In the spirit of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, this year Cabrini Immigrant Services of NYC joined the 21st Annual Migrant Trail Walk. This is a 75-mile walk from Sásabe, Mexico to Tucson, Arizona which concluded on Sunday, June 2nd. Ivonne Moreno-Rodriguez, Director of Social Services at CIS-NYC, and David Rodriguez joined 36 other humanitarian workers to commemorate migrants who have lost their lives traveling across the US-Mexico border. Ivonne and David walked between 6 and 16 miles per day for a week to advocate for humane border policies and to honor our Cabrini clients and all immigrants who have crossed and continue crossing.
Here in the United States, more than 8,000 people (men, women and children) have lost their lives crossing the U.S.-Mexico border since the initiation of border deterrence policies in the 1990s. In the past year, 191 remains were found in the Arizona desert. Participants carried a white cross with the names of migrants who died in the desert. Other people carried a cross with the name “desconocido/a” (Spanish for “unknown”) that represents the remains of a person that has not yet been identified.