Cecile Lumer, the volunteer director at the Migrant Resource Center, strives to help deported migrants by providing them with food, shelter and information to assist them with finding their way home.  

Lumer opens the door to the Migrant Resource Center where she spends hours waiting for immigrants to be sent back from the United States in the small town of Naco, Mexico.  The building is so small that it does not have bathroom, but Lumer waits at a desk with her laptop.

When she is not volunteering, Lumer is the curator of the Cochise County Herbarium located at the University of Arizona South in Sierra Vista. 

“This is a map of how many deaths that have occurred from people trying to cross— at least the many we know of,” Lumer said, pointing to a map of the Mexican border with 20 to 30 red dots. 

She points to another map on the wall of the Mexico with about 100 pins or more.

 “This is for where the people are from,” Lumer added. “When [immigrants] come in, we ask them to put a pin on the map to show where they are from.”

According to Lumer, the Migrant Resource Center is not very busy now because the U.S. government is spending money to send immigrants to Mexico City instead of just dropping them off across the border.

Still, Lumer comes to the center a few times a week to help out as much as she can, even if it means staying the night. 

“The worst is when people are sent back in the middle of the night and that are dropped off in a town that they aren’t familiar with,” Lumer said.  

Sometimes the border patrol will send immigrants Lumer’s way, but at times immigrants will walk straight to the center where a volunteer will provide them with water, food and shelter. Since opening on Jan. 5, 2008, the center has helped 6,799 people. 

“Basically we give them a place to sit and figure out what to do with their lives,” Lumer said. “We don’t tell them to cross or not to cross.”

Lumer points to another paper on the wall with names, dates and information about how long each immigrant was held in detention and whether or not they received crackers, soup, or water. 

“Sometimes, these people don’t receive food or water, or anything, and if they’ve been stuck in detention for 48 hours, they get pretty exhausted,” she said. 

 “It’s very hard when you meet these people because a large percent of them have family in the states,” Lumer said. “99 percent of these people just want to work.  There is nothing simple about this situation.”

 “Just living here, in a place where people are dying, I don’t believe it’s fair about what we’re doing,” Lumer added. “If we want them to work, we should let them come.”