Despite today being our third day with each other, it was our first day of service working with Humane Borders. Waking up long before the sun at 4:45 a.m., we met up with two of the organization’s volunteers, Betzi and Karl. We split up into two trucks—Andy, Rachel, and me with Betzi, and Valerie, Hannah, Will, and Lizzie with Karl—before heading out along the Arizona-Mexico border to check on water tanks. The water tanks are strategically placed based on heavier migrant traffic and the number of deaths in certain areas, including a pecan grove and a private land referred to as Cemetery Hill. Each station consists of a fifty-five-gallon barrel of water marked by a thirty-foot flagpole with a deep blue flag attached to the top. From 6:00 a.m. to about 1:30 p.m., we traveled around to eight water stations to check their water level and make sure everything was okay.
Going out and working in the Arizona desert hands-on was an incredibly eye-opening experience. I didn’t anticipate the vast amount of vandalism, hate, and pure inhumanity that both immigrants and Humane Borders face on a daily basis. Betzi mentioned, on the journey from one station to the next, that the organization’s volunteers were often greeted with a middle finger rather than a wave once people realized their mission, which is simply to take the threat of death out of the equation of immigration. Two of the eight stations that we checked were empty as a result of vandalism. One of the barrels’ spigots was left open and its water drained and the other was tipped completely over with its spigot broken off. Unfortunately, coming upon barrels in this state is not uncommon. Betzi and Karl mentioned that groups of armed, anti-immigrant vigilantes who call themselves Minute Men were often responsible for the vandalism. After passing through a gate with a sign put up by the state of Arizona about certain rules for the land, Betzi commented, “These signs say not to deny livestock water—it’s illegal. They don’t say the same thing about humans.” Her comment really put into perspective how important the work done by Humane Borders and other similar organizations are.
We returned from our day of service in the early afternoon exhausted and hungry so we spent the rest of the day reflecting on our day, napping, and eating. Tomorrow we’re doing some renovations around the office and getting an inside look at how Humane Borders works from the inside.
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