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The Helpers

Community, Human Rights, Migrant Death, Reflections

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” ― Fred Rogers

This quote is commonly shared after tragic events like natural disasters to emphasize finding the good in every situation.  Helpers are the ones that run into danger, fully aware of the potential risks as well as what needs to be done to provide aid and assistance.  Helpers are the ones who extend kindness, calm fears and treat those in need with empathy and without judgement. Helpers often occupy a space where they witness pain and suffering, but they continue to aid because the heart of a helper is focused on acts of kindness over all else. As I reflect upon our time in the Texas Borderlands this year, I want to focus on the helpers. We have met many people that volunteer their time to aid in various capacities at the border out of a sense of responsibility and not for personal gain. This year we spent our time working with Deputy Don White and Paramedic Ray Gregory of Remote Wildlands Search and Recovery, who volunteer their time and resources year-round for search, rescue and recovery operations in Brooks County.

Deputy White and Paramedic Gregory in the Texas brush
Deputy Don White and Paramedic Ray Gregory talking during one of our breaks in the field

I enjoy our time talking with Don and Ray, learning more about them and hearing the stories of work they have done during the rest of the year. Don told us stories about the crosses he’s placed at recovery sites at the request of grieving families and the people he’s rescued and kept in touch with over the years.  Ray told us he does this work because everyone deserves to be found. He says he does this because he would hope someone would do it for him or his family if they were in a similar situation.  They have invested a lot into this work over the years, both financially and emotionally.  They have stories of time away from paid work, specialized equipment they personally purchased, injuries they suffered in the field, and traumatic stories from survivors and of the things they have witnessed. But they also have stories about saving lives and bringing answers to grieving families. They are the helpers who run into the brush when everyone else is trying to get out of it.

The helpers we’ve met at the border are a diverse group of people that range in age, experiences, educational and technical backgrounds, beliefs and political affiliations but they all come together to provide aide.  It demonstrates how the things we consider to be our differences don’t define us when faced with the harsh realities of the border where people are trafficked, assaulted, robbed, bribed and left for dead. It’s easy to ignore the situation when you haven’t heard the stories, looked in the eyes of parents fearful for the life of their children, translated desperate 911 calls for help, walked the clandestine paths through the brush or searched for the bodies of those that went missing. Once you experience this aspect of the border you never forget it and the helpers return again and again knowing the things they will see and the conditions they will face.

Our trip to Brooks County was successful in that we searched over 15 miles of clandestine wildlands and performed one recovery of an individual that will now begin the process of identification.  We were able to learn new techniques from Don and Ray regarding search and recovery work in this environment as well as strategies for our own personal safety here.  The trip was also successful in student growth. They honed their forensic skills, tried new things, met new people and got to experience a situation that challenged their assumptions and preconceived notions of the border.  Thank you for reading and following our journey. The groups you read about this year are all volunteer. You can support them here if you feel inspired to do so.

Remote Wildlands Search and Recovery

Beyond Borders

The 2025 Beyond Borders Team atthe start of day 2
The 2025 UIndy Beyond Borders Team (with Socks)

~KEL

HIC hat

Coping

Human Rights, Migrant Death, Reflections
Ant Highway
Ant Highway

Coming back from the 2024 trip was very tough for me. I was filled with so much guilt for the privilege I was given simply because I was born into the family I was. How is it fair that someone who has done nothing wrong is subjected to unimaginable hardships completely out of their control? Furthermore, when those individuals attempt to escape those hardships, they are met with opposition and hate rather than compassion. They risk losing their lives just to trade one bad life for the chance of another. I found it easier to process everything by removing myself. Over time, I was able to adjust and shift to using that privilege to advocate for and educate others. This became a way to make myself feel better and to feel like I was still able to do some good while away from the border.

Wind chimes in Sacred Heart Cemetery making music every time the wind blew.
Wind chimes in Sacred Heart Cemetery making music every time the wind blows.

This time, though, I think I was better able to anticipate the dramatic change of being thrown back into the normal world, so far removed from the crisis at the border. It did somewhat concern me that I could switch back more easily. I woke up Thursday morning knowing exactly where I was and resumed the position and habits I had before the trip. Same as last year, I can’t help but think, Did that all really happen? I believe this might be a response to the traumatic and polarizing things we experience at the border—a way to cope.

Socks

Today, as I look outside while it’s snowing and freezing, I think about how hard it is to get around. The sidewalks aren’t plowed, my boots hurt my feet, and my nose aches from breathing the cold air. While walking downtown, I saw flattened cardboard, a thin, ripped blanket, and various trash on the ground. I was instantly thrown back to the realities I had begun to suppress. We all learn about the sweltering heat in the Texas borderlands, but it’s easy to forget the freezing cold nights and days, especially with the current wind chills across the United States.

I remember the stories Don and Ray told us about migrants who, completely in the dark, don’t know the forecasted weather or how to survive it. As a result, they are vastly underprepared for such cold temperatures and unaware of survival strategies that could prevent hypothermia, all to keep them compliant with their guides. I can only begin to imagine how many lives could have been saved if migrants were adequately prepared with even the minimum supplies and information—like a cheap compass, instructions on making a water filter with sand, or tips for digging into the sand to conserve heat and escape the wind. What’s worse is the feeling that there is nothing I can do to change things.

Cattle cistern with unclean water sometimes used by migrants.
Cattle cistern with unclean water sometimes used by migrants.

Now, my suitcase still sits in the corner of my bedroom, untouched. For some reason, I feel like the moment I unpack it, the trip will finally come to an end. Physically, I am in the Midwest, but mentally, I am still in Brooks County.

