Street roots., June 26, 2009, Page 10, Image 10

10
Street ro o ts lIB
Education * Dialogue* Independence
Groups helping immigrants survive face legal penalities
BY VALERIA FERNANDEZ
Death tolls
rise in desert
as government
cracks down
on efforts to
provide aid
Hawkes said garbage left by migrants
during their trek has been a challenge for
Arivaca, Ariz. —
preserving the 117,000 acres refuge. He
umanitarian aid groups trying to
believes Border Patrol beacons, which allow
avert migrant deaths on the U.S-
migrants to call for rescue, are more
Mexico border are facing increased
effective than putting water.
roadblocks in their mission. The hazards are
The refuge currently allows for at least
not connected to a spike in drug cartels’
two water stations set up in the area by
violence, but rather restrictions from the
another volunteer group. But Jonston
federal govemment.-
argues that’s not nearly enough.
Transporting a migrant in despair to a
During the summer, temperatures reach
hospital could mean a volunteer is Charged
up to 115 F (45 C) in the desert. Drinking
with human smuggling. A simple act of
as much as a gallon of water per hour might
kindness like leaving water in the desert can be necessary to survive, said Mario
be subject to penalties as well.
Escalante', a spokesperson for the Tucson
* “We’re being intimidated and criminalized Border Patrol.
as humanitarians,” said Walt Staton, a :
• “Most of the people attempting to cross
27-year-old volunteer with No More Deaths,
don’t have a clue where they’ are. They’ve
a humanitarian aid group.
never been here before,” said Escalante.
Staton knows this firsthand. He was
Smugglers lie to migrants, giving them
convicted on Jun. 3 by a 12-person jury of
the/false hope that they’ll find water in the
“knowingly littéring” for leaving unopened
desert, he said. It’s not uncommon for them
water jugs on the Buenos Aires National
to abandon migrants to their own lack, he
Wildlife Refuge southwest of Tucson,
added.
Arizona.
Camila Chigo, 24, was barely conscious
Arizona, the main gateway for
when the Border Patrol found her on a side
undocumented migration into the U.S., is
road. The migrant from Chiapas, Mexico,
ground zero to a human rights crisis,
was lost and alone for four days and later
according to border activists. In thé
spent three days hospitalized*for heatstroke.
summer, triple-digit temperatures in the
“I almost died,” said Chigo, who spoke
remote Sonoran desert have caused a
with IPS in a migrant shelter after being
deadly toll.
deported to Nogales, Sonora. Her arms
Over the past decade, it is estimated that
revealed scars and scratches from the
at least 5,000 men, women and children
desert vegetation.
have lost their lives attempting to cross the
Humanitarian activists claim that the
U.S-Mexico border.
increased fortification of the border through
No More Deaths (NMD) has been *
the construction of à fence and deployment
providing help in the form of water and food of manpower is to blame for stories like
to migrants. This June, for the sixth
Chigo’si
consecutive year, they set up a campsite 24
“The border has been built in the most,
kms from the border with volunteers from
intentional way to use the desert as a
all over the country.
deterrent, as a weapon that has cost
Water can be a Jifesaver in some of the
thousands of lives,” said Staton.
most remote areas of the treacherous
And extreme heat is not the only threat
Sonoran desert, explained Steve Jonston,
to their lives. As the business of human
64, a volunteer with NMD.
smuggling is getting more lucrative,
•
Daily, volunteers sèt up hundreds of
migrante are often subject to kidnappings
gallon-sized water containers at drop points
and women are exposed to sexual abuse and
in some of the most heavily transited
tape by border bandits.
migrant trails. Once the jugs have been
Yet the Border Patrol in Tucson cités a
used, they recycle them.
decrease in She number of arrests this fiscal
By the time some of the migrants find
year — which began in October 2008 — as a
them, thèy have spent from three to four
sign of success of the border strategy.
days lost in the desert, Jonston said.
Apprehensions are down from 235,800 in
“Toticket Walt Staton for littering would
2008 to 164,600 on 2009.
be to ticket’ an ambulance for speeding,” he
The death toll on the 262 miles of the
told IPS.
Tucson border has increased from 79
But not everybody agrees on the
fatalities in 2008 to 83 this year.
approach.
“The migrant death rate is going up. It’s
“There’s other ways it can be done,” said
not necessarily the total number of deaths,
Michael Hawkes,' elected director and
its the ratio of the number of people that
manager of the Buenos Aires Refuge. “Just
are crossing and dying,” said Rev. Robin
leaving the jugs there is like leaving trash, it Hoover, president of Humane. Borders, a
is like a McDonald’s happy meal in front of
humanitarian group that provides water in
your yard, it is trash.”
die desert ât 102 water stations.
STREET N E W S SERVICE
H
Hoover claims increased enforcement is
pushing people into more desolate areas,
making it harder to reach.them with aid;
One of these main pointe is the Tohono
O’odham nation land.
Mike Wilson, a Native American who has
been leaving water tanks in the reservation,
said that recently, tribal police officers told
him to take them down.
“I respectfully declined,” said Wilson, only
to find out later that somebody had taken
them away. Now he’s substituting them with
gallon jugs.
Humanitarian aid volunteers claim things
have gotten more difficult in the last four
years.
In 2005, volunteers Shanti Sellz and
Daniel Strauss were accused of human
smuggling after attempting to transport a
group of injured migrants to the hospital.
The charges against them were later
dropped. Their case was the catalyst for
launching a campaign to bring awareness
called “Humanitarian aid is not a Crime.”
Staton’s is not the first case to go to
court for littering charges.
In 2008, Dan Millis another NMD
volunteer found the body of a 14-year-old girl
from El Salvador in the desert. Motivated
by the tragedy, two days later Millis was
leaving water jugs around the migrant trails
where he found her and was ticketed by the
-U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He refused
tp pay the 175-dollar fine and fought the
littering misdemeanor charge on the |
grounds that humanitarian aid is not a
crime.
The U.S federal attorney’s office would
not comment on Staton’s case since his
sentencing is pending for Aug. 4. He could
face one year in jail or up to 10,000 dollars
in fines.
v
Walt Staton, a
volunteer with No
More Deaths, was
convicted for
“knowingly
littering” a
national refuge by
leaving water
bottles for border
crossers.
( N I C K O Z A /IP S )
Courtesy o f Inter Press Service © Street
News Service: www.street-papers.org
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