Scott Daniel Warren, 35, with the group No More Deaths, faces a federal charge of harboring two people in the country illegally. His arrest last week came after Border Patrol agents conducted surveillance on a building where two immigrants were given food, water, beds and clean clothes, according to federal court records.
Group volunteer Caitlin Deighan stopped short of calling the arrest retaliation but said it looks suspicious to have charged Warren so close to the release of the videos.
“We see it as an escalation and criminalization of aid workers,” Deighan said Monday.
The Border Patrol didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
William Walker, an attorney for Warren, said his client’s actions were not criminal.
“This is a humanitarian aid worker trying to save lives,” Walker said.
No More Deaths last week gave news organizations videos taken between 2010 and 2017, mostly by cameras at its desert camp. In one clip, a Border Patrol agent kicked over five water jugs meant to supply immigrants. In another, an agent pours gallons of water on the ground.
In 2005, two group volunteers were arrested after they drove three immigrants from a desert location to a Tucson church to get medical attention from a doctor and nurse. The indictment was eventually dismissed by a federal judge.
No More Deaths is a coalition of religious organizations, human rights advocates and individuals who provide food, water and medical assistance to immigrants crossing the Arizona desert from Mexico.
Immigrants who sneak into the United States through that terrain face many dangers, including walking for several days in the scorching heat.
Thousands have died crossing the border since the mid-1990s, when heightened enforcement in San Diego and El Paso, Texas, pushed traffic into Arizona’s deserts. In recent years, south Texas has become the busiest corridor for illegal crossings and also the most deadly.
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Follow Jacques Billeaud at www.twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud . His work can be found at https://www.apnews.com/search/jacques%20billeaud.
So very very KKKrischun.
Like I’ve said before, it doesn’t take a fucking genius to know that the very very first place to start looking for all the racist, white nationalist would-be fascists in our gov’t is ICE and border patrol.
"We must kill them to save their lives."™
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ymKcsNIMUI— Border Patrol, Motto for the New Era
35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
— Quaint verses from The Holy Bible, Matthew 25:35-40 New International Version (NIV)
Nothing funnier than watching children die of thirst next to empty water jugs.
Unless, of course, it’s watching their mothers die along with them.
Today’s GOP: The Party of Life.
(Did I mention that 80% of “white evangelicals” voted for Trump?)
Jesus SAVES! (If you’re white)
WWJD isn’t operative anymore.