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Migrant aid worker influx divides tight-knit Arivaca
By Stephanie Innes
ARIZONA DAILY STAR


ARIVACA

Some residents of this small, independent-minded Southern Arizona town are critical of the faith-based immigrant-aid workers who have moved into their community.

For the second straight summer, No More Deaths members are camping in the Arivaca area 24 hours a day, seven days a week, offering food, water and medical aid to illegal entrants who make the trek across the border from Mexico.

Their camp is called Ark of the Covenant - after the Old Testament Ark of the Covenant, a wooden box that symbolized the presence of God traveling with the people of Israel as they wandered in the desert.

"I'm an usher in my church. I'm a religious man. But you can't aid and abet someone who is doing wrong," said retired air traffic controller Jim S. Conklin, who has lived in Arivaca since 1978 and helped found its volunteer Fire Department.

"I don't think they are helping. They are giving people a false sense of security," he said. "I'm not saying they are wrong. Their intent is beautiful. But you've got to use your head when you get the orders to do God's work."

No one wants more migrants to die in the desert near Arivaca. But others in the town of about 2,500 echo Conklin's thoughts.

"Everybody has to search their own heart and let God lead them," said the Rev. Rebecca Gibson of the Arivaca Christian Center, which declined an invitation to help with No More Deaths. "I don't think the Bible tells us we need to help people in the desert. There are people in our own American cities dying from the heat.

"I think these people think they are doing a good service. But are they really helping? I don't know," Gibson said.

No More Deaths members are aware of their critics.

"In U.S. history, anytime there is a downturn in the economy or war, there is always a backlash against immigrants," said the Rev. Stuart Taylor of St. Mark's Presbyterian Church, 3809 E. Third St. "Right now we have both, and the backlash may get worse before it gets better. We believe people of faith and conscience support the humanitarian nature of our work, and many have joined us."

For many longtime Arivaca-area residents, the volunteers' presence is like pouring salt in a deep wound.

"There's a division in Arivaca, and it's created some real hard feelings," said 37-year-old Tilda Martinez, who recently stepped down as chief of the Arivaca Fire Department but is still part of its crew. "These good Samaritans should be south of the border telling people not to come across."

But hundreds of illegal entrants continue to trek through the mountains and valleys around Arivaca every day. The migrants have damaged the wildlife habitat in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge and have left piles of garbage in and around the community. Calls about migrants are draining the budget of the Fire Department, which operates solely on grants and fund-raisers such as spaghetti dinners and pancake breakfasts.

Officials at the 118,000-acre wildlife refuge conducted a study in 2001 that showed 279 acres of refuge habitat had been completely denuded by migrant traffic. Refuge officials have found 20 abandoned vehicles they say were left by illegal entrants. There also have been break-ins at the homes of refuge workers who live on-site, and in the last six years, the number of refuge law enforcement officers has risen from one to four.

Martinez said she recently spent more than eight hours fighting a blaze on the refuge caused by a migrant campfire.

Still, most of the illegal migrants are just poor people who want a better life, said Kate Lynch, a 23-year-old from Washington, D.C., who volunteered at the Arivaca camp last week. On Monday, she was driving with other volunteers when they saw an emaciated man crawling along Arivaca Road. The man, from Chiapas, Mexico, avoided their eyes and asked them to call the U.S. Border Patrol.

"He was so sad, so disheartened, so defeated," Lynch said. "His eyes were glazed. He'd been abandoned by his group.

"He had paid $1,500 to cross. It was everything he had and more," Lynch added. "He had borrowed from his neighbors and was going to find work and send money home. He kept talking about two young women at home who were starving and how he'd let them down. I will never forget his face."

The Ark camp is on property owned by popular children's author Byrd Baylor, who has lived in the Arivaca area for 20 years.

"Everyone in Arivaca knows each other and accepts what others are doing," Baylor said. "In this case, it's clear to everyone what my feelings are about this group. A lot of people disagree, but I don't think they are in the majority. … But one fact is that the volunteers are not bringing people into Arivaca; they are finding them there."

The number of deaths in the desert has been climbing since the mid-1990s, when the Border Patrol stepped up patrols at ports of entry, a move some say pushed illegal entrants to more desolate stretches along the international line.

No More Deaths workers remain steadfast in their effort not only to help save lives but to bring national and international attention to the issue. Another 115 volunteers showed up Sunday at Tucson's Southside Presbyterian Church for training to join the movement.

The workers say they've helped at least 230 migrants since the Arivaca camp opened on Memorial Day.

"We're not looking for people who are going through. It's the people who have been left behind," said volunteer Steve Johnston, 60, of Tucson. "If we weren't finding half-dead people with bloody feet, high temperatures and rapid heartbeats, then maybe there could be criticism. But we are."