“This is a police state. This is Arizona…”

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“This is a police state. This is Arizona, and worse, this is my country. I must remember this moment. I must not forget even if I want, even if, when I’m back home in bed, the whole scene seems impossible.”

— From Day 5 of Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo’s trip to the Arizona-Mexico border. You can check out everything she wrote about the trip on her blog. She went there to volunteer with No More Deaths, a group devoted to ensuring that migrants don’t die of thirst and other serious health issues in the desert.

These are really fascinating accounts and a must-read for anyone even remotely interested in what’s happening on our border. Her blogs are horrifying and real and human and sad.

Photo of a water bottle left for migrants by No More Deaths, slashed by a Border Patrol Agent.

Seth Fischer's writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Best Sex Writing 2013, The Rumpus, Pank, Guernica, Gertrude, and elsewhere. He teaches and tutors at Antioch University Los Angeles and Writing Workshops Los Angeles. Find more writing from him at www.seth-fischer.com, or reach him at seth.fischer (at) gmail.com or @sethfischer. More from this author →