US Borderlands Project

About CPT Borderlands

Between 2004 and 2007, CPT's Borderlands project periodically partnered with local groups along the US/Mexico border in order to reduce the number of migrant deaths in the border region, advocate for just and comprehensive US immigration reform, and call for compassionate treatment of the immigrant "stranger."  Since the US Government began a policy of border militarization as the answer to immigration flows, over 3,500 men, women and children have died in the borderlands attempting to find work, reunite with family, and pursue the “American Dream...."

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Borderlands Witness Drive

During July 2007 a four-person team enacted a Borderlands Witness Drive, from Tucson, AZ, to Brownsville, TX, and then to Washington DC, in an effort to:

  • collect stories
  • put a human face on immigration
  • connect with immigrant-rights groups
  • and advocate for immigration reform

Visit the blog for full information.

U.S./MEXICO BORDERLANDS: Tearing down walls and building community

June 12th, 2008
in:
by Heather Brady

Sorrow and pain are at home here in the desolate landscape of the Arizona desert. Along the borderlands, our Christian Peacemaker Teams delegation walks in the footsteps of the thousands of migrants who make the dangerous journey northward.

Standing still, I close my eyes and feel the burning sun upon my bare skin.
I imagine what it means to be a migrant, to leave everything and everyone you know and love in order to provide for them, to spend days and weeks running and hiding, feet blistered and bloody. Desperate for water, your tongue grows thick with thirst. Cactus thorns stab you as you run blindly through the darkness, struggling to stay with the group.

We hear the story of Josseline Quinteros, a fourteen-year-old girl from El Salvador. Separated from her group, she would wander lost and alone for weeks before eventually laying down, never to get up again.

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