Migrant Trail Walk Concludes Sunday in Tucson : AZ IMC

Tired and hot, walkers on the 3rd annual Migrant Trail Walk concluded their ordeal today, arriving at Kennedy Park at 12:30pm. The walk, organized by local border and immigration activists, began Monday, May 29th, and snaked across 75 miles of desert from Sasabe, Sonora, Mexico to Tucson.

Conceived as a show of solidarity and support for the hundreds of migrants who die crossing that same desert every year, the walk this year involved approximately 100 participants walking the entire length, with hundreds more arriving Sunday for the concluding event.

As the walk concluded it passed by the Sector Headquarters of the Border Patrol, where activists performed a small bit of street theater, acting out the death by dehydration of countless immigrants. As the "die-in" performers sprawled on the sidewalk simulating the dead or their friends and family, the trail walkers passed by solemnly, placing crosses as well as a long note for the Border Patrol.

Reaching Kennedy park, the walk finished up with food, music by a variety of musicians, Indian dancers, speakers, and testimonials by several particpants. "Some call it a sacrifice, but it wasn't, really," said 13-year-old Ben, who came from Oakridge, Tennessee to be on the Walk. "Unlike the migrants out there, we had all the water we wanted, a truck to carry our stuff. It was more of an offering, an offering of support to them."

Tonight,CBS '60 Minutes' did a rerun from last fall of the Immigration Issue in Arizona & Southwest.

What a stupid cause by a bunch of stupid people. Why arent you marching South? Its not the USBP fault that illegal aliens die in the desert. Why dont y ou march you asses over to the Humane Borders camp and do a die-in there? Its apparent they dont save enough illegal aliens from death.

Another bunch of stupid dumb ass people that call themselves humanitarians.

Stacey O'Connell
MCDC

So a bunch of criminals try to break the law and sneak into the country and they die in the process. How is that our fault. I know lots of people, including my wife, who came here safely and LEGALLY.

I dont see 100 people in those pictures. I think you are FULL OF SHIT.

After reading this, I'm wondering what really happened. Who were the organizers? Did they have any comments on the event? I saw a clip of the march on TV showing a line of marchers along the road, and it looked like about 30 people. Is there a photo of the group or the march itself showing all 100? I saw a photo of a sign saying "Illegals destroyed my desert." What did that mean? It looks like someone is talking with the sign carrier -- what did they say? Another photo showed some water bottles and a sheet of paper. What did that mean? Would it too hard to show clear photos that actually allow you to see what happened and who was there?

Hello. I participated in the march.
It started on Monday(29th) in Sasabe, Mexico and ended on Sunday (4th) in Tucson. We started with about 60 people and more joined throughout the march until we were over a 100 strong on Sunday. This is the 3rd year for the march and will continue every year until the deaths stop. The march is no way meant to recreate what migrants have to go through. It is simply meant as an offering for the many who have died and continue to die, and as an act of solidarity with the many who continue to cross into the U.S. despite the obvious risks involved to make money for their desperate families in Mexico.

To answer a few of your questions: the women holding the sign did not come up to us to make her point known, so I'm not sure what she was trying to get across. I can only guess she is expressing concern over the environmental damage being done to the desert. That, however, can hardly be blamed on the migrants who only leave empty water jugs they cannot carry and the occasional sweater or backpack.
The picture of water bottles with the note were a part of a collection of things left for the border patrol agents, including: items we found along the way left by migrants (blanket, backpack, teddybear, etc), notes written by migrant trail walk participants, and crosses bearing the names of those who have died and their ages.
The AZ Daily Star and Tucson Citizen webpages have slideshows with more pictures.

Criminals? How is it criminal being a human being? These people that risk their lives to cross those borders are doing it for the fact that they want a better life for themselves as well as their families. They work their asses off to no end so they can provide food, water, shelter to their families.

And let us not least forget that europeans came here and took over this land from the native americans, shoved them into reservations and took the land for themselves. Isn't that what the united states was built on?

So a few "illegal" immigrants I believe have a right to be here, because WE ARE ALL HUMAN BEINGS. WE ALL HAVE BASIC NECESSITIES. Yes, I realize there are "legal" ways to get into the US. Yes, some of these people have applied to become US citizens and have been rejected, but why? Because they cannot speak english well enough? Well so what? It all comes down to primitive needs. They still need to feed themselves and their families, they still need to cloth themselves. I give them so much credit for risking their lives on the fact that THEY JUST WANT TO LIVE A BETTER LIFE. And isn't that the American dream?

