Vigil in Parc-Ex for pregnant woman who died crossing Canada-U.S. border
Posted January 14, 2024 4:49 pm.
Last Updated January 14, 2024 6:18 pm.
Montrealers hosted a vigil Sunday to remember Ana Karen Vasquez-Flores, exactly one month after she was found dead by police in the United States.
The Mexican woman, who was pregnant, died crossing the border from Canada to the U.S.
The 33-year-old was found in the Great Chazy River near Champlain, N.Y – near Roxham Road, south of Montreal – on Dec. 14, two days after her husband alerted border patrol that she had not emerged from the woods.
Sunday’s vigil in Parc-Extension was organized by Solidarity Across Borders and the Caring for Social Justice Collective.
The organizers say they are denouncing what they call Canada’s “racist immigration laws and deadly border policies.”
“We wanted to at least mark here in Montreal, which was the starting point of this part of her journey, to bring the community together to say that Ana Karen’s life matters and she’s dead because of the laws of our country and the laws of the United States,” said activist Mary Foster with Solidarity Across Borders.
“Ana Karen was simply just trying to safely reach her family. Why shouldn’t she be able to do that?
“What’s happening is that a lot of people are dying on the borders… and it seems to us very important that we not allow these deaths to be normalized.”
A Colombian man is facing extradition from Canada to the United States on human smuggling charges relating to her death. American authorities allege he charged the woman and her husband US$2,500 to guide her by text message as she walked alone across the border.
‘Let them live in a safe place’
Solidarity Across Boarders says the problem lies with immigration laws, not traffickers.
“We’re calling for a status for all, and we’re calling for just opening the border and try to get people to live a better life and let them live in a safe place,” said spokesperson Hady Anne.
“We’re calling ultimately for the right to stay, the right to move and the right to return,” added Foster. “That’s something that is just a matter of human dignity and freedom.”
Roxham Road, the unofficial Canada-U.S. border crossing south of Montreal, officially closed in March 2023 – leading to skyrocketing asylum applications.
Advocates call the decision “disturbing.”
“The way the borders laws work is that forces people to take more and more dangerous routes and so we know that people are gonna die and more people are gonna die,” said Foster.
—With files from The Canadian Press
