Thread: AZ: Activists Begin Migrant Walk In Sasabe

Activists Begin Migrant Walk In Sasabe

May 29, 2007 01:15 PM CDT

By Som Lisaius, KOLD News 13

While millions of Americans are enjoying Memorial Day because of the barbeques or the day off, human rights activists see it as an opportunity to demonstrate--and they're doing so by literally walking in the footsteps of illegal immigrants.

With water bottles in hand and tennis shoes on foot, a group of about 50 people are walking for change. Starting in Sasabe, Sonora Mexico, they're gathering and walking north, through the port of entry and into the United States.

They are social, political and spiritual activists who together are calling for an end to deaths in the desert.

"Regardless of where you stand on border issues and immigration issues, guest worker or no guest worker, people need to see there are human lives being lost--and that's the human connection."

According to event coordinator Kat Rodriguez of Derechos Humanos more than 200 people died last year crossing into the Arizona desert.

"I think it's kind of a reminder of what's going on on the border," she says.

As a fourth grade teacher in the Sunnyside School District, Tshilo Bernini Galup finds the subject matter especially important.

"The majority of my students come from a Hispanic background, I would say 80 percent of them their first language ins Spanish--so it's definitely important to them."

Then there's Brother Martin Ibarra who joins the walk all the way from the Bay Area.

"As we walk I think the message we're sending is we stand for life we stand as people for hope."

That's because long before he joined the clergy, Brother Martin was a teenager in Tijuana--he knows firsthand what thousands of immigrants go through.

"I myself crossed the border so I know what that means," brother martin says. "In a sense, I want to be in solidarity with my brothers and sisters who are doing this trip."

The "Migrant Trail: We Walk for Life" continues North about 75 miles through next weekend. Participants will average between 10 and 12 miles a day, with the final leg of the event rapping up sometime Sunday at Tucson's Kennedy Park.


http://www.kold.com/global/story.asp?s=6578276

I hope like hell ICE has a welcoming committee waiting to greet them

I can hear the violins and I really need a kleenex right now......I guess that means I should just throw the flood gates open and let them all come! When are we going to have a boat trip to remember all the lives lost of people who died on their journey here from other countries?

JADED............

Sounds like they are Arizonians who are pro-illegals. FOX, MSNBC AND CNN will probably be watching them tho!!!! That's their style......the hell with the rest of American citizens and legal immigrants.

how many deaths in the desert are the fault of the american people or the american border patrol????

im thinking ZERO. its the illegals who choose to come over and these human smugglers who should be tried for murder in the desert when they leave someone behind

Why don't those bleeding-heart bastards walk their lame protest to mejico city and protest?