By Joel Langton
830 Times
A former Marine who’s walking along the United States and Mexico border came through Del Rio Monday.
Ramon Castro, a 42-year-old veterans advocate, started a 2,000-mile trek July 28 with his heels in the Pacific Ocean and should wrap up Aug. 11 with his toes in the Gulf of Mexico.
The focus of his trek is to bring visibility to deported veterans but also wants to raise awareness to homeless veterans and veterans’ mental health.
The Government Accounting Office states 250 veterans have been deported between 2013 and 2018, but Castro, who regularly visits with the deported vets, said the number is in the thousands.
If he’s working to bring awareness to the issue, he’s hitting a home run as Reuters, Yahoo News and Univision are just a few of the outlets that have featured his efforts.
“If people are good enough to strap on a pair of combat boots, protect our interests abroad, protect this nation, they should be citizens,” Castro, an Iraq War veteran said. ”If they get in trouble, they should pay the price but they shouldn’t be deported.”
“So I think it’s it’s something that has to be done and I believe that the only reason we haven’t been able to fix this is simply because we don’t have deep pockets like other special interests that are able to pay lobbyists to influence meaningful policy in Washington DC,” he said, sitting on the patio at River City Donuts. Alongside him was Oscar Suarez, his safety and logistics officer who leads him in a white Jeep.
He walks 30 to 60 miles per day. Monday. He started near Comstock and hoped to make it to Quemado.
“Tomorrow, I need to make it 53 miles and I hope to trim some of that off today so it will be more manageable,” he said. When it was pointed out that it was past 4 p.m., he just shook his head.
“It doesn’t get dark until 9 p.m., I’ll just go until then,” he said.
His scariest moment has come in Val Verde County. Typically, when he gets to a bridge, he gets in the jeep and Suarez safely drives him across. However, when he arrived at the bridge crossing Lake Amistad, he noticed the train trestle going alongside it.
“I didn’t know it was still active,” he said. “I feel like I’m cheating when I walk.”
However, halfway across he felt the tracks shaking, took his earbuds out and looked over his shoulder. His walk became a sprint, at least until he beat it across the trestle.
Walking along the border has brought him into contact with numerous Border Patrol agents.
“After having so much contact with them, I have so much respect for what they do every day,” he said. “They’ve really looked out for me, especially in rougher areas.”
Getting up close and personal with border guardians gave him a new perspective.
“I thought I knew what Border Patrol consisted of but these guys are toeing the line and they’re humanitarians,” he said.
He has a handful of days left in this adventure of walking along the border and raising awareness to key issues. However, just because his toes hit the Gulf, and he goes back to his home inspection business and serving on the Brawley, Calif., city council, his efforts will continue.
“These people fought for us, it’s our turn to fight for them and make sure they’re taken care of,” he said.
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Contact the author at joelalangton@gmail.com
