We are the United States. We go to war to protect freedom and we are committing acts of genocide. Humanitarian aid is never a crime. Giving out food and water are basic principles of what it means to be human and is under attack right now. It the criminalization of compassion. This is the message a volunteer legal defense attorney of No More Deaths told an audience at Cabrini University.
“Death shouldn’t be a penalty for migrating,” (name), volunteer legal defense attorney, said.
Cabrini’s Center of Immigration and Barbara and John Jordan Center for Children of Trauma and Domestic Violence Education, recognized four individuals, including Juan Gonzalez, that are telling the true realities of what is occurring at the borderlands and are “fighting for human rights and human dignity,” Abel Rodriguez, director of the center of immigration, said.
No more deaths (no más muertas) is a humanitarian organization located in southern Arizona. In 2004, they began their efforts in “ending the death and sufferings in Mexico–US borderlands through civil initiative: people of conscience working openly and in community to uphold fundamental human rights.”
Federal prosecutions of volunteers
Due to the election of Trump, no more deaths have faced legal troubles with the government. In Ajo, Arizona of June of 2017, they faced their first raid by border control and four of the migrants receiving help were arrested. After border patrol raided their aid camp, nine of the volunteers were charged with federal misdemeanor charges.
In January of 2018, another raid was conducted in Ajo, Arizona by border patrol. This time, two migrants receiving help and one volunteer, Scott Warren was arrested. Warren was charged with two counts of felony harboring and one count of felony conspiracy.
No more deaths is currently putting together a legal defense campaign to “demand the charges against no more deaths be dropped and that all public lands along the border uphold the right to give and receive humanitarian aid.”
On Nov. 20, Warren appeared before court in Tucson, Arizona, where he was found not guilty. “The government failed in its attempt to criminalize basic human kindness,” Warren said in front of a crowd after he was found not guilty.
Water not walls
The west desert surrounding Ajo, Arizona is the most regularly used and deadly passage traveled through by migrants. The migrants travel about 80 miles along this passage just to seek a place of safety. Temperatures often rise to 155 degrees during the summer months. Without the resupply to food and water, it is impossible for these migrants to make their 80-mile journey.
Every year there has been a consistent pattern of human remains being found in the West desert. According to no more deaths, in 2017, a total of 57 sets of human remains were recovered in the area, accounting for nearly half the remains found in Arizona last year. This has turned the west desert into a graveyard.
No more deaths believes migrants should be acknowledged at the border with water and not a wall. According to No more deaths website, land managers have harassed, ticketed, worked to prosecute, and denied access to humanitarian aid workers in the West Desert. By doing so, land managers contribute to the crisis of death and disappearance.
No more deaths have tried to work closely with four agencies in the needed response to the deaths and disappearances. They say the harassment they are facing is due to the current U.S. Government policies and practices.The agencies include; the National Park Service at Organ Pipe, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Cabeza Prieta, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Air Force at the Barry M. Goldwater Bombing Range.
However, volunteers access at the bombing range has been taken away, volunteers are facing prosecution for their projects at Cabeza Prieta and volunteers are being tormented and being watched on the organ pipe.
On July 1st, 2017, land managers enacted Clause 13, that made volunteers sign this to access Cabeza Prieta and the Goldwater Range which says:
“I agree to remove from the [refuge] all personal property or possessions, including but not limited to, objects, debris, water bottles, water containers, food, food items, food containers, blankets, clothing, footwear, medical supplies, garbage, or trash generated by and/or used by me and/or my group.”
No more deaths stands firm on all charges against their volunteers to be dropped saying this clause “moves US government land management agencies away from productive collaboration with humanitarian aid groups and toward a racist national administration that puts pressure on all government agencies to uphold a white supremacist agenda.”
Migration protection protocols
A policy under the Trump administration, The Migration Protection Protocols (MPP), has ordered 16,000 migrants under 18, including nearly 500 infants, to wait with their families in Mexico for U.S. immigration court hearings, according to a Reuters analysis of government data.
According to Homeland Security, MPP is a U.S. Government action whereby certain foreign individuals entering or seeking admission to the U.S. from Mexico – illegally or without proper documentation – may be returned to Mexico and wait outside of the U.S. for the duration of their immigration proceedings, where Mexico will provide them with all appropriate humanitarian protections for the duration of their stay.
“The MPP puts immigrants in more of a dangerous situation,”(name) said. The migrants are being sent back to their country in which they fled from danger while they wait for asylum. Border patrol is also strict with lawyers meeting with their clients at the border. Lawyers tend to have 15 minutes’ maximum before border patrol kicks them out due to it being a “security issue.” Most lawyers skype in with their clients to avoid this annoyance.
There is a waitlist at the border for migrants seeking asylum.
