Marchers demand 'Tear down the wall!'

A march of about 60 people made its way through downtown Nogales, Ariz., to the U.S.-Mexican border on Oct. 20. The marchers demanded an end to the construction of the border wall, as well as the demilitarization of the U.S.-Mexico border and the removal of the National Guard and racist “Minute Klan” from the border towns.

Shoppers and motorists in this Latin@ city stopped to show their support and many joined the march as it passed through the port of entry into Mexico, where the marchers converged with demonstrators in Mexico to hold a rally at the border wall.

Speakers denounced the brutal U.S. immigration policies and the ICE raids that terrorize communities. The indigenous dance group Danza Mexica Cuauhtemoc performed for the crowd and also said that the “immigration problem” started in 1492 with Christopher Columbus. Another speaker said what an insult it is that Latin@s are asked for their papers. “The color of my skin is my papers. I am indigenous. You have stolen my land. I do not need papers.”

A ceremony was held in which the names of the 237 bodies recovered from the Arizona desert in the year ending Sept. 30 were read. After each name the crowd shouted “Presente!” and at the end of the reading 237 crosses, each bearing a victim’s name, were attached to the border wall. For each body that is recovered, an estimated five to 10 others are not.

This demonstration was one of many opposing the border wall happening in various border cities during the month of October. For more information on the immigrant rights struggle in Tucson and on the Arizona border, see www.derechoshumanosaz.net and may1st.iactucson.org.

—Report and photo by Paul Teitelbaum