What's Happening

June 30, 2026, Nogales, Arizona – For Elizabeth Guerrero, this past year has been one of learning. This May, she was one of seven women who learned more about the experience of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

As a Candidate with the Adrian Dominican Sisters, Elizabeth is completing her first year of formation. During this time, she has learned about the history of the Adrian Dominican Sisters and the Charism of the Dominican Order, improved her Spanish skills, ministered as a literacy tutor and a team member with Holy Family Parish’s food pantry, and come to know many of the Adrian Dominican Sisters.

The experience at the border was with Catholic Sisters Walking with Migrants, a program offered through the Kino Border Initiative (KBI) in Nogales, Arizona. Elizabeth was among seven women who participated in a week-long program in which, through various experiences, encounters, talks, and group discussions, they learned and experienced the plight of immigrants at the border.  

Early during the program, Elizabeth noticed a contrast between the experiences of different people. In downtown Nogales on the Arizona side, people were enjoying a pre-Cinco de Mayo celebration. “In the U.S., it’s celebrated and kind of commercialized – a parade of queens and princesses, some food booths, [and a choir] singing traditional ballads in Spanish. “We walked two blocks down and there we saw the border. We saw the wall, 20 feet tall with wire around it and another barrier so you can’t even get close to the border. It was a strange juxtaposition to see the pre-Cinco de Mayo festival and, just around the corner, a horrible scar between the two cities.”

Throughout the program, Elizabeth continued to see the differences in experiences – particularly the plight of migrants struggling to find a new life in the United States. The group spent one of the first mornings on a hike in the desert that simulated the kind of walking that migrants had through the desert of the United States until they passed the check points patrolled by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

“We walked through various parts of the desert – dried out river beds, through thorny brush and overhang of branches, and up to the top of hills that were rocky and had no cover whatsoever,” Elizabeth recalled. The journey could take five to seven days, and migrants frequently travel by night, often climbing a mountain without the help of a light to gauge where they are. 

Many migrants don’t survive the trek through the desert, and their bodies – and often the items they left behind – are discovered by KBI staff members or others on search and rescue trips. Staff members call the authorities and, if they find any identification, KBI keeps it in their records in case a family member calls about them. 

Elizabeth particularly resonated with a story she heard from a young husband who lost his wife in the desert. They were traveling with a group when his wife became dehydrated and could not go on, but the group had to continue. The husband was picked up by Border Patrol and he had to beg them to let him go back to his wife. By the time they finally allowed it, his wife was dead.

“That was a powerful experience of knowing that if I had been crossing, I would have been left behind long ago,” Elizabeth said. Because of recent knee surgery, she had trouble keeping up with the group. “The group slowed down for me or rested,” she said. “That was a powerful experience of knowing that if I had been crossing [as a migrant], I would have been left behind a long time ago.”

Participants also had several opportunities to prepare and serve meals to migrants staying up to 20 days at the Kino Center in Nogales, Mexico, a shelter for migrants.  The center offers “holistic, wrap-around services,” including an attorney who can work with them on their case and another who helps them navigate the U.S. and Mexican immigration systems, as well as a teacher who can work with the children, Elizabeth said. 

“What we learned from Kino is before this current administration [in the United States], the facilities were full and the Kino Center was serving 300 people every day,” Elizabeth said. “Now maybe 20 people are coming. The flow is going South now because people are trying to self-deport …. Even if you’re trying to leave the country, they could arrest you and put you in detention.”

Participants also heard from Judge Eric Markovich who hears about 50 cases in the morning in his Special Proceedings Courtroom in Federal District Court in Tucson, Arizona. Many have been in detention centers, and the judge often sentences them to time already served. 

Elizabeth learned that the migrants are given 20 days to decide if they will pay a fine to stay in the United States or if they will accept a bus ticket to return to the country they came from. She noted that some people have decided to stay in Mexico, possibly until a new U.S. administration takes office. 

Elizabeth, a third-generation U.S. citizen of Mexican descent, said the stories she heard during the experience reminded her of people she ministered with – people who were trying to rebuild their lives in the United States but were deported. The stories she heard “led to a realization for me,” she said. “The stories she heard “made me reflect on how much I take for granted because I was born in the United States … I started to see family members in the faces I was looking at.”    

 

Caption for above feature photo: Serving lunch to the migrants at the Kino Center in Nogales, Mexico, are, from left, Elizabeth Guerrero, a Candidate with the Adrian Dominican Sisters; Sister Theresa “Terri” Ann Schell, OP, a Dominican Sister of Peace; and Gregoria Bueno-Rodriguez, a sister who is transferring to the Dominican Sisters of Peace. 

