Twice a week, volunteers with Casa Maria and Barrio Restoration roam the streets of South Tucson, cleaning up trash, talking with neighbors and offering help and resources while keeping a watchful eye on the community they hope to uplift.

The efforts are part of the groups’ Defend Nuestro Barrio campaign, a four-week initiative that establishes citizen patrols in South Tucson to monitor ICE activity, address fentanyl use by connecting users to treatment or asking them to leave, and help keep the neighborhood clean.

“Picking up trash keeps an area clean, and I like to compare it to dressing for a job interview,” said Barrio Restoration founder David Garcia. “If you go in all dirty and hair all messy, they're not going to take you seriously.”

Barrio Restoration employs people experiencing homelessness to provide landscaping services and help them get back on their feet. Garcia began the work six years ago by picking up trash with a bicycle and trailer.

“I know that when I go into a clean neighborhood, I'm not gonna dump my trash there. But if I go into a dirty neighborhood, odds are someone is going to dump trash there,” Garcia said. “Keeping it clean shows a standard and it creates respect too.”

The patrols begin at South Tucson City Hall and travel down South 6th Avenue, picking up trash as they talk with people and offering referrals to resources as needed.

“I want to help change people's lives, and if we can help people get off the street and make that a part of what we do too,” Garcia said. “Showing up every week will show the people we see that we do care.”

South Tucson Mayor and Casa Maria volunteer Roxy Valenzuela has also been taking part in the patrols, but her outreach work predates these recent efforts.

Valenzuela said she has spent the past two years knocking on doors to hear residents’ concerns, including worries about neighborhood conditions and crime.

“People are feeling unsafe, so we had many group discussions to try to come up with solutions, knowing that we have limited resources and huge strains on our budget, because these services that are required to deal with these problems are just not there,” Valenzuela said.

Valenzuela said South Tucson lacks the funds to address these large-scale issues.

“We don’t have the funds to hire more personnel, and we just don't have the infrastructure or staff to create more programs,” Valenzuela said. “So we started looking into our partners. Working with Barrio Restoration already to clean up the streets with the Barrio Keepers, we said, ‘Why don’t we expand these services to actually offer help to the people we run into instead of just cleaning trash around them?’ We engage in conversation and see if they'll take the support.”

Garcia said that most people are receptive to talking and the possibility of receiving help.

“If they don’t want help, then we want to let them know to keep it clean and don’t smoke stuff at the bus stops or in front of stores, at least find a spot that's not out in the open,” Garcia said. “There’s nothing wrong with raising the bar and asking that of people.”

Aside from cleaning and outreach, the volunteers also observe what’s happening in the neighborhood.

“ICE is something we are concerned about and how we can help people that are impacted by that,” Garcia said. “ICE is causing trauma and disrupting families. We just don’t want them messing with families, and if I see them in the neighborhood, then I can let the people I know that could be affected by them know that they are in the area.”

Valenzuela said ICE does not notify local police when they are in the area, so there is no way to know what they are doing unless someone observes it. Volunteers watch ICE activity whenever they encounter it.

“We want to stay vigilant and make sure that we're looking out, so that if they need support, then we’ll be there to make sure that ICE follows protocol and that rights are not being violated,” Valenzuela said. “There's not much we can do, so we’re just watching out for them.”

Garcia said he attended a June protest outside the ICE office on Country Club and Valencia and was surprised when it turned violent and police arrived on buses.

“When you see a crowd like that, you could think, man, these people need to chill out,” Garcia said. “But ICE isn’t chilling out, so I understand the anger.”

The citizen patrols will take place every Monday and Thursday in August from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Anyone who wants to join the patrols just needs to show up—no sign-up or special skills are needed.

“We’re on a campaign to clean streets. We’re not in it for the money, none of us are getting paid. I have uncles out here in the street, my sister is out here, and my mom has been out in the streets, so it’s personal,” Garcia said. “All the people you see, that’s someone’s kid, or someone's mom out there, and there's somebody that wants to see them get better. We just want to be out here consistently trying, and we’re going to keep doing it.”

Colton Allder is a journalism major at the University of Arizona and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact him at callder1995@arizona.edu.

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