying to survive the crossing. Although the women made it into the desert with the water, they know that border patrol agents routinely follow the trail of groups like theirs and slit the jugs of water with knives so that the water empties onto the desert sand. They just hope a few bottles may remain, perhaps to save a few lives.

They presented the report of their trip on Sunday afternoon, and they explained that the US government has a strategy of intentionally breaking apart families and groups of friends traveling together, in order to weaken and demoralize those who enter this country seeking safety. Migrants come here because the US government has destabilized the economies of their home countries, has eliminated their chances for work and survival at home, and so they hope to find asylum and an opportunity to earn a living, perhaps by working on some of the giant corporate farms in the hostile USA. 

Hundreds die in the heat of the desert, and if they don’t die and are apprehended by the border patrol, they are submitted to “Operation Streamline,” which is a system of criminalizing them, charging them with felonies, and incarcerating them (in private, for-profit prisons) before deporting them. Once convicted of a felony, they cannot apply for legal entry. Corporations that run private prisons built to incarcerate those caught crossing the border make millions of dollars (I cannot even conceive of the numbers, they are so large) paid by the government, a system so overtly corrupt that just hearing about it brings tears of fury to my eyes. If you want to know more and have a heart big enough to hold it, here are some of the details.