Illegal immigrants come to take jobs for lower wages
than Americans would take. They are therefore no
different from those who cross picket lines. There are
two ways we can handle this:

1) The statist way: strengthen the border and deport
them.

2) The anarchist way: get our guns and shoot them.

I think the former way is more humane, but there are
an awful lot of anarchists on this site.

Of course the Arizona Indymedia ethos is that if you're
not white, it's okay to victimize working people who
are. If you're white and don't let non-whites walk all
over you, you're a RACIST.

Yes, migrants take primarily low-paying jobs that US citizens may or may not want, but we shouldn't blame the migrants for taking them. We should blame the US multinational corporations offering low-wage jobs with no benefits. US minumum wage is not a living wage.

US multinational corporations are setting up factories in Mexico and call centers in India; they are exporting US jobs because they don't want to pay decent wages and don't want to pay for health insurance for their employees. Migrant worker offer US multinational corporations the convenience of paying low wages (with no benefits) to workers who are here in the US--thus avoiding the expense of building off-shore facilities.

The migrants aren't hurting US workers; multinational corporations are taking advantage of all low-wage workers everywhere.

Bush is pushing the guest worker program. Is this because he feels compassion for the migrants? I doubt it. Does he realize that this will legalize employing the destitute/desparate migrants and institutionalize low-wage jobs with no health insurance? Of course. The guest worker program will most likely help multinational corporations more than the people who are hired under it. My fear is that the guset worker program will make it easier for other corporations to set-up Wal-Mart-style employee wage/hour structures.

By the way, I was at the Border Patrol die-in. Only a handful of passionate humaitarians were in the die-in. The rest of the walkers were down the street stagind a silent vigil. It was a moving event.

Of course the corporations are responsible for low wages, and of course we must resist them. Yes, minimum wage is too low. This does not excuse the role of the migrants. If they were not there to take these jobs, however, wages would be driven up. Your statement is like saying, "Don't blame the scabs, because you lost the strike. Blame the bosses."

Yes, the bosses would deserve blame, but the scabs allowed them to do it. We must blame both the bosses and the migrants for this, and we must stop both of them.

While you all sit in your air conditioned offices pretending to work, hundreds of people are crossing the 105 degree desert, scared for their lives but unable to think of any other way, to make money for their families that need money NOW. 79 people have died since January and the summer has just barely started.
It is so easy for you to forget about them, those that live like ghosts in our country but are the secret force cleaning your office and your gym, building your house and repairing your roof, slaughtering your meat (the most dangerous job available taken almost entirely by latino workers), babysitting your children, etc, etc.
The really sad part is that they even want to come to the U.S. Most dont like it and who can blame them. Why come to a country with absolutely no culture, with a people so uneducated (from our spectacular public school system)that they actually believe they live in the best and most democratic country in the world. A country full of mostly obese workaholics, with broken homes and spoiled kids that do nothing but play video games.
They come here because it is their absolute last resort, that is why they come pregnant, with babies in arms, sick, old, and very young with wives at home. That is why they risk everything, including death to come here and work. Mexico has the sad fate to be so connected to the U.S and we are working hard to destroy their economy (NAFTA), their environment, and their culture.
I'd say dont be so fckin' heartless, but I guess, as Americans, it was just how you were raised.

Consider that it costs an illegal migrant over $1500
as a fee to the coyote or smuggler. A Mexican who
can raise that sum isn't among the most desperate
poor. They risk their lives so that they can take
advantage of the lopsided rate of exchange and
bring back money that will be enough to set up a
business in Mexico. This, of course, creates
inflationary pressure in Mexico and pushes up
prices of basic necessities for those who stay
behind--those who really are the most desperate
poor. Thus illegal immigrants harm workers on both
sides of the border.

Even if they were so desperate, it would make more
sense to risk their lives by joining the Zapatistas
or otherwise violently overthrowing Fox's corrupt
government than to risk their lives to undercut
American wages. In any case, if death in the desert
is inhumane, the answer is to strengthen the border
and offer the quick and humane death by the firing
squad to those who violate it.

