No More Deaths ASU Chapter, Geography for Border Migrant Aid?
Arizona State University geography students provide humanitarian aid to migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Engaged in social, economic, and political conflicts that illegal immigration entails, what is driving these students to become involved in providing relief for migrants and their journey through the desert?
Arizona State University has partnered with Tucson and Phoenix No More Deaths Chapters to provide aid for migrants crossing the Arizona-Mexico border. The school chapter has lead two migrant-relief trips and is planning summer trips as heat becomes a migrant’s biggest obstacle.
“As a geography student, it’s obvious that the biggest obstacle migrants face is the length of the journey and the environment in which their journey has to be in,” said Carly Cipinko, an ASU geography senior.
“Due to various policies implemented by the US government, the journey for a migrant has changed from a short distance in to a population center, to an incredibly long and dangerous trek through some of the harshest and most remote environment in the world. Human remains have been found close to 200 miles away from the US-Mexico border, and to walk that distance, by foot, with out enough water, when temperatures can be over 130 degrees is something I can’t even imagine.”
Cipinko, called her experience in ASU’s first No More Deaths trip as “an amazing feeling.” Cipinko said she was overwhelmed by the result of their work and how “as a group [ASU NMD] could do our part to help save someone’s life.”
No More Deaths, or No Mas Muertes,is a humanitarian, non-profit organization that has been operating in the Arizona- Mexico border Tucson Sector for 12 years. NMD co-founder Gene Lefebvre, describes the non-profit organization as “people of conscious” mostly led by community and faith groups.”
NMD has the mission to end the number of deaths and suffering of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico Border in Arizona. Since its founding in 2002, NMD has developed different strategies of providing aid such as distributing water and food for migrants in Arizona and the Sonora Desert.
In 2006, NMD started a Spring Break program to offer college students the opportunity to volunteer. Erin Hoekstra, a NMD Phoenix member, says she noticed how at night some students, specially the ones who have been directly affected by their parents’ immigration story, started to create an emotional correlation with the NMD Desert Aid Program. “We went out to Ajo and it was at night during the camp fires when it would really sink in,” said Hoekstra.
“A lot of the affected community wanted to help us in other ways like fundraisers in the city, ” said Chris Fleischnan, an active volunteer for Phoenix NMD. According to Fleischnan, lot of the community volunteers and supporters make the decision to not work in the desert because they are afraid there families will be put at risk. Although they might be citizens or residents, including DACA status, having unauthorized family members isa big concern for these people who are willing to help.
ASU had previously tried to work with NMD, but it was not until the Fall 2015 semester that students started getting involved with Phoenix and Tucson NMD Chapters. The first trip was lead by ASU Geology & Urban Planning professor, Scott Warren. He teaches a course titled, “Geographic Field Methods,” offered to students who are looking to develop their skills in urban and rural analysis off campus. Warren is the current moderator for ASU NMD Chapter.
During the students’ first trip, according to Cipinko, they experienced a more noticeable presence of migrants and patrol officers as they were located closer to the southern border than the lands that they currently cover: Sand Tank Mountins and the Goldwater Bombing Range.
One of the biggest concerns NMD faces is its relationship with the migrants. Gene Lefebvre, NMD co-founder said [No More Deaths] is in the middle of a humanitarian aid situation. “We don’t want to turn in anybody,” he said, “ If we did, they [migrants] wouldn’t trust us and migrants would look at us as part of law enforcers.”
Lefebvre said that as part of their trips, they do not interact with migrants. Most of the migrants make their moves during the night time. Most interactions with migrants during the day time are due to injuries, exhaustion, and serious situations that would lead the migrants to become vulnerable and exposed to possible encounters with Border Patrol Agents.
The BORSTAR Unit provides law enforcement, search, rescue and medical response capabilities for the U.S. Border Patrol. Although this sector counts with approximately 4,000 agents, the BORSTAR Unit, according to Lefebvre, only counts with 60 trained BORSTAR agents in the Arizona-Mexico border sectors.
The Binational Migration Institute titles the number of migrant deaths proportionate to immigration policies in the state as the “Funnel Effect.” Regardless of broader militarizing strategies in the border, the number of unauthorized migrants has not decreased, but only increased from 2009-2012.
Most of the NMD Operation area is based near the Goldwater Bombing range, belonging to the Tucson Border Sector. According to Lefebvre, “it’s such vast area that we deploy more people to that area because there has been so many deaths in the last years.”
In response to a private farmer owner, who claimed migrants were crossing through his private property asking for water, NMD installed a trailer near this property last summer. In April 2, 2016 the trailer went missing. A week prior to the incident, the trailer’s wheels and tires had been shot. They do not know who is responsible for this and they are currently gathering funds to replace the trailer.
According to Lefebvre, farm owners say a vehicle circle the land the night before the trailer went missing. NMD volunteers had also received threats to be removed by private officers, who alleged they were dumping water in private lands.
According to the Pew Research Center study, between 2009 and 2012 Arizona experienced a 40 percent decrease in illegal immigration. Many attribute this change to Arizona’s controversial bill SB 1070. This law passed in 2010 allows local police officers to request a suspect for citizenship or residency documentation. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, unauthorized immigrants are part of Arizona’s 46 percent of foreign born population; a 6% of state’s total population. Forty-seven percent of illegal border crossing happens in the Arizona-Mexico border.
Although this kind of activity has led to Arizona being boycotted, groups like NMD, have consistently offered its humanitarian aid for this human movement at the southern ridges of the state as migrants still cross the border illegally. Although the number of illegal immigrant has decreased in the state, NMD members still experience effectiveness in their indirect interaction through their aid.
“ I like being part of something that I can reduce the suffering, and hopefully save a few lives… Maybe there aren’t as many people that we actually see but what we are doing things that are important…You can’t really understand Arizona’s immigration problem unless you live with it.”
– No More Deaths Co-Founder Gene Lefebvre
ASU is working hard to keep its chapter active. Their next trips will be May 20 and 27th. Cipinko invites more geography students, as well as students in other fields of study should really be more involved in this humanitarian cause:
“Geography is really all about being in the field and this type of humanitarian work provides such a valuable experience for any area of study in geography, beyond the reward of doing humanitarian work in it self. The current state of the US-Mexico borderlands encompasses so many different areas of study, including human migration, population & political geography, study of climate, landscape and human-environment interactions, cartography and geographic information systems, and medical geography. I’m actually surprised that more geographers aren’t part of ASU NMD!”
Charlene Santiago 