Immigrants Pass Through Historic Park

Monday, 07 December 2009 04:57

The Tumacacori National Historical Park is known for its mission ruins and rich history, but what about its proximity to the international border with Mexico?

A fairly popular listing on common Arizona historical tourist destinations is the Tumacacori mission, along with the 300 acres that belong to the national park.

However, the land is near Nogales, Ariz., and subsequently, Nogales, Sonora.

Don Garate, who is the head interpreter and park ranger for Tumacacori, said that he has had many interactions with immigrants traveling into the United States illegally.

"Most of the people are just trying to lead a better life," he said. "I do not feel like it is my obligation to go around asking people for their birth certificates, I am not a police officer."

Garate said that one time a whole group of people came through and hid out near the Tumacacori mission while the coyote, the leader in charge of the group, made a phone call across the street.

"When visitors to the park started asking questions about the group, I decided I had to call the border patrol," he said.

Garate said this was the first and only time he has called the border patrol on people he met who had crossed the border.

"Turns out that they were looking for this coyote for some time, so I guess it was good they caught him, but I just don't know what happened to those other poor people," he said.

Gabby Cook, the visitor youth assistant at the park said that she hasn't seen many people near the actual missions but that she regularly has people come to her fence line asking for water.

Cook lives near Amado, Ariz., between Green Valley and Tubac, Ariz., and has a back yard that runs east to west.

She said that her property is close to the border and that many people will either call out from the other side of her fence or they will hide out behind her hay barn.

"One couple showed up in my backyard with no shoes on and their socks were soaked in blood," she said.

Cook said that she gave them some water and some supplies to clean up their feet so that they could put on the shoes that her son gave them.

"They thought they were near Phoenix," she recalled.

Another employee of the park, David Yubeta, who is the exhibit specialist, said that one morning when he opened up the Tumacacori Visitor Center he noticed glass on the ground next to the mission.

"The two story windows had been broken into and inside there were several small smoldering fires," he said.

Yubeta explained that immigrants must have come through the park, broken in and stayed overnight for refuge against the cold night.

The Guevavi Mission, which is only a few miles from the border, is on the east bank of the wash where many people travel through trying to get to Tucson or Phoenix.

Garate said that many people will follow the Santa Cruz River, which is now a wash, into the United States from Mexico.

Garate said that in the past the rangers rarely saw any drug activity from the border because the runners would stay away from populated areas and head for the higher mountains while crossing over.

He said he is now seeing evidence of drugs like marijuana left out in the lower areas of the desert.

"The runners are starting to cross right through our property," he said. "You can tell too because the drug runners do not look like your typical immigrants, but also do not look as though they belong here."

Garate said that the park has always had people traveling through the area, yet despite the stricter laws against illegal immigration he says he has seen more people in recent years than ever before.

Written by Emily Jones You are reading Immigrants Pass Through Historic Park articles