Jenn Budd, former Senior Border Patrol agent turned immigrant rights activist, and author of Against the Wall, a memoir written to help change our brutal and inhumane immigration system.
Rev. John Fife will share the story of how Southside Presbyterian Church in the 1980s became a key stop for more than 15,000 Central Americans seeking safe harbor after fleeing civil war and death squads in their home countries. Rev. Fife served as a minister for 35 years at Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, a church with a strong focus on social justice issues and forever connected to the Sanctuary Movement. In retirement John has stayed active in humanitarian work along the border.
Aracely Rivera Cohen is a doctor of Social Sciences at the University of Sonora in Mexico. In addition, she is an adjunct professor at the Department of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona. Currently, she teaches migration-related graduate and undergraduate courses, including “The Feminization of Migration.” She is also a researcher of the Mexican Researcher System (Sistema Nacional de Investigadores, CONACyT-Mexico). Her latest research articles are published in international academic journals, such as the “International Journal of Borders, Territories and Regions,” “E-rea: Revue Électronique d’études Sur le Monde Anglophone,” and “Canadian Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies.”
Panel of Local Border Humanitarian Activists will share the current work in the borderlands giving support to migrants in the Sonoran Desert that are fleeing violence, climate change, and work exploitation.
Common Ground on the Border 