Migrant Deaths in Indian Country: A Violation of Human Rights in the Name of Homeland Security

Arizona has become the epicenter for undocumented immigration into the United States. Thousands of migrants risk their lives to cross the hostile Sonora Desert of southern Arizona every year. For hundreds of them this is their last journey, succumbing to dehydration and heat exhaustion.

In an effort to prevent their suffering and deaths, Mike Wilson, a Tohono O’odham human rights activist, has maintained water stations since 2002 for migrants crossing on his tribal land, the Tohono O’odham Reservation. Wilson will talk about the effects of U.S. border enforcement policy in Indian country and the moral responsibility of offering your fellow human being a cup of water.

Mike Wilson was born in the San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation in 1949. He grew up in the small mining town of Ajo, Arizona where his father worked at the Phelps Dodge copper mine. One of six children, Mike’s family lived in segregated communities created by the mining company, first in ‘Indian Village’ and then in the barrio of ‘Mexican Town’. His family moved to South Tucson when he was entering the 5th grade. By that time, Mike was chopping cotton, picking melons, and doing yard work on the weekends and during the summers, giving his daily wages to his mother to put food on the table.

At age 20, Mike volunteered for the U.S. Army for a two year stint during the Vietnam Era. In 1973, he re-enlisted and served in Special Forces for 20 years, rising to the rank of Master Sergeant. During his career, he spent a year (1988-89) in El Salvador as a Special Forces Military Advisor to the Salvadoran army during that country’s civil war.

In 1999, he attended San Francisco Theological Seminary for one year, followed by a year as lay pastor of the Presbyterian Church on the Tohono O’odham Reservation. At that time, Arizona was experiencing a dramatic increase in the number of undocumented migrants entering the United States across its southern border with an unprecedented number of migrants dying from dehydration and hyperthermia on the O’odham reservation. As a person of faith, Mike began to leave water along known migrant trails. His congregation objected to his actions, and in 2002 Mike resigned his position over the moral issue of providing life-saving water for migrants. He still maintains water stations for migrants crossing the Arizona desert on his tribal lands. For his humanitarian efforts he has been threatened with banishment (by the Tohono O’odham Attorney General’s Office) and with being labeled a “terrorist” (by the Tohono O’odham Legislative Council).

Mike speaks regularly on human rights issues and immigration reform and has been featured in numerous documentaries, including Crossing Arizona (2006) and The 800 Mile Wall (2009). He continues to provide water to those who risk their lives crossing the desert in search of a better life.