I recently traveled to Arizona to join fellow immigration advocates in witnessing the current situation at the border. Unlike my previous visits with Witness at the Border, this trip wasn’t defined by what I saw — but by what was missing.
On Wednesday, I drove to the Lukeville border crossing in Arizona. The last time I was here was on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2024, just over a year ago. Back then, I saw people legally seeking asylum, lining up and waiting to be processed. I witnessed their belongings, including their cell phones, taken from them. I documented it in photos, calling out this inhumane practice.
But this time, in that very same spot, there was nothing.
No asylum seekers. No buckets of belongings. Just an empty tent near the border wall, a few federal employees talking amongst themselves.
A wave of unease swept over me. Where are they? The air was silent, void of the whispers of those seeking refuge. What happened to them?
The United States, once a beacon of hope and democracy, has now been placed on an international human rights watchlist. We are violating treaties, abandoning our moral standing, and turning away those who need us most.
The People We Have Disappeared
Seeking answers, I drove 13 miles off the highway into Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, to an area known as Quitobaquito Springs. This sacred place, named by the Tohono O’odham people, lies along the ominous steel border wall.
Unlike my past visits, there was little movement from border patrol. Just like Lukeville, the area was eerily empty. For miles, there was no sign of people: no desperate families, no weary travelers, no one risking their lives to make it to safety.
But as I left the park and glanced in my rearview mirror, I noticed three vehicles falling in line behind me. My stomach sank.
As I approached the visitor center, their lights flashed. One vehicle pulled in front of me, two behind. I was surrounded.
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Border Patrol and Park Rangers approached, demanding I unlock my car, roll down my windows, and open the rear of my SUV. The interrogation began. Why are you here? Where are you staying? Who are you with?
For 20 minutes, I was grilled with questions, my every move scrutinized. At one point, an officer stated, “You’re not in Philly anymore. This is the border. Things are different here.”
I was alone, vulnerable, at their mercy. And as a white woman, I knew my privilege shielded me from the worst of what these agencies are capable of. If this was their treatment of me, I could only imagine the terror experienced by others caught in their grasp.
Eventually, I was let go. I had done nothing illegal, nothing different than on previous visits. So why the intimidation? Perhaps because there is nothing left for them to do, no one left to detain at the border.
Where Have They Gone?
During the gathering that followed, I sat with friends — people who work on both sides of the border, witnessing this crisis firsthand on a daily basis. Dora Rodríguez, Alvaro Enciso, and Crystal Sandoval confirmed what I had seen:
No one is being allowed to seek asylum in the United States.
As of January 20, 30,000 asylum appointments — appointments that desperate families had waited months to receive — were abruptly canceled. The process that the U.S. government itself set up was erased overnight. This is the pattern we’ve come to know: the goalposts keep moving, punishing those who follow the rules.
And now, instead of processing asylum seekers, the U.S. government is rounding them up from processing and busing them into Mexico, dropping them in some of the poorest and most dangerous cities, stripped of everything.
When Border Patrol detains migrants, they take and discard their belongings: shoes, cell phones, medications, legal documents. Now, abandoned on the streets of Mexico, many have no means of survival. Dora told me about a 3-year-old child whose feet were covered in blisters from walking in shoes with no laces.
This is not just cruelty. This is systematic eradication. A deliberate effort to make people disappear.
Who Have We Become?
As I sat in that conference, more horrific stories emerged. The Alien Enemies Act is being enforced. People are being rounded up and sent away without due process to be detained, tortured, or worse.
How much is this cruelty costing us? Not just in dollars, but in humanity?
We must ask ourselves: Who are we?
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When did we become a nation that punishes the vulnerable instead of protecting them?
At what point did we accept that human lives—especially those of children—are expendable?
History will judge us for what is happening at our border. But we don’t have to wait for history—we can act now. Speak out. Demand that our leaders end these violations of international law.
Because if we stay silent, we are complicit.
