“Star Trek” was in the news this week, as actor William Shatner, who played “Captain Kirk” in the classic 1960s TV program, blasted into space at the age of 90 as one of billionaire Jeff Bezos’ latest Blue Origin space tourists. In this remote region of west Texas, mere miles from Bezos’ gilded launch pad, a trek of another kind takes place every day, as migrants, many fleeing violence, the climate crisis and poverty attempt the difficult journey from Mexico to the U.S. While the spacecraft lifted its privileged passengers aloft, lost lives littered the Chihuahuan Desert floor far below. Travel by foot under the blazing hot sun is difficult through the sand, rock and cacti, made harder by the militarized enforcement of the broken U.S. immigration system. Thousands of migrants have died attempting this journey. Armando Alejo Hernandez was last heard from in early May. Armando’s disappearance in the desert has been addressed in this column before, also with a reference to the Blue Origin space facility in nearby Van Horn, Texas. In July, the heat of the desert was at its deadliest, and Jeff Bezos was locked in what has been dubbed “the billionaire’s space race” with Richard Branson, who flew with a small crew aboard his own spaceship to achieve a few minutes of suborbital weightlessness. Their brief trips received international acclaim. If only the media scrum would linger, and focus their cameras on the more perilous journeys of these earthbound … Read More→ | 
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