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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsArizona: Four women convicted after leaving food and water in desert for migrants
What kind of pos do you have to be to rule this way?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/19/arizona-four-women-convicted-after-leaving-food-and-water-in-desert-for-migrants?fbclid=IwAR2meymTgeInKwC7gGSJFFU80s6YYMBzL9f0GVjF36j16ahty7LQDmR3PDI
Arizona: Four women convicted after leaving food and water in desert for migrants
Federal judge finds activists guilty of entering a national wildlife refuge without a permit to give aid to migrants
Associated Press
Sat 19 Jan 2019 00.29 EST
A federal judge has found four women guilty of entering a national wildlife refuge without a permit as they sought to place food and water in the Arizona desert for migrants.
US magistrate Judge Bernardo Velascos ruling on Friday marked the first conviction against humanitarian aid volunteers in a decade.
The four found guilty of misdemeanours in the recent case were volunteers for No More Deaths, which said in a statement the group had been providing life-saving aid to migrants.
The volunteers include Natalie Hoffman, Oona Holcomb, Madeline Huse and Zaachila Orozco-McCormick.
Hoffman was found guilty of operating a vehicle inside Cabeza Prieta national wildlife refuge, entering the federally protected area without a permit, and leaving water jugs and cans of beans there in August 2017.
The others were found guilty of entering without a permit and leaving behind personal property.
Takket
(21,582 posts)That is 4 convictions for distribution of humanitarian aid and 0 so far for the guy who betrayed the country to Russia. Looking good USA!!!
sinkingfeeling
(51,464 posts)Ptah
(33,032 posts)
No More Deaths is an advocacy group based in Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona, United States that seeks to end the deaths of undocumented immigrants crossing the desert regions near the United States-Mexico border. Volunteers for the organization provide food, water, and medical aid to people crossing the US-Mexico border through the Arizona desert and offer humanitarian aid to people in Mexico who have been deported from the US.
History
No More Deaths was founded in 2004 by area religious leaders, including Catholic bishop Gerald Kicanas, Presbyterian minister John Fife, and leaders of the local Jewish community. The founders felt that there was a need for a constant presence on the border to aid migrants and end the increasing numbers of immigrant deaths. The Pima County Medical Examiner's Office recovered the bodies of an average of 160 migrants per year between 2000 and 2005, up from 14 per year in the 1990s.[2] The founders of No More Deaths cite Operation Gatekeeper as a major cause of the spike in deaths.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_More_Deaths
Also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_More_Deaths#Prosecution_of_No_More_Deaths_Volunteers
SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)Hermit-The-Prog
(33,373 posts)Enter the U.S. illegally is a misdemeanor, but ICE rips children from parents and cages people indefinitely for this. Remember that the next time you get a parking ticket.
mountain grammy
(26,630 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Don't they have better things to do than go after a bunch of harmless do-gooders?
pazzyanne
(6,556 posts)thesquanderer
(11,990 posts)I think we need the rest of the story.
The case came before the judge. The defendants WERE guilty of the charges. (The charges were not about helping migrants, they were about entering a wildlife refuge without a permit, etc.). If there was proof that they did these things, and these things are against the law, how could the judge rule any other way? What determines whether or not he is a POS would be what the sentence was. If he fined them a token amount, then he's a good guy. If he jailed them for 30 days, he's a POS.
lpbk2713
(42,761 posts)It's a sad commentary when a JUDGE rules against assisting other humans of all ages in peril.
We are truly in danger.
McKim
(2,412 posts)These heroines of honor deserve a collective name, and their stories need to be told and sent through all our media. I envision a poster and speaking engagements. This needs to be talked about in every meeting and every pulpit. Samaritans of the Desert?
IronLionZion
(45,466 posts)then they would be off scot free like the Ammon Bundy group that took over Malheur wildlife refuge in Oregon.
Or of they had trespassed in the refuge to cut down ancient endangered Joshua trees and dumped their garbage everywhere, then they would have never even been caught.
I see they did this in 2017. It might be better to do it now when the park rangers are furloughed.
elmac
(4,642 posts)They are trying to save lives and the prosecuting witnesses were lacking and few but the judge is a Nazi, just like tRump. By the way, they were on land that the orange hitlers SS rarely bother to patrol but went out of their way to harass this group.