July 25, 2005

Dear Chief Aguilar:

We are writing to express our deepest concern over the recent actions taken by the Border Patrol in the Tucson Sector against two volunteers with the No More Deaths Campaign. We support the humanitarian mission of No More Deaths, and fear that threats to their work will undermine their life-saving mission. We strongly urge you to recommend that the prosecutor drop charges against Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss for transporting undocumented migrants, and to end the harassment of the No More Deaths Campaign.

We recognize the importance of your leadership on this issue during your tenure as Tucson Sector Chief, and appreciate your role in helping formulate the protocols under which humanitarian groups have been operating in Arizona for the past several years. Under your tenure, the No More Deaths Campaign was allowed to carry out its life-saving work without interference from your officers. We ask that the Border Patrol continue to honor these protocols so that No More Deaths can continue its work.

Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss were arrested on July 9, 2005 after being stopped by Border Patrol Agents near Arivaca Road, south of Tucson, Arizona. They were arrested for transporting three undocumented migrants in need of medical attention. Earlier in the day, nine migrants sought medical attention at the No More Deaths Humanitarian Aid camp in that region. Three people in that group were suffering from vomiting, diarrhea, and one reported blood in their stool. It is likely that they drank contaminated water from a cattle tank while lost in the desert. The volunteers at the camp consulted medical personnel, and were advised to evacuate the three ill migrants to a medical facility. When Ms. Sellz and Mr. Strauss were detained by the Border Patrol, they were en route to a doctor in Tucson, Arizona. Ms. Sellz and Mr. Strauss have been charged each with a felony count of transporting undocumented migrants, and were released on bail after being held in detention for two days. They are now awaiting trial.

Ms. Sellz and Mr. Strauss are currently being held on charges of transporting undocumented migrants under a statute that prohibits the “furthering or abetting” of undocumented migration in to the U.S. We have serious doubts that providing emergency medical attention meets these criteria. Their goal was to save three lives, and no other. We would also contest the Border Patrol’s assertion that the three migrants in question were not in need of medical attention. The volunteers acted on the advice of a doctor, not on their own judgment. If a doctor determines that there is a risk to human life, all people, citizens or not, have a moral duty to act in a responsible manner to save those lives. We regret the Border Patrol’s decision to aggressively pursue this matter in a court of law, and strongly urge you to drop the charges against Ms. Sellz and Mr. Strauss.

We also recognize the chilling effect that taking aggressive actions like this can have on a volunteer-driven, humanitarian operation. In the words of Reverend J. Stuart Taylor of St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church in Tucson, “people are dying in the desert. This is no time to be shutting down a humanitarian effort.”

The work of No More Deaths is a just and moral response to the tragedy of migrant deaths in Arizona. Already, over 150 migrants have lost their lives this fiscal year in Arizona alone. By providing food and water, clothing and shelter, medical attention and spiritual support, No More Deaths is working to stop the hemorrhaging of human life at our border. Though they do not have the capacity to help every migrant in distress, there is no doubt in our minds that they have kept the migrant death toll from reaching even higher. Their work deserves praise, not persecution.

We lament every death that takes place border-wide each year and support efforts to prevent this unnecessary loss of life. With so many deaths plaguing the region this summer, we hope you will allow No More Deaths to continue its work in peace until a solution is found to end the ongoing tragedy at our border.

Sincerely,

Holly J. Thompson
No More Deaths
Tucson, AZ

Dr. Gabriela D. Lemus
League of United Latin American Citizens National Office
Washington, DC

Jennifer Allen
Border Action Network
Tucson, AZ

Jeanne A. Butterfield
American Immigration Lawyers Association
Washington DC

Enrique Morones
Border Angels
San Diego, CA

Dushaw Hockett
FAIR Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM)
Washington, D.C.

Fernando García
Border Network for Human Rights
El Paso, TX

Rev. Ron Stief
United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries
Washington, DC

Isabel Garcia
Coalición de Derechos Humanos/Alianza Indígena
Tucson, AZ

Rick Ufford-Chase,
Moderator of the 2004 General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Cecile Lumer, Ph.D.
Citizens for Border Solutions
Bisbee, AZ

Michele Waslin, Ph.D.
National Council of La Raza
Washington, DC

Dan Kesselbrenner
National Immigration Project of the
National Lawyers Guild
Boston, MA

Donna Staggs
The Fair Made Trading Company
Berkeley, CA

Katherine Hoyt
Nicaragua Network
Washington, DC

Rebecca Phares
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Justice and Peace/Integrity of Creation Office
Washington, DC

Dale Sorensen
Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas
Mill Valley, CA

Ruben García
Annunciation House
El Paso, TX

Patricia Davis
Guatemala Human Rights Commission
Washington, DC

Susan Thompson
Medical Mission Sisters Alliance for Justice
Washington, D.C.

Esther Pineda, CSJ
NETWORK, A National Social Justice Lobby
Washington, DC

Jorge Rogachevsky
Network in Solidarity with Guatemala
Washington, D.C.

Sarah Mertz
School of the Americas Watch
Washington, DC

The Rev. Mark S. Adams and the Rev. Jesus Gallegos Blanco
Frontera de Cristo, A Presbyterian Bi-national Ministry
Douglas, AZ/Agua Prieta, Sonora

Sr. Adrian Dover, O.P.
Houston Dominican Sisters
Houston, TX

Stanley DeVoogd
US Coordinator of Presbyterian Border Ministry.
San Antonio, TX

Rev. Peter C. Hinde
Carmelite Fathers of Chicago
El Paso, TX

John Lindsay-Poland, Coordinator
Fellowship of Reconciliation Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean
San Francisco, CA

Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory
Washington Office of the Presbyterian Church, (USA)
Washington, DC

Marie Denis
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Washington, DC

Mary Priniski, OP
Catholic Committee of the South
Alexandria, VA

Rev. Rachel Cornwell
Bethesda United Methodist Church
Bethesda, MD

Amy Woolam Echeverria
Columban Missionaries Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Office
Washington, DC

Angela Mejia
Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) -Houston Gulf Coast Chapter
Houston, TX

Rabbi Shena Potter
Temple Sinai
Washington, DC

Randy Hinthorn and Susie Hinthorn
Maryknoll Lay Mission Association of the Faithful
Oaxaca, Mexico

Kim Lamberty
Christian Peacemaker Teams Arizona
Chicago, IL

Nancy Bureson and Dick Bureson
Church Without Borders
San Diego, CA

Fr. Joseph Nangle, OFM
Franciscan Mission Service
Washington, DC

C. Richard Parkins
Episcopal Migration Ministries
New York, NY

Scott Wright
Religious Task force on Central America and Mexico
Washington, DC

Eun Sook Lee
National Korean American Service & Education Consortium
Los Angeles, CA

Carlos Marentes
Comité Pro-Amnistía General y Justicia Social / Committee for General Amnesty and Social Justice
Seattle, WA

Maria Luisa Bautista
Inmigrantes Latinos en Accion/Latino Immigrants in Action
Austin, TX

Rev. William J. Morton
Columban Mission at the US/Mexico Border
El Paso, TX

Carline Paul
Haitian American Youth of Tomorrow
Miami, FL

Laura A. Santa-Maria
Unite For Dignity- For Immigrant Workers Rights
Miami, Fl 3369

Angelica Salas
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

George S Johnson
Third World Opportunities
San Marcos, CA


This letter was sponsored by the Latin America Working Group. This letter endorsed by the signers, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of all LAWG coalition members. For more information, please contact Sean Garcia, Senior Associate for Mexico Policy, at the Latin America Working Group at 202.546.7010.