By Miriam Raftery

January 19, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) – A new report by humanitarian organizations  reveals that Border Patrol agents  have been systemically destroying water bottles left in desert areas for undocumented immigrants in the Arizona desert, condemning people to die of thirst.  While its unknown if this is occurring in California, this article in Britain’s The Guardian hit home for me in a visceral way, reminding me of an experience that brought me to tears.

On the 4^th of July In 2008, I rode alongwith Border Angels founder Enrique Morones. We discovered sabotage of water bottles his group had left in rugged locations--all slashed open, empty. My article, Dying to Come to America, was published in our very first edition of East County Magazine. Morones vividly described what it is like for people to die of dehydration – hallucinating, throwing off clothes and shoes. We saw the signs of this torment – a woman’s high-heeled shoe cast aside, a man’s crumpled shirt.  The heat was triple digits.

I went along to learn about experiences faced by people so desperate to come to America that they rely on water left by benevolent strangers to survive. I learned that coyotes, or human traffickers, often lie to the migrants, telling them it's just a short walk to freedom; some women dressed up to meet their husbands are unaware of the dangers. I choked up, imagining their pain. My story included photos of those slashed water bottles and graves of people--some so very young--who died crossing East County's rugged border mountains in their failed quest to find freedom.

By Miriam Raftery

April 18, 2017 (San Diego) — Hugo Castro, a San Diego-based activist with Border Angels, has been found alive after an apparent abduction near Mexico City, Mexico’s Attorney General announced.  According to Mexico’s Attorney General, an anonymous caller tipped off a special prosecutor for disappeared persons and Castro was found on a street in the city of Tlalnepantla de Baz.

By Rachel Williams

Photo:  Enrique Morones,  Border Angels,  holds cross reading “No Olvidados”, meaning “never forget” the thousands of migrants who have died crossing the U.S.-Mexican border.

March 9, 2017 (San Diego) — Unless law enforcement has a search warrant, do not open the door. You can remain silent, Enrique Morones, executive director of Border Angels, says. On behalf of the organization, Morones educates the immigrant community of the dos and don’ts for people fearing deportation.

Meeting Nov. 12 planned for communities of color concerned about the election outcome

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Estela de los Rios, past victim of a hate crime in El Cajon

November 11, 2016 (San Diego) – Maria, a maid and legal U.S. resident who has raised her daughter here,  tearfully put her elderly,  frail mother on a plane Wednesday night and said goodbye,  perhaps forever.  “She is going back to Mexico, before Donald Trump can deport her,” Maria told East Magazine.

President-Elect Trump has vowed to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants in America—including those brought here as children and the parents of U.S. citizens.  Even children who were brought here as babies, who have never known any other home.  Even ill and elderly parents such as Maria’s mother,  who has survived cancer and suffers from  diabetes.  Maria fears she is too ill to survive long on her own in Mexico—but the prospect of her mother languishing in a detention camp was even more frightening.

By Miriam Raftery

December 16, 2014 (San Diego) – Border Angels founder and San Diego immigrants rights activist Enrique Morones met with President Barack Obama recently at the White House, following a briefing on recent immigration executive action.  Morones told ECM he asked for a second executive action “if the new Congress does not act soon on humane immigration reform.” (You can learn more about Border Angels efforts to help local refugees and immigrants at www.borderangels.org .)

By Miriam Raftery

July 22, 2014 (San Diego)--How should America deal with the tens of thousands of children fleeing violence in Central America, arriving at our borders?  Many are traveling alone, trying to reach family members in the U.S.  Most are teens, but some are as young as three years old.

Hear our interview on the Central American immigrants:  https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/sites/eastcountymagazine.org/files/au...

Updates on Murrietta, Congressman Juan Vargas' visit with immigrants in El Centro, and our interviews from this rally, including Enrique Morones of Border Angels. Rev. Beth Johnson from the Palomar Unitarian Universalist congregation and Everard Meade, Trans-Border Institute at USD, providing historical background on the Central American situation.

By Nadin Abbott

“What we need is humanitarian solutions. Sending the children back to sure death is not humanitarian.” – Enrique Morones, Border Angels

“This is a failure to enforce federal law at the federal level.” Murrieta Mayor Alan Long

July 2, 2014 (San Diego)—Yesterday, dozens of anti-immigrant protesters blocked buses carrying 140 immigrants from Central America, mostly women and children. Shouting racial slurs and carrying signs demanding the migrants be sent home, the protesters forced the buses bound for Murrieta to turn around and go to San Ysidro instead.  The buses carried migrants from Texas, where holding cells are over flowing due to a massive influx of families and children.

Today, Border Angels held a rally in support of the immigrants and began a donation drive for toys, clothing, diapers to welcome the immigrants, most of whom were fleeing violence and threats of death in their homeland.

But what’s fueling the surge in immigration from Central America?  To understand what’s happening today, we have to look back several decades into the history of the region and the role of U.S. foreign policy in Central America.