Border Angels, a non-profit organization that advocates for the human  rights of the immigrant population, will celebrate its 30 year anniversary this November.
It all started in 1986, after a trip to the Carlsbad canyons with a north county church, where activist and Border Angels founder Enrique Morones saw children, women, and families living in miserable conditions.
“A woman from El Salvador saw that we were gathering things and asked us to deliver food and clothing to her neighborhood in Carlsbad,” Morones recalled. “I thought the organization wasn’t going to last long, but we will turn 30 this November.”
“Back then there was no wall; it was a different world,” Morones shared with La Prensa San Diego. “It all changed in 1994, when the wall was constructed to divide the United States from Mexico.”
Morones along with other volunteers started taking water to the California desert to deposit throughout migrant trails to help prevent deaths by dehydration.
“There were 150 students that went to the last water drop,” Morones said. “Our November water drop also has a lot of registered volunteers.”
The name of the organization came 15 years after that first trip to Carlsbad, when Morones was interviewed by Don Francisco for his TV show “Sabado Gigante”. During the broadcast, Morones was hailed as a “border angel” for leaving water for migrants crossing the desert.
“After the interview, the organization’s phones exploded with phone calls and faxes from people wanting to help and from people needing help,” Morones said. “We started growing in numbers. We have gone to the desert since then to drop water for migrants. we also go and visit workers at places like Home Depot.”
All Border Angels activities are organized by volunteers and done by volunteers. At the beginning there were only local volunteers at the organization, but now, there are people that come all around the world to volunteer with Border Angels from places like Germany, France, Colombia, and even South Korea, and, of course, from all over the United States and Mexico.
Border Angels has accomplished many goals. One of their biggest efforts was the creation of Migrant March: an event that starts on February 2, gathering hundreds of people to march from San Diego all the way to Washington, D.C.
“Every year we do the Migrant March,” Morones said. “And every year we do it differently.”
Border Angels has also helped the community during different crises, from the wildfires in 2003 and 2007, to the arrival of Central American children immigrating to the United States in 2014. Border Angels gathered more than 50 tons of food and clothing in 2014 to help face the child migration crisis.
Another significant milestone by the group, was the opening of a door in the border wall between San Diego and Tijuana at Friendship Park, where families have had the opportunity to meet and touch, some for the first time ever, after their loved ones have been deported. The organization will be making history once again by bringing families together at Friendship Park to open the door again on Saturday, November 19.
To help support each program and event created by Border Angels, the group holds an annual awards dinner. This year’s theme is “Your Vote is Your Voice”. More than 500 people are expected to attend this event on Saturday, November 5.