About 30 are participating in the Migrant Trail tribute walk in 100-plus-degree heat.

LUKE TURF

THREE POINTS - Just returned from offering humanitarian aid in Iraq, Cliff Kindy is turning his attention to the border.
The 54-year-old squints as he walks along the shoulderless State Highway 286 with 100-plus-degree heat bouncing off the asphalt this morning. Big rigs and Border Patrol trucks roll past.

Kindy is among a crew of about 30 walking the 70 miles from the border at Sasabe to Tucson's U.S. Border Patrol station, 1970 W. Ajo Way. They left Monday and hope to be in Tucson tomorrow.

The effort is part of the No More Deaths campaign, which is aimed at reforming border policies to stop migrant deaths in the desert.

Two people fell sick to the sun before the journey was half over, and at least one was taken to a hospital. Kindy acknowledges the danger of the trek, although his tour with the Christian Peacemaker Teams helping families of detainees in Iraq was even more dangerous.

"But if I were a migrant, it would be a lot harder. It would be dangerous, as dangerous as Iraq," Kindly said.

It's no walk in the park up to State Highway 86, where the first Migrant Trail tribute walk headed east to Tucson for a protest scheduled at the Border Patrol station at 5 p.m. tomorrow. The protest is to be followed by a rally at Kennedy Park.

Even though the crew takes breaks every 1 1/2 miles and camps every night, cooling down is still the hardest part for Mari Sorri.

The 46-year-old is no stranger to immigration. She moved to the United States from Finland in 1976 and now lives in Vail.

Her socks were dirty from the three nights spent in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, and she kept her black bandanna wet while trying to stay cool.

Sorri wants change.

"If we don't make a change this time, maybe we need to make another (march)," Sorri said.

The No More Deaths campaign is a collaboration among eight groups seeking an end to deaths in the desert. Sorri works with one of the groups, Borderlinks, which is based in Tucson.

Another Tucson-based group involved in the campaign is Derechos Humanos. Kat Rodriguez, the organizing coordinator for Derechos, is marching to Tucson.

"Even now I have a percentage more of the understanding but a million more times respect and awe to the courage of people and horror at the death trap," Rodriguez said. "The point is the border policy."

Rodriguez hopes the march brings attention to the issue.

Resolution, she said, would come in the form of a guest-worker program that allows legalization of illegal immigrants living in the United States, family reunification and more avenues for people to come and go safely from Mexico with worker protections.

Sealing the border addresses none of that, Rodriguez said, and only pushes migrants into the deadliest stretches of desert.

More than 80 people have died crossing the border since October in Pima and Cochise counties, according to the counties' medical examiners.