Migrants' rights activists left San Diego today on a 2,000-mile journey. They're remembering people who died while trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. KPBS Radio's Andrew Phelps met the demonstrators in San Ysidro.
A white cross is dedicated to Oscar García Barrios, just a few yards from the border fence. García died while trying to enter the United States. His mother wrote a letter to President Bush, asking for justice.
Micaela Saucedo: Estoy pidiendo justicia, justicia, y más justicia...
Micaela Saucedo is reading that letter. She says an American border patrol agent killed the man.
Saucedo: He crossed the border with a visa. He was not illegal here. She say that his son was not criminal.
Saucedo and a handful of others will plant some 4,000 crosses along the Mexican border, each one for a dead migrant like García. The demonstrators are stopping at border towns until they reach Brownsville, Texas.
Rick Saiz prays for García and others with an ancient Aztec dance. Saiz is a native of Colorado with Mexican-Indian roots.
Saiz: We are one people. We are an indigenous people. Nobody has the right to tell us that we are illegal. If you have no indigenous blood, if you're not a Native American, it is your ancestors who are the illegal aliens. Not ours. Not us.
In the distance, a man in an old truck is blaring country and western music from a loudspeaker. His cap says he's one of the Minutemen, an anti-illegal immigration group. He evades reporters' questions and the police. But his friend Christie Czajkowski speaks up.
Czajkowski : We're actually here to work in solidarity with them. I agree: No more migrant deaths at the border. There are ways to solve this. There's problems with the government in Mexico.
The demonstrators don't seem to see it that way. When the caravan returns to San Diego, they'll give state and federal lawmakers their own vision for immigration reform. For KPBS, I'm Andrew Phelps.
Photo: Activist Rick Saiz talks to a reporter. (Andrew Phelps/KPBS)
