Rate of migrant deaths continues to rise

For weeks the press has been reporting that the number of undocumented people crossing the US-Mexico border has gone down significantly. This drop is a fact, brought about by a combination of the bad economy and a huge increase in Border Patrol agents, border barriers and high tech surveillance.

But the more desperate migrants, hoping they can help their families back home survive or trying to get back to their families after deportation, continue to come. They are being led by professional (often ruthless) smugglers over longer distances through more remote--and much more dangerous--areas. As a result, the rate of migrant deaths continues to rise, in spite of the fact that the number of border crossers has declined. From last October 1 through July 31. at least 140 bodies of migrants were found in the Arizona borderlands.

Tucson's Coalicion de Derechos Humanos is especially worried about the increase in reported migrant disappearances. The week before last, they received calls from family members of nine migrants missing in the desert. Early last week, three more disappearances were reported. They are presently getting almost a call a day from people looking for a lost loved one.

While the recent Obama administration move to put a hold on 300,000 non-criminal deportations is a big breakthrough, comprehensive, humane immigration reform still appears to be far off.

Roy Bourgeois will not recant

Ray Bourgeois has been a priest of the Maryknoll order for 39 years. He entered the seminary after serving four years in the Navy and receiving the Purple Heart. He worked with the poor in Bolivia for five years, until he was thrown out of the country by dictator General Hugo Banzer. In 1980 he became a strong critic of US pollcy in El Salvador. He has spent over four years in federal prison for nonviolent protest of the training of Latin American soldiers at the School of the Americas (now named WHINSEC) at Fort Benning, GA. (The school has long been known by many as the "School Of Assassins.") In 1990 Roy founded School of The Americas Watch, which holds a yearly protest with tens of thousands of people demanding the SOA be closed.

Now Roy is on the verge of being thrown out of his order because of his support for women priests in the Catholic Church. On July 27, he was sent a final warning, ordering him to recant or face removal as a priest.

Roy wrote in response: "After much reflection, study, and prayer, I believe that our Church's teaching that excludes women from the priesthood defies both faith and reason and cannot stand up to scrutiny. This teaching has nothing to do with God, but with men, and is rooted in sexism. Sexism, like racism, is a sin. And no matter how hard we may try to justify discrimination against women, in the end, it is not the way of God, but of men who want to hold on to their power."

Last Thursday a "Clergy for Conscience" letter supporting Roy was sent to the head of Maryknoll. It was signed by 200 of us, including my friends here in Tucson, Jerry Zawada and Gil Padilla. Here is the text:

Dear Father Dougherty,
As priests in good standing within the Roman Catholic Church, we want to make clear that we support our brother Fr. Roy Bourgeois, MM in his priesthood and his right to speak from his conscience.