no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well
—from Home by Warsan Shire
N
urses know that symptoms are indications of a
deeper problem. A mother crying over bus tickets is a
symptom.
"It was just the last straw for her," said Maria
Rojas, RN and a Registered Nurse Response Net-
work (RNRN) volunteer who recently spent three
days at Casa Alitas, a Catholic Community Services shelter in Tucson,
Ariz., providing medical care to migrant families and asylum seekers
recently released from federal detention. Rojas found the woman
sobbing outside the shelter office.
The mother said she fled her home in Guatemala where gang
violence, fueled in part by more than a century of U.S. intervention,
is rampant. She said gang members wanted to recruit her 16-year-
old son. Her husband offered to take his place in the gang, if only
they would leave the boy alone. He was a good student, and his
family wanted a better life for him. The gang responded swiftly,
murdering the father.
On the last leg of her journey in Mexico, the mother said she sat
behind the bus driver as he snorted cocaine to try to stay awake to
drive. But despite the drugs, he kept drifting off. She would shake
him awake to keep him from crashing.
When she learned at the shelter that she and her family would need
to make a three-day Greyhound bus trip as the next leg of their journey
in the United States, she broke down. "To us, riding a bus is no big
thing," said Rojas, but this woman was terrified for the safety of her
family. To assure her, Rojas showed the woman photos of the outside
and inside of a bus, and explained that drivers were required to change
and take breaks. As Rojas wrote down where the family would get off
and transfer buses, the mother relaxed and began preparing for the trip.
12 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G J A N U A R Y | F E B R U A R Y | M A R C H 2 0 1 9
Knowing No Bounds
RNRN volunteers provide caring, critical medical care to
migrants fleeing violence and death.
BY RACHEL BERGER
