Thread: Activists say border wall played key role in deaths

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Activists say border wall played key role in deaths
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Michael Sangiacomo
Plain Dealer Reporter
Two peace activists from Cleveland say an 11-foot wall of metal that separates the United States from Mexico in Arizona was partly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of illegal immigrants last year.

"Even now, Congress is debating new immigration policies," said Don Bryant, president of the Cleveland Immigrant Support Network. "You can talk about immigration policies all you want, but the fact is that 282 people crossed the border and died of thirst and starvation in the desert."

"They did it to avoid the wall [and] the Border Patrol . . .," Bryant added.

Bryant said because of the wall at Douglas, Ariz., migrants crossed in other parts of the state and wandered into the desert. The number 282 was put on the wall by a national peace group, he said.

That figure is in dispute. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection said there were 267 migrant deaths from October 2004 to September 2005 along two sectors of the border that cover all of Arizona and part of California.

Bryant and Brian Fry, of the Justice Committee of St. Joseph Church in Rocky River, visited the Douglas area for most of one week recently and will discuss their trip in the coming months to church groups and others.

Bryant said the United States needs to address the issue of undocumented border crossings.

"There are 11 million undocumented workers in the United States," he said. "They form a very important part of our labor market. Why can't we work out some kind of guest visa that allows them to work here and then go home?"

Bryant said U.S. Border Patrol officials met with him and other peace activists from around the nation.

"They gave us a two-hour slide show, which was educational," he said. "They said they arrested 30,000 people trying to cross the border, but only 182 for felonies. They admitted that they arrested zero terrorists."

Bryant and Fry will speak at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Oberlin Peace Potluck at Peace Community Church, 44 E. Lorain St., Oberlin. They will also speak at the Non-Violence Workshop from 1 to 5 p.m. April 8 at Trinity Commons, 2230 Euclid Ave., Cleveland.

At 7 p.m. March 22, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio will host a panel discussion on proposed federal legislation dealing with immigration. The event, at the Max Wohl Civil Liberties Center, 4506 Chester Ave., Cleveland, is free and open to the public.

The organizers of Peace Community Church of Oberlin can be reached at 440- 774-3619.

For more information on the ACLU meeting, call 216-472-2220, or visit:

www.acluohio.org.

Plain Dealer reporter Joe Guillen contributed to this story.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

msangiacomo@plaind.com, 216-999-4890

wall of metal that separates the United States from Mexico in Arizona was partly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of illegal immigrants last year.

For the love of St. Christopher! The people went around the wall and the wall is to blame? I suppose they didn't know that wall was there for a reason? I don't suppose the thought occurred to them that the wall was put there to KEEP people out!

Sometimes I think that the people who write this stuff are total morons! "Two peace activists" my foot! More like Two S**T stirrers if you ask me.