Is humanitarian aid really "littering"?

Is humanitarian aid really "littering"?
Michael Wolcott | Jun 09, 2009 11:10 AM


In summer, the southern Arizona desert is among the most merciless environments on earth. Temperatures spike at 120 degrees. Shade is scarce. Each year hundreds of undocumented migrants die trying to walk north from Mexico.

The grisly accounts of survivors and the quickly-mummified evidence on the ground suggest that a cooked brain and water-starved sensory neurons must know something of hell. The mouths stuffed with rocks, the claw marks--it happens. There are files.

For the past five years, the Tucson-based humanitarian group, No More Deaths, has worked to reduce such misery by providing migrants with food, medical care, and--most importantly--emergency water. The group has a bumper sticker: “Humanitarian aid is never a crime.”

Maybe that bumper sticker should read “almost never”: two No More Deaths volunteers, Walt Staton and Dan Millis, have been convicted of littering--for leaving drinking water in the desert.

Staton, 27, was found guilty on June 3 of littering federal property after he admitted to leaving jugs of drinking water on migrant trails that cross the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. He faces up to one year in prison and a $10,000 fine when he is sentenced on August 11. Millis, who was convicted in a similar case last September, has appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court. Staton also plans an appeal.

more...

http://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/blog_post.2009-06-08.4688664953

That is so nasty. His attorney said he plans to appeal the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Good on him!


TUCSON — A Tucson man has been convicted of littering on federal land but says he'll continue to leave water out for illegal immigrants walking through the Arizona desert.
"We're committed to our humanitarian efforts," said Walt Staton, who was found guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court of knowingly littering on a national wildlife refuge.
Staton, 27, is a Web designer and volunteer with humanitarian group No More Deaths.
He was cited Dec. 4 for littering when U.S. Border Patrol agents spotted him placing unopened gallon containers of water in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge southwest of Tucson.
Staton faces up to one year in prison and a $10,000 fine when he is sentenced Aug. 11.
His attorney said he plans to appeal the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/aplittering06-04-09.htm

this shit happens.