Don't forget that this is OUR LAND, and the invaders are the ones that are occupying our land. This is Aztlan whether you like it or not. Remember that we were here before YOU....
People like you is living in denial thinking that you belong here... but you don't.
so, don't complain... and if you are not happy go back to your land... are you from Germany? or maybe Irish?.... I can pay your ticket back to your land...

It's so comforting to have Kevin Walsh around to tell us what's what about everything. You know...that mexicans who come here "aren't really desperate," because some (but not all!) pay a fee to be guided here...that instead mexicans should join the zapatistas and die gloriously as a revolutionary (hmmm...isn't Chiapas just a very small part of Mexico?). Then he goes on to call death by firing squad "swift and humane." So...how does HE know that? Ever stood in front of a firing squad, Kevin? Want to volunteer?

Fact is, Kevin Walsh has NO direct experience with any of the things he writes about here. He lives in ideological lah-lah-land, and is completely disconnected from regular folks and working people. Unless they happen to be nazis.

Very few Mexicans lived in Arizona at the time of the
signing of the treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo. In very few
cases did the border cross them. The vast majority of the
Mexican-American nationality (which is distinct from the
Mexican nationality) are descended from those who
entered the USA, legally or illegally, since then. They
have a claim to the Southwest, but only when the USA
is divided up along nationality lines. Mexicans do not have
the right to overrun the Southwest, and certainly not
the entire USA.

Granted, I have not been in front of
a firing squad, but it takes less time than heat stroke and
must therefore be more humane. I do know about
workers' struggles here to get decent wages and
conditions and how they are thwarted because the
illegals are willing to accept worse of both.

This is not your country! White America can and will
protect itself!

--Kevin Walsh

Hey Kevin -- your big ass-umption is showing. I'm a white guy, too, though not a jew-hater or a neo-nazi, or firing squad enthusiast. Or a revolutionary poseur who in real life falls to the ground squealing in fear when the cops come for him. The only reason a cop got hurt during your butterfly-netting was because you were trying to shoot...yourself. Ya basta, you big phony.

Then you're even worse than an invading Mexican.
You're a white man who hates his own race. That
kind of racism seems to be acceptable here.

I at least didn't give up without a fight, as I'm sure you
would have. Of course, you're not a threat to the vile
Jew government, because you do everything they
tell you to do. Naturally a pseudo-revolutionary piece
of chicken-shit like you would mock someone who
was really willing to lay down his life (and still is).

Oh by the way, I didn't fall down, squeeling. I didn't
squeel, and I was knocked down by a jujitsu maneuver
by a pig.

It's fine for "reader" to call someone else a poser.
He/she/it won't even use a real name. I at least have
the guts to do that.

"reader" is posing as a human being.

I like the white race just fine...it's just certain individuals with loathsome beliefs -- like you -- that I take exception to. You and your big ass-umptions, that is.

And glad I pissed you off, you big poser. It's easy to tough-talk bullshit about firing squads and such, when all you do is stand on street corners with a big floppy flag, and post your dysfunctional ideology on IMC. Why don't you GO somewhere risky and put your big ass-umptions on the line, nazi-boy? That'll never happen!

And truly sad that you blame the "jew government" instead of your own ineptness, craziness and stupidity in getting netted by the authorities. Truly lame. Bottom line, Kevin, is that NO ONE in the Phoenix activist community takes you seriously. Except other losers like Mike Ross.

And finally, I don't owe you the revelation of my identity, that's not for every yahoo who can pound a keyboard. Pearls before swine, nazi-boy.

Well, maybe you didn't "squeel" when the cops got you....maybe it was more like bleating. Or pleading. What really must burn you up is that the cops saved you from shooting yourself. Saved by the cops -- ouch. Pretty revolutionary...NOT. Hitler would be disappointed in you.

It was neither pleading nor bleating. I politely and
calmly asked them to shoot me.

In any case, I was willing to die rather than be
captured alive by them. That I survived merely means
I have the duty to continue the struggle, which I
will, despite the dangers that this or worse things
may hapen in future.

Such a sense of duty must be completely alien to
scum like "reader" or "reuters," who don't even have
the backbone to give their names, as if they were in
such grave danger for spouting liberal humanist
views espoused by a large segment of the population.
Still, I don't think it is a case of extreme cowardice
on their part. I think it is utter unwillingness to be
accountable for the garbage they spout.

