Migrants crossing the Sonoran Desert into rural Arizona: Mitigating perils by providing medical assistance and humanitarian aid

A morally intolerable situation inspired a remarkable humanitarian movement in southern Arizona in the spring of 2004. Driven by economic inequality, thwarted by ill-conceived US border policy, and ignorant of the harsh conditions of the Sonoran Desert, more than 4000 men, women, and children have died trying to cross the Mexican border into the United States since 1998. Diverse faith-based and social activist groups—along with concerned individuals—felt compelled to act to stem the death tide and attempt to save at least some lives. They converged to form an organization called No More Deaths. No More Deaths volunteers work in Mexico Aid Centers in three Sonora, Mexico–Arizona border communities that receive significant numbers of deportees: Nogales, Naco, and Agua Prieta. However, the heart of No More Deaths is Desert Aid: providing water, food, and medical attention in the desert migration corridor south of Tucson, in both the open desert and a fixed base camp. This photographic presentation will discuss the causes of migration: the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) implemented in 1994, the maquiladora factories along the border with Mexico, and the global economy. The presenter volunteered with No More Deaths in the Desert Aid Camp in the fall of 2012. The presentation will also describe hikes into the desert to provide medical care, food, and water to migrants crossing the Sonoran Desert and medical care at the fixed base camp. It will also describe the perils, both physical/life threatening as well as legal, that migrants face.