April 8, 2026, Adrian, Michigan – Several Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates were among an estimated 8 million people who participated in more than 3,000 No Kings rallies across the United States and around the world.

The No Kings rallies – held three times since the inauguration of President Donald Trump – have been organized by a coalition of grassroots organizations to give participants the opportunity to stand up peacefully in favor of democracy and against policies and actions that undermine it and could lead the United States into a monarchy or dictatorship.

Several of the Adrian Dominican participants of the March 28 No Kings rally took time to reflect on the experience.

Sister Kathleen Schanz, OP, participated in one in St. Paul-Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the site of the fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good, 37, and Alex Pretti, 37, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in January 2026. Sister Kathleen marveled at the size of the rally, which drew about 200,000 people. “I was deeply moved as I witnessed and participated in this event with this city and its people, who have experienced so much violence over these last months,” she said. “Inspiring!”

Associate Connie Brady attended a rally in Felton, California, and described the No Kings events as “a path to show up and speak out, with my community, in a nonviolent expression of opposition to oligarchy. The issues are too important to remain silent.”

Connie also sees the rally she attended as an “experience of hope. Hope that grassroots strategic actions will shape political outcomes and protect free and fair elections. Hope that we can elect public officials who respect human and climate rights and will enact structural reforms to protect them.”

Connie also found hope from a young mother who stood beside her and explained her own reasons for attending the rally. “We’re here because everyone has a right to be free and say the things they believe,” Connie recalled the young woman saying. “See everyone here and think about all the other people in the world. They deserve to be safe and happy and have a nice warm bed at night just like us.”

Associate Sharon Pikula stood up for her beliefs during the No Kings rally in Olympia, Washington. Along with members of the International Dances for Peace organization and with others at the rally, she expressed her beliefs through dance, voice, and movements on the Capitol lawn.

“It was delightful as well as purposeful,” said Sharon, who frequently joins the local group as they share simple songs of peace from “a wide variety of religions, spiritualities, and cultures.” She spoke of the “great energy and hope” that arises when a group of people “join their voices and hands together.”

Sharon was especially struck by the words of Circle Round for Freedom by Linda Hirschhorn: “Circle round for freedom, circle round for peace, for all of us imprisoned, circle for release. Circle for the planet, circle for each soul, for the children of our children keep the circle whole.” At the words “circle for release,” Sharon said she “prayed for those in immigrant detention centers, those imprisoned by war and prisons created by our families and societies and, yes, our own doing.”

Sharon sees the need to add music and movement “to move us ever so slowly down the path of oneness and see the light of Christ in all. I could easily imagine St. Dominic joining our circle as a way of broadening out his nine forms of prayer. He would be right with us.”

At her rally in Florida, Sister Rosemary Finnegan, OP, was impressed by a young woman, mother, and artist she and her fellow parishioner, Meghan, met during the rally. The woman had traveled to Ukraine and studied art in Russia. “This is her first rally and she participated because she wants a better world for her 2- and 4-year-olds.” 

“This encounter is an example of the community spirit and camaraderie that existed in all the rallies I attended,” Sister Rosemary said. “They have one purpose, however, and that is to change this regime and establish order and freedom once again.”

Associate Noraleen Renauer, who attended the rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said she participated because “I wanted to be counted. Walking into the crowd (with cane), I found everyone there: Millennials, Boomers, Gen. Z, and children.” Noraleen said the atmosphere of the rally was one of peace and camaraderie. “We were ‘everyday’ Americans, gathered to stand for democracy and the Constitution; This was why we were marching. I thought to myself, ‘This is the Body of Christ,’ as tears welled up in me.”

Noraleen noted that, 24 hours later, she was in another march: the Palm Sunday procession. “In each instance, I saw the American culture of individualism being transformed into the Beloved Community,” she said.

Numerous Adrian Dominican Sisters, Associates, and Co-workers gathered at the No Kings Rally in Comstock Park, Adrian. Sister Theresa Mayrand, OP, perhaps captures what many of them experienced. “I was impressed with the peacefulness at the rally – the smiles, the friendliness of those who participated,” Sister Theresa said. “It was cold, yet people came to show their conviction of the importance of democracy and their resistance to the chiseling away of human rights. They came to stand up for immigrants and for liberty.”

 

Feature photo at top: From left, Sisters Joyce Caulfield, OP, Corinne Florek, OP, Rosemary Abramovich, OP, Kitty Bethea, OP, and Beverly Stark, OP, participate in the No Kings rally in Comstock Park, Adrian. Photo submitted by Sister Sharon Spanbauer, OP