Man Arrested for Leaving Food and Water for Migrants in Arizona Desert

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/28/725716169/extending-zero-tolerance-to-people-who-help-migrants-along-the-border

by _bxg1 • 7 years ago

28 26 7 years ago

npr.org

_bxg12• 7 years ago

Donation page:

http://forms.nomoredeaths.org/drop-the-charges-against-dr-sc...

rwoodley• 7 years ago

What's wrong with this government? The policy in these cases amounts to this: 'We will kill illegal immigrants'.

hprotagonist5• 7 years ago

This has an old, ugly history. We are pretty much exactly recapitulating actions taken against religious leaders who were doing these things in the early 80s, and who were prosecuted under Reagan. They won by losing, then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_movement

DanBC• 7 years ago

I found this radio documentary about The Missing Migrants Project interesting. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01v5sq8

In Pima County, Tucson, anthropologist Robin Reineke works on identifying the deceased, piecing together clues found among the personal effects found on the decomposed bodies found in the desert. Her goal is to trace the dead migrant's family to inform them of their relative’s fate, and ultimately return the body home for burial.

taylodl• 7 years ago

Some communities have made it a crime to feed homeless people. I like the angle of "sincere religious beliefs" - I think the Religious Right have no idea of the scope of the can of worms they've opened with that clause. Talk about your unintended consequences...

hprotagonist5• 7 years ago

https://www.cnn.com/2014/11/04/justice/florida-feeding-homel...

The game of nonviolent civil disobedience becomes "make the government arrest people who obviously shouldn't be arrested for doing things that nobody should be arrested for, and make them do it on the national news, over and over until this changes"

90 year old vets, priests, monks, nuns, rabbis, imams, children, mothers with babies. The more dignified-looking and able to remain composed under pressure, the better.

Nothing in US law specifically prevents the FBI from dragging sanctuary claimants out of church basements. It happened, in Vietnam protests. It proved to be counterprodutive because it was so obviously immoral and it was done with a news team on the premises.

umeshunni4• 7 years ago

Aiding and abetting criminals is a crime. Whodathunk?

hprotagonist5• 7 years ago

Seeking asylum is not a criminal act, and is protected by federal and international law.

lykr0n2• 7 years ago

Seeking asylum at a port of entry is not a criminal act. Running across a border is not seeking asylum.

umeshunni4• 7 years ago

2 million people running across the border each year aren't 'asylum seekers' - it is mass illegal economic migration.

mcphage• 7 years ago

What a world you live in: human compassion is a labeled a crime, and your response is "that's fine".

RegBarclay• 7 years ago

If I see someone in distress, am I supposed to interrogate them before rendering aid?

lykr0n2• 7 years ago

harboring, sheltering

Harboring someone who is actively breaking the law doesn't seem that controversial.

leaving food and water

Littering and providing assistance to someone breaking the law.

mcfunk• 7 years ago

I think a human carcass that could have been saved with food or water is much more offensive litter than a water bottle, but YMMV.

eesmith2• 7 years ago

There's legal, and there's moral.

It was illegal to harbor fugitive slaves.

It was moral to break that law.

If you think the issue is that clear-cut, you end up on the side of slavers.

umeshunni4• 7 years ago

It cuts both ways -

It's illegal to harbor rapists, murderers, drug smugglers and sex traffickers.

If you think that's legal, you're on the side of rapists, murderers, drug smugglers and sex traffickers.

ASalazarMX2• 7 years ago

Read the sheltering charges. They are probably cherry-picked, but even so, they are ridiculous and never should have merited arrests. These are good people being harassed for not looking the other way while human beings needlessly die in the desert.

These immigrants are breaking your laws and it's understandable if they aren't accepted, but waiting for them to die crosses the line into evil. Sometimes the moral alternative is illegal, but that doesn't make it wrong.

_bxg12• 7 years ago

Not sure why this got flagged. It's not directly political, it's a human rights issue.

Gibbon1• 7 years ago

Oh you know exactly why this got flagged.

ASalazarMX2• 7 years ago

I'm not sure about why either. It did occur to me that it could be racism/nationalism, but I'm not used to see that here, so I dismissed it and kept wondering why.

Man Arrested for Leaving Food and Water for Migrants in Arizona Desert

Related Stories