Humane Borders picks up where government leaves off
Wednesday, 16 February 2011 20:11
Carl Pucker, who has been a volunteer for 8 years, explained, “We deliver water to the desert so people crossing don’t die. We work with border patrol, the Pima County Medical Examiner and the Mexican Consulate to set up the station in areas that have shown the most deaths due to crossing.”
Humane Borders is “motivated by faith” and the organization works toward achieving a more humane border environment. The operation has over a 1,000 volunteers who are passionate about seeing conditions improve.
“These poor people, not the drug smugglers, are the ones who are dying. To punish people for a desperate attempt at saving their lives is really stupid,” Pucker said, when giving his opinion on Arizona’s current border problems.
John Smith, who started to get involved a year ago and is a driver for the organization with Pucker, personally thinks that the harsh border deaths are a direct spin off from recent government laws.
“Before 2000 there wasn’t anybody dying. Since they discontinued issuing Green Cards for unskilled labor, people have had to find other ways to come to the U.S. The people who have money, and are educated, they can come and go when they want, but the people that want to come here to find work have no other way. Unless they start issuing Green Cards again, nothing is going to change,” Smith said.
“The Republicans in Arizona, they don’t speak for a lot of the people here. The laws on immigration are a misguided government policy. I think the borders issues make a lot of people really uncomfortable. Even with all the controversy and racism involved with the recent border laws, it’s not going to change for a while,” Smith added.
“The reason I got involved is because I thought this was important to do. These poor people who are crossing are dying of dehydrations, and it’s a horrible way to die,” he said.
Humane Borders is always looking for volunteers and Smith added, “We’re a low key, low end operation, we could use you, there are plenty of things you can do.”
Pucker, who feels that volunteering is a way to directly do something about the negative border conditions, said, “I believe in social justice, people who have a feeling for injustice are starved for opportunity. You can do things like give money, but when you volunteer you can actually do something that means more, you are actually saving a life and see the help you are contributing.”
To find out more about Humane Borders and how to get involved, click here.
Written by Danijela Grk You are reading Humane Borders picks up where government leaves off articles
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