Migrant Stories By: Roxane Ramos Each year, 600,000 to 800,000 undocumented migrants are deported. Though their reasons for crossing center around reuniting with their families and seeking better lives, each story is unique. Here are some—the names are changed to protect privacy, but the facts are unaltered. Yolanda, Mexico Yolanda grew up in Oaxaca, Mexico and when she was 14, her parents sold her to an abusive older man who migrated with her to Mesa, AZ. She’d had four daughters with …Read More

A Mass right at the border fence, organized by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and attended by an impressive delegation of clergy—including seven bishops and 17 priests—drew national attention to the immigration crisis as well as scores of supporters, among them, KBI board member Lucy Howell. by Lucy Howell April 1 was a day of both grace and contrast. Six of us left Phoenix long before sunrise in order to reach the Morley Gate separating Nogales, Arizona from Nogales Sonora …Read More

The Fourth Annual KBI Dinner for the Kino Border Initiative raises both funds and awareness. By: Roxane Ramos The sun was shining and the mood was celebratory as KBI supporters gathered in the courtyard of St. Francis Xavier School in Phoenix, catching up with old friends, making new ones, and having the rare chance to greet Fr. Sean and the rest of the KBI staff who had traveled from Ambos Nogales to join in the festivities. Even so, the attendees of the Fourth Annual Kino Border …Read More

Agnes Stipetich, Donor and Volunteer By: Roxane Ramos As a volunteer and advocate for immigration reform, Agnes is almost busier than when she taught elementary and middle school for 32 years in Wisconsin. Far from the U.S.–Mexico border, one might think immigration would be a distant issue, but parts of the state rely heavily on farm workers from Latin America. Agnes discovered more about their trials when, as a literacy volunteer in 2009, she taught English to one of them, an …Read More

By: Roxane Ramos Spending a day at the KBI puts visitors right where they can learn the most about the migrant experience—at the border. On a bright February morning in Nogales, Sonora, eleven students from Alma College in Michigan line up in the comedor (soup kitchen) with KBI staff and other volunteers to greet the migrants patiently waiting to enter. These migrants, many deported to Nogales from other points along the border, have endured long, often harrowing, journeys, and carry …Read More