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Community, Environment, Human Rights, Migrant Death, Reflections

While it has been about 8 months since my last trip, not a day has gone by that I don’t think about everything I learned and the people I met. No matter how cliche it may sound, it was an experience that has and will impact my life forever and I’m so beyond grateful that I get to do it all again.

As our country’s political climate remains so tense, I’m fortunate enough to have an outlet and be given the opportunity to volunteer my time with organizations such as the South Texas Human Rights Center and Remote Wildlands Search and Recovery. I get to learn from the people who spend every day working at the border and experience first hand the amount of dedication they have. I also get to come back home and share my experiences with my community as well as have open conversations about the border crisis which is a privilege itself. 

Searching in the brush (May 2019)
Searching in the brush (May 2019)

Although our mission for this trip is the same as the last time, I know to expect the unexpected. I feel a little more prepared since I have some experience with the search and recovery efforts, but I know this trip will be different. With the cooler season in Texas, our work days will be much longer and that is the main challenge I believe I will need to overcome this trip. 

My goal for the time being until we depart for Falfurrias (it is Christmas as I write this) is to try and stay active to help with my stamina. In May, our days were cut short by the high temperatures and humidity, but they were still some of the hardest and most energy consuming days I have experienced. I know that no matter the weather or how long we spend searching, I will be exhausted at the end of each day. But, I want to make sure that my body can keep up with the passion and dedication I have for the team and our mission. 

Deputy Don White and I repairing a water station
Deputy Don White and I repairing a water station (May 2019)

I’m no longer that concerned about the landscape or creepy crawlies; we had our fair share of spiders, scorpions, ticks, chiggers and of mesquite thorns and sticker burrs. But, as for the weather, I don’t know what awaits us. While we expect it to be cooler, we still carry the same risks of dehydration and over exhaustion as we did in the summer, but it will be less obvious. However, I know that our team will take care of each other and, regardless of what we encounter, I know that we’ll get through it.

Apart from the amazing opportunity I have been given, there are a lot of things I’m looking forward to this trip. I can’t wait to see and spend time with some of the people I had the pleasure to meet and I am excited to interact with new people in the community. I’m excited for our trips to HEB and eating the delicious food that never disappoints in Fal. 

I’m just counting down the days.

Alba

“The life of a migrant is sad”

Environment, Human Rights, Migrant Death, Reflections

The second half of our trip focused on search and recovery operations on local ranches. We were working with Eddie Canales, Arianna & Selina of the South Texas Human Rights Center and  Deputy White of the Brooks County Sheriff’s Department. The first day of searching we were joined by a few students from Texas State University. They were able to spend about three hours with us with the goal of collecting data on search coverage using GPS tracking systems. It was a nice opportunity for the UIndy students to interact with their peers in another program and to learn different approaches and techniques for ground searches. The second and third days we focused on a smaller ranch near where Byron’s cousin went missing. Our work became more personal as we searched with him and learned more of his story. He told us about his journey to political asylum in the US, the sadness of not being able to see his family and the pain of loosing his cousin. He summed it up in one simple yet heartbreaking sentence “The life of a migrant is sad.”  The pain, the fear, the heartbreak, that does not just go away once you enter the US. It is just transformed into something different yet just as burdensome and heavy.

There were many impactful moments and learning opportunities for the team during this second half of our mission. I asked them each to relay something they learned:

The last few days of our trip have been really impactful for me. Spending time for 3 days straight doing search and recovery on ranches only gave me a glimpse of what it’s like for migrants on a daily basis. But, being around Byron and hearing his story really put my experience into perspective. The three days we spent searching were tough, so to hear that Byron spent two and a half months in conditions similar to and even worse than what we experienced was just heartbreaking. And he went through all of that at the age I am now. There’s no way I could ever be able to handle going through an experience like Byron’s at 24 years old. — Alba

Alba
Alba

As we walked through the brush there were many pathways heading into the trees. As we followed these pathways in search of evidence or humanity, I realized we were walking the paths of migrants. Paths that were not clear, but instead filled with obstacles throughout the brush. It’s difficult to describe how walking these paths made me feel, but I can say I gained a new perspective and general awe of the migrants and their ambition. — Holley

Holley & Deputy White
Holley & Deputy White
While conducting our search and recovery operations, one thing I noticed was how easy it is to get turned around in the brush. Our team was equipped with compasses and safety whistles but I highly doubt migrants would have the same resources. For me, this highlights just how unforgiving the environments migrants find themselves in can be and therefore how reliant migrants are on coyotes. — Megan
Megan
Megan

During our time searching, it really hit me how harsh this environment truly is. There is sand, thorns, stickerburs, animals, tall grass, and more that migrants have to maneuver through, often without any idea of where they are heading. I would imagine this would be even more difficult in the dark, considering just how hard it is in the daylight. It’s incredible that anyone makes it through safely. — Sidney

Sidney
Sidney

~KEL

Final Thoughts

Reflections

I’m back home in Indianapolis. I have washed all my field clothes, slept in my own bed, and have been drinking water all day to rehydrate my body. Once again I’m immersed in an environment where people could go a whole day without hearing any synonym for the words: migrant, border, detained, or missing. The dichotomy between the Midwest and south Texas is unreal.

When we first arrived in Texas the thing that struck me was its size. I know Texas is big and I have often heard my friends and family from Texas recount on its size. However, I was not prepared to be able to drive thirty minutes down a highway and still be in the same county or to be surrounded by ranches that encompass over 1,000 acres of land. The sheer magnitude of Texas left me baffled and helped me to better understand the difficult journey migrants have to make, even after crossing the US-Mexico border.

I am glad that our group got to conduct search and recovery operations as well as refill the South Texas Human Rights Center’s water stations because both projects offered different insights into a migrant’s journey. When we were refilling water stations, I could tell by the number of water jugs we had to replenish that migrants passing through needed the water. Their desperation for fluids became more apparent when I learned that many coyotes tell migrants that the water inside the water stations is poisonous. The fact so many people were willing to go against the advice of their coyote and utilize the water stations speaks to the desperate situation many individuals find themselves in.

By conducting the search and recovery operations, I gained perspective as to why so many migrants experience dehydration or become lost in Brooks County. As our whole group has recounted on this blog, the environment we were working in is harsh. In addition to avoiding border control officials, migrants must also bypass ranch personnel, wild animals, and harmful plants. Dr. Latham and I stumbled upon a rest area on our last day of searching and while the area offered some protection from the elements I cannot imagine being forced to spend days in that brush with fifteen other people.

All things considered, I have come to understand why the region we were working in is called “the corridor of death.” It’s heartbreaking but also understandable to learn that that nearly half of the migrant deaths in the Rio Grande Valley (34,000 square miles) occur in Brooks County, which makes up only 944 square miles. This data suggest that there is a crisis on the southern border for not only are detention centers and local officials overwhelmed but they also lack the resources in order to locate the alarmingly high number of individuals in Brooks County who are victims of trafficking and the unforgiving terrain.

I would like to thank all the amazing people who guided us during our week in Texas and who perform humanitarian work in Brooks County regularly. The dedication these individuals have is admirable as they put in countless hours of work and often utilize their own resources in order to save lives or locate the missing. Getting to talk and listen to the stories Eddie, Deputy Don White, Arianna, and Selina had to share was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Megan