They (or perhaps just he or she using different
screen names) talk about my not understanding
the struggles of working people. I at least am a
working person, if a rather eccentric one. Perhaps
they have never done an honest day's work in
their lives and would have even less of an idea about
it than I. Of course, if they continue to be
anonymous, we'll never know for certain.

Definitely, Kevin. A sense of nazi-boy duty like yours IS alien to me. And by "continuing the struggle" you mean continuing to stand on a street corner offering yourself as a point of ridicule.

As for being a working guy...yeah wasn't that the revolutionary activity you were engaged in when the cops came for you -- raking leaves? Das ist gut -- upon such things was the Third Reich built. Props to you, herr reichsleafrakinguberfuhrer, I'm sure the future belongs to you. No wonder you hate all those mexicans who no doubt are far better leaf-rakers than you are.

And I don't owe you a single iota of info about me, you big wienershnitzel.

But what difference does it make? Both are honest and useful work. Only a social parasite like you would disdain that. And yes, I do resent it when Mexicans are brought in to do that work for less money. That is scab behaviour. If you condone it, it shows you certainly are not pro-worker. Work that might better use my education and abilities has been denied me, so I do such work as I am given. There is no shame in that.
Careful, your class snobbery is showing!

mexica,........guesss what !!!!

the KING of Spain just sent over a plane ticket to get your taco bending ass BACK to SPAIN!!!! LOL!!
this is NATIVE LAND baby!
go back to Europe you racist exploiter....

Kevin -- I wasn't disdaining yardwork, but WAS disdaining your full-of-shit claims about being engaged in "revolutionary activities." I've cleaned out toilets, myself, so I definitely know shit when I see it -- or read it. And your shit smells to high heaven. Reichshit...

Then why mention the work I was doing at all?
Surely revolutionaries work like everyone else.

I think everyone could clearly see your class snobbery
in that post. So why do you feel the need for
anonymity, then?

I mention it because of your incredible vanity in puffing up your "revolutionary" exploits -- which are WHAT, exactly?

And nice try...feel free to go on accusing me of class snobbery.

There are too many random people reading AZ IMC to make it wise to post non-anonymously. Not to mention various legal authorities who regularly scan IMC. I'm sure they adding up the points for you, Kevin -- for your next trip to the looney bin. Just keep posting...

I don't know what you could possibly mean by
revolutionary "exploits." Making revolution is not
about exploits. It's about dedication to a long term
struggle, doing what one can towards the goal,
speaking the truth without fear, and setting a good
example for others.

Anonymity does none of these things. Certainly
you have nothing to fear in identifying yourself. No
government agent is going to persecute you for
spouting politically correct subjectivist garbage.

You are anonymous, because people who live in
glass houses shouldn't throw rocks. Your only
consistent argument is argumentum ad hominem,
and while focusing on the minor faults of others,
rather than whether their arguments are correct,
you think anonymity will shield you from
criticism of your own major faults. Well, anonymity
exposes two of your very serious faults--cowardice
and intellectual dishonesty. I dare say finding out
who you are and what you have been doing with
your life would confirm these and possibly expose
others.

American dream? Since when has it become the Unites States job to provide for the worlds poor?

And why stop at Mexico? Why not ferry over all the poor from Africa and the Middle East? Fuck that, let's pack all the world's "desperate" and poor into this country-as many as we can fit.

Mexico can't run their government, so we have to deal with their problems of poverty? Maybe if Bush sent his troops into Mexico to unfuck their government instead of Iraq, we would all be a lot better off.....

Well even though the die-in is so beyond silly as to be fall-out-of-your-chair funny, to many people I've shared it with, it is a good example of someone who gives a darn about things, and is at least trying to do something. Way way too many people in the USA are apathetic about everything and don't care about the fact people ARE dying in the desert, they don't care about the environmental damage caused by both the illegals AND the people who chase them, they don't care about nuthin.
So bravo to someone who provides some street theatre and at least gives a hoot about something.

But the illegals need to stay home. They wouldn't die if they didn't CHOOSE to break the law by illegally entering the USA. Please ask them to stay home and work to fix their own country!

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