Gail Kocourek and David Damian Figueroa load their cars at least twice a week — with dog food, water bowls, leashes and medicine, as well as food staples and clothes for the people who live in Sasabe, Sonora.
By October 2023, Gail had already spent a few years traveling weekly to the small Mexican border town, to help the increasing numbers of people seeking asylum.
“And I was down there one day, and the next day we heard that war had broken out,” Gail said. “And then the next thing we know, people were escaping. They cut one of the bollards out, pushed it out, and were escaping the community. … What do you expect them to do when they're caught in the crossfire?”
Reports say there were gun fights and dead bodies in the street. The majority of residents crossed through an opening cut in the border wall and turned themselves over to Border Patrol.
Gail says many of those people were able to get a one-year humanitarian parole, but they couldn’t bring their dogs with them. So, despite the dangers, Gail kept crossing the border to feed the dogs. As the violence subsided others joined her, including David Damien.
Some months ago, when the Arizona sun was still scorching, I rode with the Green Valley and Tucson Samaritans the hour-and-a-half to the border.
“There were two rival gangs that took it over, and they went around and forced people out of their homes, and so it became a ghost town,” David Damien said. “They left their ranches. They left their farm animals. And they left all of their pets, you know, dogs and cats, and they were all roaming the streets hungry.”
As the Samaritans began caring for the dogs, they also began to strengthen relationships with the residents.
On our way to the border, we stopped in Amado for final supplies.
“So here we're going to stop and get some root beer for a young lady that takes care of the dogs, and then we're going to get sodas and ice for the children so we can have a little fake or pretend soda fountain," David Damian says, with a laugh.
Shortly after, driving through the sleepy border crossing, David Damian tells the Mexican Customs officer we’re going to the library to distribute supplies.
The officer politely declines his offer of dog food and waves us through. As we cross the international boundary, dozens of dogs run to our car.
Dogs of all different sizes and colors surround Gail, David Damian and other volunteers as they put out bowls of food and water.
We drove a few blocks, past abandoned buildings, bullet holes evoking the recent violence, and dogs, dogs and more dogs. The U.S. visitors pulled up in front of a bright newly-painted building, and unloaded boxes of socks, canned goods, dog food, and soda and ice for the children’s “pretend soda fountain.”
That’s where I spoke with Sasabe local, 22-year-old Cristobal Fernan Alvarez Olivares.
“Many returned, but many have already left because there is no way to make money,” Cristobal said in Spanish.
Cristobal says the violence has subsided but it’s hard for people to come back and stay because of the lack of jobs.
Residents of Sasabe call it an island. On that summer day I visited, the town had one doctor, no veterinarian, no gas station, and a few convenient stores, but very few options for essentials like fresh produce. The town abuts a 30-foot border wall to the north and the closest town with supplies in Mexico is nearly 70 miles away.
Cristobal goes to work at 5 a.m. in a brick factory. When he gets off at noon he goes home to cook for the dogs — two kilos of rice, which he mixes with dog kibble to make it go farther. He goes out to feed the dogs every afternoon, but only has resources to feed them once a day.
Cristobal has rescued many dogs from the street and now has 16 living in his home.
He says veterinarians came to the town twice in the last few years from Caborca, a Sonoran city about two hours southwest, to spay the dogs. But they haven’t come back since and the unspayed dogs keep multiplying.
There are other residents like Cristobal who take responsibility for large numbers of dogs.
Despite the challenges, more residents are returning and staying, and some, along with the U.S. visitors, have also been working to turn the newly-painted building into a library.
Angel de Jesus Malpica Encinas works for the town of Sasabe. He says this will be Sasabe’s first library.
They’ve painted bright murals inside the small two-room building. And Angel says the town will install computers for the teenagers, as there are no computers at the schools.
He says after a few years of a bad economy, little by little, things are starting to improve.
“It’s really only been the last two or three months that there’s been talk that the economy might pick up a bit again — along with people’s confidence,” Angel said in Spanish. He said residents are moving back, and people feel safe walking the streets again.
In the months since my visit, more businesses have opened, including a restaurant and a barber. And a florist is planning to open soon. David Damien says they’ve received hundreds of pounds of donated dog food from across the U.S., and the dogs seem healthier.
