By MICHAEL UGARTE

It’s an “invasion without guns.” These are the words Russell Pearce, a Republican congressmen from Arizona, used to describe immigration to the United States from south of the border.

But Pearce and conservative media pundits such as Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Lou Dobbs and the infamous sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio, don’t stop with a reference to a metaphorical war. They tell us the invasion is real, a planned act of revenge against the United States for having usurped Mexican territory in the 1849 war. These assertions are all over the right-wing airwaves and the Internet: Immigrants are putting such a heavy a burden on taxpayers that the result will be a total collapse of the U.S. economy.

But rarely do we hear opposing views, and when we do, they tend to be watered-down arguments for rational immigration policies and the need for cheap labor. We are seldom offered the perspective of immigrants themselves. I’m not talking only about those already living in this country, but also those who decide to risk their lives by traveling thousands of miles on foot or in trucks meant for animals, sometimes with children, often without enough food or water, always exhausted, at times close to death. And, yes, many cannot tell their stories even if we tried to listen because they are dead: more than 3,000 between 1998 and 2004, according to border patrol estimates.

I had the privilege of listening to some of these stories this summer as a volunteer for “No More Deaths” (nomoredeaths.org), an organization whose mission is to prevent fatalities in the Arizona desert along the U.S.-Mexico border. I was sent to Douglas, Ariz., a border town just north of Agua Prieta in the state of Sonora. My co-volunteer and I crossed the border every day for a week to lend a hand at the Migrant Center of Agua Prieta, some 10 yards from where our border patrol leaves the migrants apprehended trying to cross into the Land of Liberty and Prosperity.

In that short time, I got to know some of them because I can speak Spanish and because I gave them water, food, sometimes over-the-counter medicine (if needed), and information about where they could stay the night for free and how they could get back home to their loved ones. This was my job for a week, and it’s one of the most eye-opening experiences I have ever had in my 60-plus years of life. Indeed, a face-to-face relationship is as enlightening as studying the issue.

After they became relatively comfortable at the center, some offered their stories: why they crossed, where they were trying to go, their work experiences, their family life (the joys and problems). Some had been to “El Norte”—the United States—before. Others had heard there was money to be made here, money they needed to feed their families or fix their dilapidated dwellings.

Still others felt they were on a journey toward success: They simply wanted to “get ahead” in life, make some money and then return triumphantly to their town. Some even told us about how they made contact with the “coyote” or “pollero,” the trafficker who arranged their trip for exorbitant amounts of money. I heard anywhere from $1,000 to $8,000—an amount that took years to accumulate—depending on the circumstances. Some told of how their coyote abandoned them in the middle of the Arizona desert with no food or water after they had paid the initial fee. Others told how they walked only at night because the daytime heat was deadly.

A woman arrived at our center with a 3-month-old infant who nearly died of dehydration. Mercifully after an ambulance (called by the Migrant Center, not by the border patrol) took her to the local hospital, the baby recovered.

All were not depressing stories; some of the migrants were giddy when they talked to us, just happy to be alive after such a grueling experience. Why come? I asked myself. Why risk one’s life and that of loved ones? My response can only be partial: It comes from a drive we all have as human beings, a drive for survival, a drive toward a brighter horizon. In the last analysis, it’s a struggle against misery and death.

Of course, we all want to know the solution. On that there is much disagreement. But I can offer a couple of ideas. First, NAFTA and all the so-called free-trade agreements were huge mistakes. They promised prosperity for everyone, including the citizens of Mexico, who would no longer feel a need to leave. The opposite is true. It has become patently clear the Clinton-inspired regulation-free industries that have appeared since the mid-1990s do not provide workers a living wage, and undocumented immigration has increased dramatically since then.

Another factor rarely considered is U.S. intervention in Central American conflicts of the 1980s such as those of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and the state of Chiapas in Mexico.

Our government always supports the side that fears initiatives dealing with poverty and gross inequalities.

But more than anything else, the beginning of a solution to this problem is to seek more face-to-face relations with the “others” south of the border.

Michael Ugarte is an MU professor of Romance languages.