Nonprofit Group Leaves Humanitarian Aid Along Immigrant Trails in US from Mexico Sarah Jarvis - Downtown Devil
go to original December 1, 2014

Ricardo Ramirez stands on top of a small hill in the middle of the heart of the Sonoran Desert. It’s cold out. It’s 7 a.m. He is surveying the land for immigrant routes.

When he finds what looks to be a convergence of a few different trails, he and two other volunteers open their backpacks and extract gallons of water and cans of refried beans. Before hiding the items under a plastic crate to protect them from animals, Ramirez pulls a marker out of his pocket and writes “NMD 11/23/14 buena suerte” on the jugs.

Members of the nonprofit group No More Deaths have regularly traveled to the Sonoran Desert National Forest since 2004 to leave humanitarian aid along the trails that immigrants take into the United States from Mexico. With the inhospitable nature of the desert, it’s common for the group to run into evidence that gives them their name.

As of October, the group has found over 80 human remains this year.

It’s numbers like these that push volunteers into the vast desert surrounding the border, leaving water jugs for Immigrants passing through from Mexico.

No More Deaths started 10 years ago in Tucson and has since expanded to Phoenix.

Read the rest at Downtown Devil

Photo: Courtney Pedroza

The video highlights some of the work that No More Deaths does and some of the inhumane occurrences which have happened on the U.S./Mexico border. (J. Rodriguez)

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