The COVID-19 pandemic has devastating and unequal impact throughout the world, and its ravages are being felt acutely by migrants, immigrants, asylum seekers, and border communities. All of this year’s virtual Migrant Trail Walk’s registration fees will be donated to four projects doing vital work in these dire times to fight for justice and support migrants. These projects resist inhumane and deadly enforcement measures at the US-Mexico border and work to prevent the immigrant detention and deportation policies that are terrorizing our communities and putting migrant lives at risk. You will learn more about each of these organizations during our week together. Registration is on a sliding scale, and so we ask you to give what you can and give generously. Even if you cannot participate in the week’s online programming or only join intermittently in the activities, we invite you to join our important effort to donate and help raise funds to support these border organizations and efforts.
All proceeds from the Alternative Migrant Trail will go to support the organizations listed below. If you would like to make a donation, please click HERE.
Limited Scholarships are available for those unable to afford the minimum requested registration fee. Contact azmigranttrail@gmail.com if you are unable to participate for lack of funds.
Learn more about the groups your registration fees will support here:
Keep Tucson Together (KTT) is a biweekly legal clinic that works side by side with community members applying for status or facing deportation and that trains participants to help each other through the immigration court process. KTT also works with the national movement to give sanctuary to those facing removal, and to stop the raids and deportations.
Borderlinks is a dynamic Tucson-based organization that has provided educational experiences, hosted delegations and facilitated countless encuentros/ encounters in the borderlands, as well as Southern Mexico for over 40 years. Borderlinks has trained and educated thousands of people living in the U.S. about the increasing number of human rights violations taking place in the borderlands, providing an in depth understanding of the inhumane conditions in the borderlands that most people have no exposure to or knowledge of, welcoming participants to join in the fight for migrant justice
The O’odham Anti Border Collective believes in removing colonial borders and barriers as the first step in repairing our communities. In recent history and in the present, occupying entities use divide and conquer strategies to displace O’odham from each other and sever connections existing since time immemorial. Historical narrations went so far as to declare Hia Ced O’odham extinct, and much of our histories were molded to fit a non-indigenous narrative. Our existence in the face of attempts to erase our peoples is emblematic of our persistence. Tohono O’odham, Akimel O’odham, Hia Ced O’odham, O’odham in Mexico, and all displaced O’odham are still here. The O’odham Anti Border Collective looks to uplift the voices of O’odham water, land, and culture protectors throughout Turtle Island.
The No More Deaths Emergency COVID-19 Bond Fund is seeking to raise emergency monies in the face of the COVID-19 crisis. Arizona detention centers are notorious for their abusive practices towards detained migrants, lack of access to proper hygiene, and cramped quarters. The COVID-19 health pandemic has amplified many of the injustices faced in such conditions. In addition to on-the-ground organizing to #FreeThemAll, and legal efforts in the courts to schedule bond hearings for as many as possible over the next few weeks, the No More Deaths bond fund is doubling down its efforts to raise money for bonds, which are expensive. A single bond can be $10,000+ and most people and their families do not have that kind of access to wealth.
The Migrant Trail 