Standing in front of a white truck was a man with a goatee and a straw hat, with a soft smile, tanned and tanned as if he had worked in the fields all his life.
On the other side of a rust-coloured iron pillar about six inches wide, two people in the remote Sanctuary early Friday morning as their parents wait exhausted for U.S. Border Patrol agents to come back and process them. children were running around. Lewis.
They sat on a square dirt lot surrounded on three sides by heavy iron pillars, with the vast Mexican desert on one side and Yuma’s farmlands on the other.
Louis Ames, 66, famously handed out food and water to migrants awaiting detention procedures in that corner of San Luis, according to some immigrants. It is possible to wait several days.
He works on the land adjacent to the wall that oversees the irrigation of Lee Farm’s fields.
He will never forget the first day he started delivering food and water to immigrants awaiting processing by U.S. Border Patrol.
On December 1, 2021, Ames was checking the fields as usual.
As we approached the border wall, we saw hundreds of immigrants sitting in the dirt clearings of the square.
“I saw a lot of hands coming out of the[board]wall when I was passing by,” Ames said.
People were reaching out from the planks for help. He remembered hearing a voice of desperation from their voices. They waited there for a while without food or water.
He saw many children, women, pregnant women and the elderly among the suffering crowd.
Ames scurried away, rushed to the nearest store, and brought back a truckload of bread, sandwich ingredients, water, Gatorade, soda, and whatever else was readily available. He made several other trips, rushing back and forth to get enough food and drink for everyone.
After feeding, the group fell silent.
“It has helped me understand a lot, all the things these people suffer when they leave their country. ‘, said Ames. “Most people arrive with nothing.”
This activity is now part of his daily routine.
Each morning, after supervising the farm workers under him, Ames would check the fields closest to the wall to see if anyone had been brought there overnight and needed food and water. increase.
He loves the fields and helping people
Ames worked for Lee Farms for 40 years before moving to Yuma County from San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico, where he grew up on a ranch with his father.
He attributed his love of giving to others from his father, who grew zucchini and corn in Mexico and frequently gave a portion of his crops to others.
“I learned a lot from my father,” he said. “He taught me to do things right and right.”
One of 14 children, Ames eventually moved to Yuma at age 28 and has lived there ever since.
He loves working in the fields and appreciates the variety of different harvests and the active lifestyle that work allows.
He befriended local humanitarian volunteers who brought food and water to migrants and local border guards who he met daily.
Ames also understands how depressed immigrants are. Even when delivering food, he strives to boost their energy and self-esteem. “I try to talk to them and say whatever makes them feel better.”
He remembered a Cuban woman who was kidnapped and beaten. He wanted to lift her spirits.
“You’re in a safe country, so it won’t happen,” he remembered telling her. She’s in Kentucky now, but she still talks to him and appreciates the time.
In April, he received a plaque from the humanitarian organization SOS Busqueda y Rescate, honoring his work, but said he did not do it to be recognized.
“Everything I do I do for humanity, because we are all human. We all feel the same, so we have to help,” he said. .
Here’s where to contact reporters: sarah.lapidus@gannett.com.
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