Tucson, AZ—For the 15th consecutive year, more than 50 people will embark on a week-long, 75-mile walk from Sásabe, Sonora, Mexico to Tucson, Arizona to call for an end to migrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Since the 1990s, more than 7,000 men, women and children are known to have lost their lives crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Their deaths are a direct result of flawed U.S. border and immigration policies that have intentionally diverted migration into more isolated and desolate terrains of the Sonoran desert. The remains of 58 people have been recovered in Southern Arizona since October, 2017. During fiscal year 2016-2017, 147 remains were recovered, according to the Office of the Medical Examiner for Pima County. In 2017, 412 migrant deaths were recorded along the entirety of the U.S.-Mexico Border.
This year's Migrant Trail Walk is happening in the midst of increasing national efforts by the U.S. administration to dramatically expand policing, technology, and infrastructure in the Southwest borderlands, including building additional border walls. The walk also calls attention to the increasing enforcement in the interior of the United States, where raids and roundups of undocumented people are tearing families apart and instilling fear in our communities.
As the summer approaches, and Arizona temperatures are already reaching searing triple-digits, the number of migrants who will perish from dehydration and exposure dramatically increases. Participants of the Migrant Trail undertake this yearly trek to call attention and demand a stop to these tragic and preventable deaths.
The Migrant Trail will begin Monday, May 28th at 2:00pm in Sásabe, Sonora. Carpools depart at 10:45 am from Southside Presbyterian (317 W. 23rd Street) immediately following the press conference in Tucson. The walkers arrive on Sunday, June 3rd at 11:30 am to Kennedy Park, Ramada #3, for a closing ceremony. The Migrant Trail is a non-violent, family-friendly event, and is free and open to the community.