A group of women and children on a mission to create awareness on immigration issues from California’s Central Valley to the border was greeted and welcome by some 100 people in Chicano Park, in Barrio Logan, and later continued on to San Ysidro.

A Trail for Humanity finalized its 400-mile journey from the agricultural city of Merced to the U.S. Mexico border in San Ysidro on Saturday, August 16th, in what San Diego activists are calling a great cause.

“San Diego, Chula Vista, and San Ysidro responded with lots of love and support and it was an honor and a privilege to have been able to join the Trail For Humanity as they reached their goal of getting to the U.S./Mexican Border,” said Bertha Gutierrez, one of the San Diego activists who met the trail in Barrio Logan.

Gutierrez said that the trail has shed light in many issues around immigration, issues that affect many families in our community.

“The Trail for Humanity sent a clear message, that all children are sacred, and that it is our duty and responsibility to pressure the Obama administration to put a halt to deportations of refugee children and migrant families,” Gutierrez said. “And to demand that the children and families are treated in a humane and dignified manner respecting the national and international laws put in place to protect them, not separate them and deport them back to the extreme poverty and deadly violence that they came from.”

The final leg of the march began with a ceremony and people power at Chicano Park around 8 a.m. It then concluded with poetry and more speeches at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

“We are walking for those buried alive in the Sonora dessert, for our children crossing alone sobre la Bestia, for our people in Arizona, for all who are targeted for being Other,” reads a post on the Trail’s official Facebook page.

For Gutierrez, the Trail for Humanity went beyond immigration issues to include discriminatory practices by law enforcement.

“The Trail for Humanity also brought to light the need to end the use of Police as Immigration Enforcement Agents, racial profiling, racist laws such as SB 1070 and copycat laws, gang injunctions and to end ‘stop and frisk’ and the targeted check points in migrant communities,” the activist said.

Gutierrez emphasized that San Diego activists are very much aware of all the immigration issues around the country, because of the city’s proximity to the border. She added that the families who made the Trail for Humanity have raised their voices in favor of immigrants.

“Our communities here at the border deeply appreciate and honor the mothers and their children and all who joined them for making this huge sacrifice to bring national and international attention to the injustices being committed against refugee children and families,” she said. “Theirs is a trail of love, one who unified our hearts and our communities with every step they made. It is our duty to continue this Trail for Humanity.”

To learn more about the Trail for Humanity, and to see pictures and comments on the trail, please visit www.trailforhumanity.org.