Lilly
Sheriffs Deputy Don White & Paramedic Ray Greggory.

This year, my goal is to embrace the experiences I had in Brooks County, no matter how uncomfortable they make me. Being professional in the field is important, but when we try to take that same mentality home, it becomes more damaging than productive. Doing so denies us the ability to grieve the true atrocities we’ve seen and heard while in Brooks. Accepting that these emotions are valid and real will help us adjust to life moving forward, but more importantly, it will empower us as students to share these experiences and advocate for change and education.

Frankey
Chastidy

Beyond Borders has taught me more than just the realities of the border crisis not covered by the media. It has also taught me humility, teamwork, confidence, critical thinking, empathy, and adaptability. I truly believe I wouldn’t be the person I am today without the opportunity to work with Beyond Borders. Now more than ever, I want to dedicate my life to helping reunite missing loved ones with families who love and miss them, because I know the torture of not knowing.

Makenna
Latham and Eriksen

Thank you to my fellow 2024 and 2025 team members for supporting each other while performing humanitarian work at the border. Thank you to Don White and Ray Greggory for teaching and showing us what dedication looks like. Finally, thank you to Dr. Latham for giving students this opportunity and for all the work she has done for hundreds of migrants and their families over the past 12 years.

Chastidy

Unpacking the Trip

Human Rights, Migrant Death, Reflections

We got back from our trip to Falfurrias late on Thursday night, but it didn’t feel like the trip was really over until I was back in my apartment, looking up at my ceiling as I tried to fall asleep. In a way, it still doesn’t feel like it has ended, as I’ve procrastinated unpacking my suitcase all of the way and it currently sits opened on my floor and blocking the door to my room–making me shimmy my way in and out every day.

The next morning there wasn’t much time for reflection either, as I headed straight into training for my job at 10am and didn’t have much time to think about the trip. It strikes me now that until this moment, as I write this, I haven’t had much time for reflection at all. I’ve been going from training to working to sleeping, and even when people ask me about how the trip was, I find myself at a loss for words for what to say.

How was the trip? What was it like? What did you find? Did you have a good time?

Members of the 2025 team preparing for a line search.
Members of the 2025 team preparing for a line search.

These questions and more have seemed hard to formulate responses to, and even now I’m not really sure how to answer any of them. The trip was good, I learned a lot and I still feel like I’m learning more as time goes on, but I’m not sure how to describe what it was like, and my answers feel much too simple.

It is hard to take the time to explain to others what it was that we did there and what that means when I’m still unpacking things myself.

I think when I am asked whether or not I had a good time, I find myself thinking about the team. Because, for approximately a week, they were the only people I was regularly interacting with. We woke up together, drove everywhere together, ate together, and fell asleep together. We enjoyed our Emergen-C packets at the start of every day (which I do miss, funny enough) and bonded in the evenings over how our days had been. It is easy to articulate your feelings when there are people alongside you, sharing the weight of those experiences.

My mind drifts to the migrants, their hardships, their lives, and the cultures that they are all leaving behind to come to the United States, and I feel a great sympathy for them. We spent days walking through the brush with gear, gators, compasses, and hats, drinking clean water, and dousing ourselves in sunscreen and bug spray, and even then it wasn’t an easy day of work. I find myself trying to put myself into their shoes, to think about what they experience and the hardships they face on their journeys, and I find it hard to think about. Because I’ve never experienced that, and I most likely never will.

The Brooks County Search and Recovery patch.
The Brooks County Search and Recovery patch.

But above all I find myself thinking about their families, their friends, thinking about the graves that we saw at Sacred Heart Cemetery, and the beautiful decorations that adorned them. I find myself wondering about the lack of permanent gravesites for the individuals who have been lost on the journey, and what it can mean to make a crucial recovery like that.

But, as great as it can be to make a recovery, I have to remind myself that it isn’t something that happens easily and that not making a recovery is just as important as making one. While there, we made one recovery, but we also managed to clear out areas that Don was interested in searching, and I think that that is often overlooked. I know I overlook it when judging how “successful” our trip was, which seems a bit trivial in the grand scheme of things.

Beyond that, going on this trip changed my perspective on a lot of things. It is easy to think of these things as black and white, as that is often the way the border crisis is portrayed in many forms of media. Even with my own perspectives, which I once viewed to be very open and understanding, going on this trip showed me that much of my viewpoint ignores just how vast of a situation this is, one that has huge social and political implications that affect both the migrants and the people around them.

The border crisis is a multifaceted situation, one that is not easily solved by a simple law or a change in viewpoints. The work we did here may seem small in the grand scheme of things, and in a way, it may be. But the work we did here, the work Don and Ray do here, has lasting impacts on the way that the crisis is viewed, talked about, and dealt with.

It is important then to not view this as the end of my humanitarian work, but rather as the start of it. This trip wasn’t just a one-time experience–it was the start of a commitment to understanding, advocating, and helping wherever I can.

As I finally start to unpack it all–both my suitcase and my thoughts–I find myself grateful for the lessons learned and the connections made. I may not have all of the answers to the questions people ask me, and I may never be able to articulate the depth of what this trip meant to me, but I do know that the emotions felt and the perspectives gained will continue to influence me in ways I am only just beginning to understand.

The road on the way to one of the ranches.
The road on the way to one of the ranches.

I’m endlessly grateful to Don, Ray, Dr. Latham, Dr. Eriksen, Frankey, Chastity, and Lilly for helping me every step of the way.

– Makenna