On a recent hike, ~18 miles north of the Arizona-Mexico border, I came across remnants of what appeared to have been an "illegals" camp site. Scattered about were a pair of tennis shoes, pants, two water jugs, two blankets, a bottle of electrolyte, juice cans, and food wrappers. I gathered up some of the items and arranged them in this jumbled still life.
My guess is that they were apprehended by the US Border Patrol or picked up by a human trafficker. If the Border Patrol picked them up, they were likely placed in detention, processed, and then scheduled to appear before a magistrate. Then, depending on their case, either sent to Florence or held until they could be placed on a bus, driven to the US-Mexico border, and released back into Mexico. Being persistent, desperate, or both, many illegals attempt entry into the US multiple times.
I'm not here as an apologist for illegal entry into the US--but I am sympathetic. If I were facing their predicament, I too would be entering the country illegally. I would be seeking a better, safer life for my family. My maternal grandparents and my paternal grandmother, my father, two brothers, and two sisters came here from Mexico. Most of my Nogales friend's parents or grandparents came to the US from Mexico and became successful, law-abiding-tax-contributing members of our society.
There are certainly legal options available for immigrating to the US and I've been researching what's involved in coming to the US legally--none of it is quick, easy, or inexpensive especially if you don't have access to the resources (e.g. computer, internet, disposable income) that we take for granted. Based on the discussions I've had with people who came here illegally, there was an element of desperation. No one in their right mind--especially if you're coming from Central or South America--attempts the journey unless they view their situation as hopeless in their native country. They endure physical and emotional hardships that would cause many of us to wither.
Let's face it, we're all immigrants. Our families all came from "some other place." The first homo sapiens in North America preceded us by thousands of years. If anyone had/has a right to lay claim to the land and its resources it is early native Americans, the Indigenous.
Then "we" showed up, the Dutch, Spanish, English, French, selling god, peddling trinkets, or simply claiming the land as their own. The Indigenous soon realized that these white folks weren't just visiting, they wanted to stay. They wanted to take over. We were the unwelcome, the uninvited. It was a land grab pure and simple.
Naturally, the Indigenous took issue with the party-crashers and there was trouble. It ended badly. They were hunted and corraled onto reservations. While we were at it, we wiped out the carrier pigeon and just about wiped out the buffalo. We've since fenced the land, spoiled the water, and fouled the air--beginning with the arrival of the Spanish in what is now St. Augustine Florida in 1565.
There is much more to this tale than what can be described in this short blog. For anyone interested in learning more, here are a few other resources:
A New History of the First Peoples in the
The First Americans
Broken US-Indigenous treaties: A timeline
15 Myths About Immigration Debunked
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