Thread: Donations rescue group that benefits migrants

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Donations rescue group that benefits migrants

Louie Gilot
El Paso Times

When Paisanos al Rescate ran out of fuel money the second week of July, they had no choice but to park the Cessna in its hangar. The volunteer pilots from the El Paso charity had been flying over the Southern New Mexico desert, dropping water to groups of undocumented immigrants making the arduous trek into the United States, often dangerously unprepared.

The group's second season looked like it would be a bust.

That's when it got unexpected financial help from Mexican businessmen who bought 2,000 gallons of airplane fuel. Then the monetary donations started pouring in from all around the United States.

In total, the group has received $32,000, including a single $25,000 donation from an anonymous donor with ties to El Paso and about $3,700 in small checks from fans of Bruce Springsteen.

"We went from rescuing people to being rescued ourselves," said the group's founder, Armando Alarcon, who spent about $80,000 of his own money to start the project.

So far this year, Paisanos al Rescate, or Countrymen to the Rescue, have parachuted 60 water bottles. Pilots fly Alarcon's Cessna C172 along the U.S.- Mexico border on the weekends. It is the only such program in the United States. The pilots don't report migrants to the Border Patrol unless the migrants signal they are in distress.

With the donations, the group will be able to continue its work until the planned cutoff date, Sept. 16, and to start again in the spring, when it plans to expand the air patrols to Arizona.

The group has benefited from positive attention and its share of luck.

Springsteen praised the group's work at his concert in Bridgeport, Conn., in July. Then fans organized through online forums.

"Truly sounds like a 'worthy' charity. Great of Bruce to mention this movement. Otherwise something like this would never reach the masses. Now I know why I love this guy (Springsteen) so much," one Web site posting stated.

Alarcon started receiving $100 checks marked "Bruce Sent Me," after the fan Web site that keeps track of Springsteen's favorite charities.

The most mysterious donation was the $25,000 from an anonymous New York donor with ties to El Paso.

El Pasoan Rosa Elena Hinojosa acted as a go-between. She wanted to say only that the donor heard of Alarcon thanks to an article in the New York Times and that the donor was an immigrant himself.

"He understands the need to close the border, but he feels nobody needs to die in the desert that way," she said.

The donor had three conditions attached to his gift, Hinojosa and Alarcon said: that Paisanos make the group's Web site look more professional, that the pilots drop Pedialyte along with water, and that they include Arizona in their patrols.

The group is also getting backing from the corporate community, thanks to ties the pilots have with their bosses.

Sergio Moreno said he approached his boss, Juárez mogul Pedro Zaragoza, owner of a large dairy and other food interests, after flying him in a corporate jet.

"Even though we have put our own money in the flights (for Paisanos al Rescate), we can only do so much. We have families and lives," the pilot said.

Zaragoza donated 1,000 gallons of airplane fuel, and later his son Tomas Zaragoza gave another 1,000 gallons. Fuel is about $5 a gallon, and the Cessna burns 9 gallons per hour.

Alarcon filed for a nonprofit tax designation for Paisanos al Rescate in January, but it hasn't been granted yet, he said.

"We went from rescuing people to being rescued ourselves," said the group's founder, Armando Alarcon, who spent about $80,000 of his own money to start the project.

And you might graduate to being arrested. I guess you are not aware that aiding illegals is a Federal crime.