Day 2 - border ministry

We arrived in Douglas AZ around 2:00 and met Mark from Frontera de Cristo.  He shared the story Ephesians 2:11-20 that is the core of their work on the border.  He has been down here for 15 years.  He has a wife who is a Mexican citizen and three children.  The elementary kids go to a bilingual school in Agua Prieta where the family lives and the high schooler goes to school in Douglas.

Pastor Mark Adams - Frontera de Cristo

Learning more about Frontera de Cristo

Mark took us along the border fence and told about its construction and the boost in border security in recent years.  A border patrol agent came along and told us to watch up for rock throwers, but Mark explained to us that the patrollers were likely the only ones at risk from rocks.  Traffickers will hire youth to throw rocks and draw agents away from other areas of the fence to try to smuggle items/people across.  Relatively little traffic comes through at this crossing site.  They have a large fence to slow down crossers until the patrol can respond.  Someone who is skilled can get up and over both fences and the ditch (pictured below) in about 15 seconds.  The large fence extends about 2 miles between the two towns.  Farther along the fence is much shorter to stop vehicle traffic, specifically smuggling but not foot traffic.  Patrollers will look for signs of foot traffic and track it farther along the fence.  The arid climate makes it a real risk to cross too far from a road or town, and there are not a ton of roads out here, so there are practical limits that prevent people crossing just anywhere.

Double fence with deep drainage ditch between

Drainage ditch 

One person drowned a year ago when they got pressed up against a grate along the ditch during a flash flood and couldn't get out.  Ladders have been added along the ditch in several places.

End of the large fence, lower fence is a vehicle barrier

official border marker (old).  These run along the border at regular intervals.

Looking back toward Agua Prieta and Douglas from the top of hill.

Frontera de Cristo works to ease tensions on the border, seeks to make sure the border patrol lives up to there own set standards of treatment for detainees.  Ex:  food and water provided after 8 hrs.  Recent surveys indicated that this standard was not being met.  Mark approached officials about this and was told there were budget constraints.  (The border patrol station budget here is $38 mil per year with 600 patrollers and this is one of the smaller crossing sites.) When pressed, they started providing these basic necessities for those being detained for an extended time.

Sidenote:  Mark also noted that the  Fronteras budget is $12,000.  He said that they rarely feel they are resource poor.  They figure out what God is calling them to do and trust that the resources will be provided and they are.

Baby swallows getting food from mama on Fronteras front porch