rssWhen Humanitarian Acts Are Illegal
Wednesday, September 08, 2010 at 4:46 pm
- 15 Comments
Immigrants are dying in near-record numbers at some border-crossing spots in Arizona, in part because increased enforcement funnels many migrants through harsh terrain and a cruel desert climate. In response, humanitarian groups leave water bottles on popular trails to help prevent deaths among migrants. But as TIME’s Adam Cohen reported today, leaving water for migrants — whether for humanitarian purposes or not — can mean risking going to jail.
The statute that prohibits leaving water is not specifically anti-immigrant, it simply says garbage and property cannot be left in a national refuge without a permit. But it has serious implications for migrants, particularly on a year with such high numbers of border-crossing deaths. Law enforcement authorities already found remains of 170 migrants this year in Arizona’s Pima County.
Cohen’s article centers on the recent successful appeal of Daniel Millis, a volunteer with aid group No More Deaths who was arrested in 2008 for littering. Millis used the No More Deaths slogan in his defense, telling the judges “Humanitarian aid is never a crime.” His conviction was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit by a 2-1 vote, but the judges’ decision did not go far enough to protect other humanitarian volunteers from being jailed for leaving water in the desert:
The same federal statute that prohibits disposing of garbage in a national refuge also makes it illegal to abandon property there, or to place certain property in a refuge without a permit. While reversing Millis’ conviction for disposing of garbage, the Ninth Circuit emphasized that he might well have been charged under one of these other provisions. In other words, although Millis is in the clear, the next person to leave water bottles where he did risks going to jail. [...]
This issue is likely to show up in court again before long because humanitarians will keep leaving water, and the government seems intent on saying that doing so is illegal. Before it does, Congress should add an exception to the law — and make clear that leaving supplies on public land in a reasonable way, in a good-faith effort to save lives, is not a crime.
It’s worth mentioning that the anti-immigration groups have attempted to use migrant water bottles as part of a broader effort to prove illegal immigration harms the environment. “Illegal entry threatens nature’s delicate balance,” pro-enforcement group Center for Immigration Studies says in one of its videos, referencing in another post smuggled narcotics in the “football fields of trash from illegal alien traffic over the southwest border.” They seem less concerned by actions by anti-immigration groups, such as the Minutemen, to reportedly slash and drain water bottles left out by humanitarian groups, leaving the empty bottles in the desert.
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Pingback posted September 8, 2010 @ 9:25 pm
[...] When Humanitarian Acts Are Illegal « The Washington Independent [...]
Comment posted September 9, 2010 @ 1:35 am
Because slashed water bottles are so much less trashy than filled ones, of course, being “spiked” with a dose of poisonous malice.
Sigh…
Pingback posted September 9, 2010 @ 4:04 pm
[...] Life or trash circumstances By Leila Darabi Good Samaritans leaving water for migrants on the harsh trails between Mexico and Arizona risk going to jail under the state’s strict litter law. The Washington Independent recaps a fascinating TIME article on the subject here. [...]
Pingback posted September 9, 2010 @ 7:36 pm
[...] When Humanitarian Acts Are Illegal « The Washington Independent [...]
Pingback posted September 26, 2010 @ 4:46 am
[...] When Humanitarian Acts Are Illegal « The Washington Independent [...]
Comment posted October 13, 2010 @ 8:00 am
I can only inform you, but you must develop the ability to absorb the lesson.
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