The Migrant Trail:
We Walk for Life

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May 28-June 3, 2012

A 75 mile walk from Sásabe, Sonora, MX to Tucson, AZ

The precarious reality of our borderlands calls us to walk.  We are a spiritually diverse, multi-cultural group who walk together on a journey of peace to remember people, friends and family who have died, others who have crossed, and people who continue to come.  We bear witness to the tragedy of death and of the inhumanity in our midst.  Lastly, we walk as a community, in defiance of the borders that attempt to divide us, committed to working together for the human dignity of all peoples.

For Immediate Release

May 22, 2012

Contact: Marisol Flores-Aguirre, Media Representative: 520-622-2190

Migrant Trail Bears Witness to Human Rights Crisis:

75-mile Trek Through Sonoran Desert Brings Attention to Migrant Deaths

Press Conference

Monday, May 28, 2012

10:00 AM

317 W. 23rd Street

Tucson, Arizona

Tucson, AZ-    On May 28, 2012, a diverse group of more than fifty individuals will begin a 75-mile walk to call attention to the human rights crisis occurring on the southern border. The ninth annual Migrant Trail: We Walk for Life is a joint endeavor of community groups and individuals from both sides of the border walking in solidarity with migrants to demand an end to the deaths in the desert.

Sponsors include the Migrant Trail Walk Committee, Coalición de Derechos Humanos, BorderLinks, No More Deaths – Tucson, Coloradans for Immigrants Rights, Frontera de Cristo, Humane Borders, JPIC Office of the St. Barbara Province Franciscans, Shalom Mennonite Fellowship, Calpolli Teoxicalli, Café Justo and Casa Maria.

“For the ninth year we stand together in solidarity with migrants and call for an end to the tragic deaths and division of communities along the U.S.-Mexico border,” says Kat Rodriguez of Derechos Humanos. “Thousands of men, women, and children have died due to border policies that have funneled them into the most hostile and desolate areas of the Sonoran desert. This must stop.”

Since the 1990s, it is estimated that more than 6,000 men, women and children have lost their lives crossing the U.S./Mexico border. As the summer approaches, and Arizona is already experiencing triple-digit temperatures, the number of migrants encountering medical distress or death is increasing dramatically. Many will die the horrible death of dehydration and exposure. These deaths, a direct result of U.S. border and immigration policies, must be prevented.

The Walk will begin Monday, May 28 at 2:00pm in Sásabe, Sonora. Carpools will depart at 11am from Southside Presbyterian (317 W. 23rd Street). Participants will arrive on Sunday, June 3 rd at 11:30am at Kennedy Park, Ramada #3, for a closing ceremony. The Migrant Trail is a non-violent event, and is free and open to the community. Participants and organizers of the Migrant Trail call on all people of conscience to stand in solidarity with our migrant sisters and brothers.

 “For me, the Migrant Trail is an opportunity to walk in memory of those who have died and in solidarity with those who can only enter this country by crossing that sun baked land,” says Jack Knox, retired pastor of Salem Mennonite Church in Salem, Oregon. “I walk alongside people who give me hope that our border policies will someday become more humane— and that the wall along our southern border will someday come tumbling down.”

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