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May 5, 2006
Devil's Road
Why is my heart heavy?
Because I've recently learned that a dear one may soon cross the Arizona desert in an attempt to re-enter this country.
I cannot pretend to know God's mind on this, but ask Him to protect her and to reunite her family -- be it here or there.
It could be that this story describes the very desert she will cross:
CABEZA PRIETA WILDLIFE REFUGE - Jerry Wofford studied a set of tiny footprints, no bigger than the palm of his hand, as a light wind swept across El Camino del Diablo, the Devil's Road.Wofford, a seasoned U.S. Border Patrol agent, can tell a lot from a footprint. If the weight falls on the ball of the foot, the migrant is running. A knee print, dragging a soft line in the sand, means he is crawling.
Both of these are bad signs.
As temperatures start to climb, Wofford is getting more and more apprehensive. To avoid more heavily patrolled stretches of Arizona border, more undocumented immigrants are crossing through this vast expanse of unpopulated desert east of Yuma, made up of thousands of square miles of sand, volcanic rock and stunted creosote bushes.
Arrests in the Border Patrol's Yuma Sector are up nearly 15 percent from last year, and the death tally is already outpacing 2005, a record year. Agents in the remote corridor where Wofford patrols are reporting an 86 percent increase in arrests and are tracking smugglers and undocumented immigrants into increasingly isolated desert.
When Wofford finds migrants out here, and they start to run and scatter, he hollers after them: "Where are you going? You're in the middle of nowhere, in the godforsaken desert!"
They still run.
read entire article
Posted by almamia at May 5, 2006 8:00 AM