Dora Rodriquez was 19 years old when she nearly lost her life trekking through the Sonoran Desert to seek asylum across the United States border. 

A deadly civil war erupted in El Salvador in 1980, and Rodriguez, a leader of a civilian youth group in the country’s capital, grew fearful for her safety as the government began targeting similar groups, according to an Aljazeera report.   

“I was a happy kid in my country. I was always jumping around, playing in the rain, running around,” Rodriguez said to dozens of people gathered on Thursday evening to hear her story at the Northridge Lutheran Church in Kalispell. “Until the civil war came, and that changed our lives and our country.” 

Gathering enough money to pay for transportation, Rodriguez started the arduous journey to the U.S. border with a group of migrants also seeking asylum. Out of the 26 migrants, which consisted of families, women and children, half made it through the border alive.  

Rodriguez crossed the border illegally, without documentation.  

A photo of Rodriguez’s unconscious body being carried out of the desert by a Border Patrol officer gained national attention, helping to launch the Sanctuary Movement, a political and religious campaign to provide protection to refugees fleeing wars in Central America, regardless of their legal status. 

Rodriguez remained in a hospital in Ajo, Arizona for a week before being placed in jail for two nights because she had no family in the area, Rodriguez said.  

“All our belongings were thrown in the trash,” she said. “There was so much death around our belongings.”   

To her surprise, she said that the local church and other community members rallied together to pay their bail.  

“The parking lot was overwhelmingly full of people from around the community saying, ‘We’re here.’”   

Forty-four years later, Rodriguez, who lives in Tuscon, Arizona, walks the same border as an American citizen providing aid to those seeking the same asylum she risked her life finding. 

“This journey is tough. Migration is beautiful and it's a human's right to feel safe, but it's painful. Because it separates us from what we know, it separates us from who we love,” she said. 

Rodriguez serves as the director of Salvavision, a nonprofit she founded with her family in 2016 dedicated to give support to migrants by providing temporary housing, medical care, transportation and leading advocacy efforts, according to the group’s website.  

While Salvavision aids hundreds of migrants a day on both sides of the border, becoming comfortable in sharing her own experience was no easy task.  

“I held my story for many, many years, because it’s tragic, its trauma, it hurts, and it brought me a lot of embarrassment too.”  

She said she felt moved to act during former President Donald Trump’s term. 

“I knew I needed to humanize us and to go across and say, I am not a criminal, most of us are not criminals,” she said. 

THE KALISPELL-based nonprofit Valley Neighbors organized the event, which held a potluck prior to Rodriguez’s speech and displayed a poster exhibit of clothes and other items found in the Sonoran Desert, many left by migrant children.  

Rebecca Miller, an organizer of the group that supports immigrant families in the Flathead Valley, said she wants “to be that bridge to come in and be part of our community.” 

Valley Neighbors has been subject to allegations from Montana’s lawmakers during an election cycle where immigration has become a top issue. In May, Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Montana, issued a statement insinuating the aid group was a “dark money” nonprofit that worked with the Biden administration to illegally bring migrants to Montana. 

The accusations came after a migrant family flew into Kalispell after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. No evidence to support Zinke’s claim was produced. 

Rodriguez said in an interview with the Daily Inter Lake that publicizing the victories of migrant families who find asylum in the states is important to combatting misinformation.  

“All these false theories, it’s just a narrative based on fear,” Rodriguez said.  

Genesis Mendez, who is from Venezuela and has been living in the valley for a year, was an attendee at the event. Isabella Ridgeway, a friend she met in free English classes offered at Flathead Valley Community College, translated for her in an interview.  

“There’s a lot of people that just don’t really know or have any idea about the people that immigrate to this country, or why,” Mendez said. “The stories are different for everybody.”   

“I think what we heard tonight was getting back to the human aspect of immigration,” Kalispell resident Jane Schmautz said.  “It's important to remember that they're just like us, and trying to figure out how we actually can help, not only at a policy level.” 

Jack Underhill can be reached at junderhill@dailyinterlake.com and 758-4407.