WE MUST RESPOND TO — NOT LOOK AWAY FROM — THIS HEARTBREAKING SUFFERING
On March 11, near midnight, two boats transporting immigrants from Mexico to the United States were approaching Black's Beach coast near La Jolla. One capsized. Early next morning, a diligent San Diego Medical Examiner's office notified the Mexican Consulate regarding this incident, where eight bodies, potentially Mexican nationals, were recovered from the sea.
As I write these words, six out of those eight bodies have been officially confirmed Mexican nationals, while all of them are presumed so. With one exception, all victims come from the Mexican state of Puebla. The government of Mexico is closely working with the relatives to assist in the repatriation of their loved ones' remains to their hometowns.
What motivates these immigrants to undertake such a dangerous journey? I don't have a definitive answer, but I assume it certainly involves a moment of profound despair. Not many people leave their hometowns, their families, friends and personal histories just for pleasure, “por gusto.” It does not seem relevant how much it will cost, or the extent of the risk, or what you leave behind. According to their relatives, most of the victims who took this fateful boat in search for a better life did not know how to swim, even though they knew they would be asked at some point to jump and swim to the beach. To me, that is a true picture of despair.
In the three and a half years since I arrived in San Diego, we have registered the death of 115 Mexican immigrants trying to cross the San Diego-Tijuana border, either by land or sea. Every day there are several “maritime incidents,” as authorities catalog them, referring to events where a detention is made at sea, either on a boat, a panga or even a jet ski. It is not the first time a shipwreck has happened. For example, on May 2, 2021, a boat capsized in Point Loma with 33 people on board, three of whom died, while most of them had at least some minor injuries. More recently, other incidents in La Jolla, Imperial Beach and Ocean Beach, to mention just a few, have registered several fatalities where questionable vessels have capsized, crashed or burned.
Every time a tragedy involving Mexican immigrants occurs, the Consulate's staff acts based on a series of standard operating procedures, in close coordination with the Foreign Ministry in Mexico City. Sadly, we have plenty of experience. But no matter how many years you have been doing this job, providing consular assistance to immigrants in dire straits, you never get used to notifying families. You offer your condolences and immediately have to start asking about decisions they must make. Not only do they have to mourn their loss, at the same time they have to deal with paperwork, broken families and the intense and unavoidable inquiries from journalists and social media commentators, whose attention span will be brief.
Talking with a victim's close relative helps you understand that one is too many. It is crushing to see from a close range the devastating grief of losing a loved one who gave his or her life in a desperate attempt to improve the lives of those left behind. And, nevertheless, a few days later you have a new tragedy to deal with. You move on, at the risk of normalizing what shouldn't be normalized.
The loss of the eight immigrants who died in Black's Beach, together with the loss of thousands who have died during the past three decades along the United StatesMexico border, can't be seen as the inescapable collateral damage of border policies.
It is incumbent upon those of us with a government responsibility in either Mexico or the United States to find a way for the legal, safe and orderly movement of people in our region.
Just as it is the responsibility of civil society on both sides of the border not to look the other way, pretending not to see the constant, dramatic, heartbreaking suffering of so many immigrant families.
It is incumbent upon those of us with a government responsibility in either Mexico or the United States to find a way for the legal, safe and orderly movement of people in our region.