Panel discussion with prominent humanitarian activists from Southern Arizona: Dora Rodriguez, Dr. Scott Warren, Reverend John Fife, & Mike Wilson. Moderated by Robert Neustadt, Ph.D.
Dora Rodríguez fled death squads in her native El Salvador and tried to cross the border in 1980. Of the 26 people in her group who attempted to cross the Sonoran Desert of AZ, 13 perished. Dora herself was nearly dead when the group was found by Border Patrol. An advocate for compassionate treatment of immigrants, Dora co-founded a migrant shelter / resource center in Sasabe, Sonora, Casa de la Esperanza, and an organization, Salvavision, that provides would-be immigrants with the means to sustain their families without crossing the border. For more information about Dora’s story see: https://www.kold.com/2019/05/
Dr. Scott Warren, who holds a Ph.D. in geography, has spent countless hours patrolling the deserts around Ajo, Arizona caching water, food, blankets, and offering first aid to people in need as a volunteer for No More Deaths / No más muertes. Scott was arrested by Border Patrol in Ajo in January 2018 by agents who were staking out the NMD base camp while two undocumented patients were receiving medical and humanitarian assistance. Scott was facing 20 years in prison for “harboring” and “furthering the illegal presence of ‘illegal aliens’,” in other words, he gave them food, water, and sheets. Scott Warren was tried twice in federal court. The first hearing ended in a hung jury, and he was acquitted in the second trial in Nov. 2019. No More Deaths’ slogan is: Humanitarian Aid is Never a Crime.
Reverend John Fife is the former pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, AZ. In the 1980s, when he realized that Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees were being detained by US authorities and returned to face US-supported death squads, he and others felt that they had the ethical obligation to smuggle people into the country. After their efforts were challenged by US authorities, Reverend Fife and others founded the Sanctuary Movement—they lodged refugees in houses of worship. The church hosted some 13,000 asylum seekers, sometimes with up to a 100 sleeping on the floor in one night. Reverend Fife was indicted for alleged violations of US immigration law and faced years of incarceration in a Federal Penitentiary. Fife and others developed the concept of “civil initiative” to distinguish their actions from “civil disobedience,” because in their view it was the US government that was failing to uphold the law. The Sanctuary Movement grew from one church to over 500 congregations all over the United States. Years later, when border crossers started to die in the desert of the Tucson Sector, John Fife and others co-founded humanitarian aid organizations, such as the Samaritan Patrol, No More Deaths / No más muertes, Tucson Samaritans, and Humane Borders.
Mike Wilson is a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation, a tribe whose ancestral homeland is bisected by the US/Mexico border in southern Arizona. In 2002 Mike became aware of the masses of Latin American border crossers who were perishing on the Nation and he began leaving water to save lives. He later began collaborating with the humanitarian group, Humane Borders, who was not allowed to work on the Nation. Wilson faced opposition from his church, his tribal government, and the US government, and yet he continued and expanded his efforts to include filling water barrels for migrants. He was depicted in this role in the (still relevant) documentary, Crossing Arizona (2005). Mike has continued to help border crossers in many different capacities over the years depending on current needs. For a time, Mike and his wife picked up asylum seekers who had been dumped by Border Patrol at the Greyhound Station in Tucson and brought them back to their house for meals, showers, and sleep, until they were prepared to continue their journeys elsewhere in the country. Currently Mike Wilson is co-directing, along with Vicky Westover, a documentary entitled Whose Land? O’odham Land!, and co-authoring a book with Jose Antonio Lucero, What Side Are You On? A Tohono O’odham Journey Across Borders.
Date/Time: November 2, 2023, 6:30 pm
FREE EVENT
