Kindness and the trouble it causes
Government prosecutes activists who leave water for immigrants
Walt Staton faces up to a year in prison and a $10,000 fine for littering.
Though he doesn’t expect to actually get jail time, the 27-year-old Tucson web designer still thinks the charges are ironic and disproportionate. Staton says that when he was cited in December 2008, he was actually picking up trash while also leaving full water jugs in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge along the Mexican border.
Staton is a member of No More Deaths/No Mas Muertes, a border activism group that leaves water along trails for migrants crossing through the harsh, unforgiving Sonoran Desert. About 50,000 migrants cross through the wildlife refuge each year, down from about 250,000 since a seven-mile stretch of a 12-foot-tall fence was built along the border there, according to refuge manager Michael Hawkes. No More Deaths is one of three Tucson-area groups that provide water for migrants, who die at the rate of about one per day while crossing the border.
Another group, Humane Borders, headed by Rev. Robin Hoover, has permits to maintain three permanent water stations – large barrels marked with blue flags – on the wildlife refuge. But No More Deaths members say placing water right on the trails is also crucial, since most migrants cross at night and might miss the flags that mark the three Humane Borders stations on the 118,000-acre refuge.
In February 2008, No More Deaths volunteer Daniel Millis found the body of a 14-year-old Salvadoran girl. (The cause of death is unclear.) Two days later he was cited for littering while leaving water jugs on trails. He refused to pay the $175 ticket.</em>
Amazing. Showing humanity is now punishable by fine and jail.
USA! USA! USA!
