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Nine Humanitarian Activists Face Federal Charges After Leaving Water for Migrants in the Arizona Desert:
chamerionwrites:
A faith-based humanitarian group that provides aid and shelter to undocumented migrants on the southwestern border fears it has become the latest target in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration advocates. Nine members of the group, No More Deaths, were charged with federal crimes and misdemeanors in recent months, including one volunteer arrested last week shortly after the publication of a report documenting alleged abuses by the U.S. Border Patrol.
Last week, the Tucson, Arizona-based organization published a report presenting what it described as evidence of Border Patrol agents’ systematic destruction of water jugs left for migrants in the desert, as well as “months of increasing surveillance and harassment” by the agency beginning last year. Hours after the report was published, one of the group’s organizers was arrested in a remote area of Arizona, along with two undocumented immigrants, and hit with felony charges…
The same types of charges — misdemeanors that carry a maximum six-month sentence — have also been used against eight other No More Deaths summer volunteers, most of them from out of state. U.S. marshals began serving the summonses last month, when many of the volunteers had returned home to locations across the country. On Tuesday, the defendants, whose charges have not been previously reported, had their first court hearing — the five out-of-state defendants attended by video.
Legally, Warren’s arrest last week and the summonses he and his fellow volunteers received are distinct cases, but that doesn’t mean they are unrelated, No More Deaths says. At the center of it all, the group says, is its longstanding practice of leaving jugs of water for migrants making their way through some of the border’s most treacherous terrain, and a broader campaign on the part of the Trump administration to target immigration advocates with prosecutions related to their work.
“They’re definitely connected,” said William G. Walker, a Tucson-based attorney who has represented No More Deaths volunteers for more than a decade and is currently providing counsel to the latest round of defendants. No More Deaths has maintained “a cooperative, working relationship with both the Border Patrol and the U.S. attorney’s office,” Walker said in an interview before Tuesday’s court hearing. The activities the volunteers are accused of taking part in, the attorney explained, are activities the organization has “been engaged in for the last several years.”
“Border Patrol — and the U.S. attorney — knows about the activities, has surveilled the activities, has permitted the activities, has recognized that we’re out there helping to save lives,” Walker said. “And now all of the sudden it’s all changed…”
Walker said there are persistent complaints among Arizonans that not enough focus is given to enforcing the law and strained resources mean crime fighting falls by the wayside. “So why are we out there, then, using these precious resources to slash water bottles?” he asked. “To arrest and charge humanitarian volunteers from across the country that are trying to save lives?”
“I know why we do it,” he added. “We have a racist federal government now, and you can quote me on that.”
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Nine Humanitarian Activists Face Federal Charges After Leaving Water for Migrants in the Arizona Desert:
chamerionwrites:
A faith-based humanitarian group that provides aid and shelter to undocumented migrants on the southwestern border fears it has become the latest target in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration advocates. Nine members of the group, No More Deaths, were charged with federal crimes and misdemeanors in recent months, including one volunteer arrested last week shortly after the publication of a report documenting alleged abuses by the U.S. Border Patrol.
Last week, the Tucson, Arizona-based organization published a report presenting what it described as evidence of Border Patrol agents’ systematic destruction of water jugs left for migrants in the desert, as well as “months of increasing surveillance and harassment” by the agency beginning last year. Hours after the report was published, one of the group’s organizers was arrested in a remote area of Arizona, along with two undocumented immigrants, and hit with felony charges…
The same types of charges — misdemeanors that carry a maximum six-month sentence — have also been used against eight other No More Deaths summer volunteers, most of them from out of state. U.S. marshals began serving the summonses last month, when many of the volunteers had returned home to locations across the country. On Tuesday, the defendants, whose charges have not been previously reported, had their first court hearing — the five out-of-state defendants attended by video.
Legally, Warren’s arrest last week and the summonses he and his fellow volunteers received are distinct cases, but that doesn’t mean they are unrelated, No More Deaths says. At the center of it all, the group says, is its longstanding practice of leaving jugs of water for migrants making their way through some of the border’s most treacherous terrain, and a broader campaign on the part of the Trump administration to target immigration advocates with prosecutions related to their work.
“They’re definitely connected,” said William G. Walker, a Tucson-based attorney who has represented No More Deaths volunteers for more than a decade and is currently providing counsel to the latest round of defendants. No More Deaths has maintained “a cooperative, working relationship with both the Border Patrol and the U.S. attorney’s office,” Walker said in an interview before Tuesday’s court hearing. The activities the volunteers are accused of taking part in, the attorney explained, are activities the organization has “been engaged in for the last several years.”
“Border Patrol — and the U.S. attorney — knows about the activities, has surveilled the activities, has permitted the activities, has recognized that we’re out there helping to save lives,” Walker said. “And now all of the sudden it’s all changed…”
Walker said there are persistent complaints among Arizonans that not enough focus is given to enforcing the law and strained resources mean crime fighting falls by the wayside. “So why are we out there, then, using these precious resources to slash water bottles?” he asked. “To arrest and charge humanitarian volunteers from across the country that are trying to save lives?”
“I know why we do it,” he added. “We have a racist federal government now, and you can quote me on that.”
(Your picture was not posted)
