"Thousands make the trek to the U.S. border from Mexico every year, facing seemingly endless miles of rugged terrain and intense conditions.

A few Central Virginia residents plan to make the precarious journey themselves, starting from somewhere in Mexico and trudging toward the U.S. border, carrying enough water and food to survive. Group members said they want to protest what they view as an unfair targeting of illegal immigrants in Virginia and elsewhere and to demonstrate their opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Jeff Winder, a coordinator for a Charlottesville-based advocacy group called The People United, said crossing the border would draw attention and make a point.

“I think it’s time for some dramatic action right now,” Winder said. “[The border crossing] creates more opportunity … to reach out to real, average, ordinary people about what are the real roots of this problem.” About five area residents are planning the trip for the beginning of April, though they don’t have all the details worked out yet.

Virginia Leavell, a Charlottesville resident, says she knows she could be risking life and limb to make a point. For her, it’s well worth it.

“I think [the border crossing is] creative enough to pique people’s curiosity and put a foot in the door to have a more informed conversation about immigration,” Leavell said. “People are responding out of fear and falsely scapegoating the wrong people for other problems that are happening.”

While U.S. Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr. doesn’t agree with Winder’s group about many aspects of the immigration debate, he said he’s seen the effects of NAFTA in places such as Danville and Lynchburg.

“They need to totally re-evaluate NAFTA,” Goode, R-Rocky Mount, said. But he said the solution to the immigration problem is for the U.S. to enforce its existing laws and crack down on illegal immigrants already here.

“I don’t disagree with the premise that some are coming to the U.S. for better job opportunities,” he said. “[But] you’ve got to make the United States unfriendly for persons illegally in the country. I think the state and federal and local governments need to do that too. You don’t roll out the welcome mat to someone who has broken the law.”

Keith Drake, chairman of the Albemarle County Republicans, agreed with Goode that the U.S. needs to enforce its existing laws.

Drake also doesn’t know what effect the border crossing might have, if any.

“It sounds like a publicity stunt, and publicity stunts get a lot of attention, but do they do any good?” Drake asked.

Drake said illegal immigrants should be dealt with compassionately, but not at the expense of everyone else.

“These are real people, they’re lawbreakers, they’re invaders, but they’re real people,” Drake said. “How do we in a compassionate manner address their needs? They want us to provide them with free health care and free social services … and that’s not fair to me.”

Trips take planning

A couple of the group’s members plan to go on a scouting trip to Tucson, Ariz., to meet other groups, get tips about surviving the desert, get the lay of the land and plan the trip. They are looking to raise money for the protest through contributions and events such as a benefit dinner, but Winder said ultimately the group members might have to put up some of their own money. Winder said a typical border crossing takes three days, so the group is thinking that will likely be the time period they’re in the desert too.

The group Mexicans Without Borders, a prominent Virginia immigrant advocacy group made up of mostly Latin American immigrants, has endorsed the trip. Winder’s border crossing group plans to join Mexicans Without Borders at a May 1 rally in Washington.

The group, members said, could run into vigilante groups that oppose their position and, of course, they will face the perils of walking through the desert. Hundreds of Latin Americans die each year of exposure to heat and cold trying to cross the border, as well as from motor vehicle accidents, homicide, drowning and being hit by cars, according to a 2006 Government Accountability Office report.

“Yeah, I’m worried, but this is bigger than me,” Leavell said.

Raising the question

Patrick Lincoln, a Harrisonburg resident who plans to go on the trip, said he wants people to ask “why.”

“I think this action is a way to remind myself and my community that there are real problems that we face, but that those problems aren’t coming from recently arrived immigrants,” Lincoln said. Lincoln wants people to ask, “Why would this group of … white folks cross through the desert? Why would they do that?”

“It’s more of sort of a symbolic risk that we’re taking in order to draw attention to the very real risk immigrants have to take every day,” he said.

Drawing attention to the humanitarian issue is part of the group’s goal, Winder said. But its members also want to get at larger issues, particularly NAFTA. They say the early ’90s trade agreement has driven down wages in both the United States and Mexico and caused many Mexicans to seek jobs in the United States, often illegally. Winder says the agreement has caused “desperate poverty” in Mexico.

William Kehoe, a professor of economics at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce, says NAFTA has caused some serious short-term ills, but it will ultimately be beneficial.

NAFTA aims to reduce restrictions to trade among Canada, the United States and Mexico.

“We’re not going back from globalization,” Kehoe said. Economists believe that fewer restrictions to trade will ensure better living conditions and better wages for all countries involved in the long term, Kehoe said. Workers who lose their jobs get retrained in other, more profitable industries.

Goode’s and others’ focus on illegal immigrants is precisely what’s motivating Winder’s group.

Leavell said she went to Prince William County to protest action taken by the Board of Supervisors there. The board unanimously passed a resolution that would refuse services to illegal immigrants, among other measures.

“After seeing that happen, the amount of organization and protest and having it still pass unanimously … that made it click that we need to do something more,” Leavell said." (Jeremy Borden, The Daily Progress, February 25, 2008)