FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
MAY 17, 2023
English/Spanish Media Contact: Jamie Wilson (520) 730-2665
E-mail: azmigranttrail@gmail.com
Website: https://azmigranttrail.com
https://www.facebook.com/groups/92300350558/
20th Annual Migrant Trail Walk:
20 years of Bearing Witness to Migrant Deaths in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
TUCSON, Ariz- On Memorial Day, 40 walkers will begin a 75-mile, week-long walk from Sásabe, Sonora, Mexico to Tucson, Arizona to call for an end to migrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border, and to stand in solidarity with victims of global migration who have died and disappeared on their journeys.
Since the initiation of border deterrence policies in the 1990s, more than 8,000 individuals, including children, are known to have lost their lives crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. In Arizona alone, the remains of 4,015 people have been recovered. Similarly, the Missing Migrants Project in Southern Arizona holds more than 3,500 missing persons cases. These thousands of deaths and disappearances are the direct result of U.S. border and immigration “deterrence” policies that intentionally divert migrants fleeing violence and uncertainty in their home communities into the most remote and deadly terrain. The continued expansion of walls and border policing technologies only increases the perils of crossing while doing little to deter those desperate to protect themselves and their families. As the summer approaches, and Arizona temperatures reach searing triple-digits, the number of migrants who will perish from dehydration and exposure dramatically increases.
The current administration continues to deny migrants and asylum seekers realistic and safe passage to the United States. Even with the recent end to the pandemic public health order Title 42, the US government continues to invest in its decades-long militarization of the border. The deadly prevention through deterrence strategy remains the status quo, forcing migrants to continue to cross the most desolate and deadly terrain. Newer policies, such as the Trump era’s draconian “third country” rule, remain in place, forcing those fleeing for their lives to first seek asylum in a country they have passed through on their journey to the United States, a country that due to constrained resources, may have little to offer by way of safety and support. None of these policies eliminate the reasons that migrants risk the journey to get to the United States in the first place.
The participants of the Migrant Trail have undertaken this yearly trek for the past two decades in order to bear witness to these inhumane policies and demand a stop to tragic and preventable deaths. The first group of walkers initiated The Migrant Trail: We Walk for Life in 2004. Since then the walk has continued to grow, drawing participants from throughout the U.S. as well as Latin America and Eurrope, and including a wide diversity of ethnicities, faith backgrounds and ages. The youngest person to complete the entire walk was 7, the oldest 80. When forced to move to an alternative virtual experience between 2020 to 2022, hundreds of participants continued to gather to raise awareness and funds for organizations working to prevent migrant death and suffering.
“For two decades, we have stood in solidarity with migrants and their families. We denounce the border policies that have devastated countless families who grieve loved ones who have died or disappeared,” says Kat Rodriguez, who has helped to organize the walk since its inception in 2004, and has spent more than 20 years working with organizations committed to immigration justice such as the Indigenous Alliance Without Borders and Borderlinks. “Since the day after our last Migrant Trail in 2022, the remains of 160 individuals have been recovered in Southern Arizona: 115 men, 17 women, and 28 who have yet to have their sex identified. We mourn and grieve these deaths, but we also continue to honor our pledge to bear witness to what deadly U.S. policies have wrought. This year, we invite all people of conscience to step up, to speak up, and to get involved in border justice issues. There is much need, and too much silence. We must demand an end to border deaths, border violence, and the militarization of our communities.”
“Whatever we do and do not believe about security on this border, some facts are indisputable. Thousands of men, women, and children have died avoidable deaths. Our border policies funnel them year after year into the most hostile and desolate areas of the Sonoran desert. This can and must be stopped,” adds Todd Miller, a founding member of the Migrant Trail, Tucson based journalist, co-founder of The Border Chronicle and author of four books: Build Bridges, Not Walls: A Journey to a World without Borders (2021); Empire of Borders: The Expansion of the U.S. Border around the World ( 2019); Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland Security ( 2014); and Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration and Homeland Security ( 2017).
Participants and organizers of the Migrant Trail call on all people of conscience to stand in solidarity with migrants and call on the U.S. government to end practices and policies that cause migrant deaths.
The Migrant Trail will host press conferences on Monday, May 29th at Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson at 10:00 A.M. and on Sunday, June 4th at Kennedy Park in Tucson at approximately 11:30 A.M, for the closing ceremony. The Migrant Trail is a non-violent, family-friendly event, and is free and open to the community.
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The Migrant Trail 