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June 13, 2001
14 illegal immigrants die after smugglers abandon them
Border deaths focus attention on ongoing problems, efforts
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The discovery of the bodies of 14 would-be immigrants in the Arizona desert May 23 brought attention to the ongoing border struggles of the southwestern United States.
Just a day earlier, representatives of several national Catholic organizations met in Tucson, Ariz., for the first of five listening sessions in selected cities that are expected to lead to pilot church-sponsored programs for communities on the Mexico-U.S. border and to a pastoral statement from the two countries' bishops.
The 14 dead were from a group of about 30 led across the Mexican border by smugglers in a remote area about 70 miles from a highway where they might have found help.
Temperatures reached 115 degrees during the four days they wandered in the desert before they were found by the U.S. Border Patrol. Twelve survivors were rescued, including one who was indicted on charges of human smuggling. Others apparently turned back to Mexico.
The deaths prompted an outcry from Arizona's Catholic bishops and other religious leaders, including the president of the U.S. bishops' migration committee.
"Our elected officials must steer away from a one-dimensional approach toward our borders and examine all aspects of national immigration policy,'' said Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio of Camden, N.J., who heads the committee.
In a statement released by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, Bishop DiMarzio said that examination should include the legal immigration system, laws addressing asylum and due process protection, and the current treatment of undocumented immigrants who enter the United States.
The three bishops of Arizona issued a joint statement saying the deaths were "both shocking and, tragically, predictable.'' They said, "the treachery of some of their countrymen, the `coyotes' (smugglers), the harshness of the desert and the interaction of economic forces and immigration policy converged to kill them.''
The May 25 statement was signed by Bishops Manuel D. Moreno of Tucson, Thomas J. O'Brien of Phoenix and Donald E. Pelotte of Gallup, N.M., whose diocese includes a portion of Arizona.
"Migrants from Mexico and Central America have been dying in our deserts for years, dying despite the efforts of church and human rights groups to assist immigrants at risk,'' they said.
The day Bishop DiMarzio's statement was released, the bodies of 12 of the people who died in the desert were flown to Veracruz, on Mexico's southern Gulf coast.
Clergy from eight denominations led a funeral procession from a Tucson mortuary to the airport and prayed over the caskets before they were loaded onto the plane. A public memorial service organized by the human rights group Derechos Humanos was held in a downtown Tucson park June 3.
"Ultimately, the nation must thoroughly examine the root causes of undocumented migration and seek long-term solutions, especially in developing the economies of our southern neighbors,'' Bishop DiMarzio said in his statement.
"The time has come for Congress and the administration to re-examine our border policy,'' he added. "As a nation, we must no longer tolerate nor accept the deaths of migrants along our southern border.''
Bishop DiMarzio said that while the church recognizes the right of nations to control their borders, enforcement tactics must be sensitive to human rights "and coupled with a generous legal immigration system which positively responds to the realities of migration in our hemisphere.''
He explained that, since the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service began its Operation Gatekeeper in 1994 to reduce illegal border crossings at key points, more than 2,000 people have died along the border, many from exposure to extreme heat and cold.
"Since 1995, the number of Border Patrol agents has more than tripled, driving migrants toward more hazardous routes into the nation's interior or into the hands of smugglers, leading to tragedies like the deaths which occurred in the Arizona desert last week,'' Bishop DiMarzio said.
In their statement, the three Catholic bishops who serve Arizona said the deaths were a ``sad testimony to the terrible pressures too many people in Mexico feel as they look to `el norte.'''
The mayor of the village of Atzalan told reporters the deaths had devastated the small town, which was the home of seven of the dead. Four of the survivors also were from Atzalan.
About 200 people attended the June 3 memorial service for the dead migrants. A music group from St. Augustine Cathedral and Father Bob Carney, pastor of St. Luke's Parish in Douglas, Ariz., were joined by Protestant clergy, representatives of the Yaqui and Tohono O'odham tribes, human rights activists and others.
Joanne Welter, director of Catholic social mission for the Tucson Diocese, read the statement from the Arizona bishops at the memorial service.
Welter told Catholic News Service that the hearings being held by U.S. church agencies are a great effort toward addressing the problems along the border.
Other sessions were to be held in Las Cruces, N.M.; El Paso, Texas; and Ciudad Juarez and Hermosillo, Mexico.
The project has two goals: To create pilot programs for the Catholic Church in the United States and Mexico to respond to the social and pastoral needs of border communities; and to formulate a pastoral statement on issues surrounding border life.
Church agencies taking part in the U.S.-Mexico border initiative included the Catholic Campaign for Human Development; Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' overseas relief and development agency; the U.S. bishops' Committee on Home Missions; and from the U.S. Catholic Conference, Migration and Refugee Services, Secretariat for the Church in Latin America, Department of Social Development and World Peace, and Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs.
Also participating was the Washington-based Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., known as CLINIC, which provides legal aid to indigent immigrants through diocesan programs.
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