Despite the lack of spectacular desert blossoms this year, the Redemptorist Renewal Center in Tucson continues to provide a “magical” Sabbatical program this spring.
Fr. Jim Shea joined the Sabbatical group to visit the Kino Border Initiative, a joint migrant ministerial project of six church organizations: Nogales- Diocese of Mexico, Tucson- Diocese of the USA, the Mexican Province of the Jesuits, the Jesuits West, Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, and the Missionary Sisters of the Eucharist.
After Fr. Jim and the Sabbatical group served lunch to some 150 adults and children seeking asylum, they walked around possible routes migrants might have taken through the desert.
The group also went to see the unfinished border ‘Wall.’ Witnessing this large construction project, Fr. Jim reflected, “What is happening with the ‘Wall’ that Trump built? Well, construction is on hold. President Biden has frozen the ‘Wall’ project, but during the Trump administration a road was built west of Nogales through the mountains of southwestern Arizona.
A good portion of the road and ‘Wall’ were completed before the funds were frozen. No road has ever been built across this inaccessible area … until now. U.S. contractors worked day and night leveling the mountain tops and filling in the valleys for a road that leads to the border. At the border, they extended the ‘Wall.’ Now, the Border Patrol can easily travel along this newly built ‘No Name’ road to survey a larger area where migrants attempt to cross into U.S. soil.
KBI director Fr. Peter Neeley, SJ, and another Jesuit Regent took us along the new ‘No Name’ road leading to the border. We stared at the ‘Wall,’ high upon the mountains. A ‘Wall’ to keep people out.”
Submitted by Peter Tran (Courtesy of DenverLink.)