Presbyterian News Service
06278 May 19, 2006
Two desert aid workers go on trial Oct. 3
Presbyterians among groups supporting accused immigrant-smugglers
by Evan Silverstein
LOUISVILLE - A new trial date has been set for two volunteers of a faith-based humanitarian group who were arrested last summer and charged in Arizona with smuggling illegal immigrants.
Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss of the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths (http://www.nomoredeaths.org/) are scheduled for trial Oct. 3, according to the group and media reports. U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins will preside in the case.
Presbyterians in Arizona are active in the Tucson-based movement and were instrumental in forming the group. For the past two summers, the group has provided food, water and medical care to illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico into the United States through Arizona's treacherous desert borderlands.
"I would have hoped that the case would have been dismissed," said the Rev. John C. Matthew, a retired Presbyterian minister and No More Deaths volunteer. "I feel pretty positive about us being able to win the trial at this point."
Sellz and Strauss, both 24, were charged after U.S. Border Patrol agents stopped their car in the Arivaca, AZ, border area on July 9.
The two immigrant aid volunteers, who are not Presbyterian, told authorities they were taking three illegal immigrants to get medical assistance at Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson when they were arrested.
The aid workers said they followed the protocol recommended by No More Deaths by calling a doctor before deciding to take the men to Tucson.
Border Patrol officials said the entrants weren't in dire need of medical aid, and that Sellz and Strauss were unlawfully aiding their illegal entry into the United States.
In January, U.S. Magistrate Bernardo P. Velasco denied a request by defense attorneys to dismiss the immigrant-smuggling charges against Sellz and Strauss. The defendants turned down a plea agreement from the government last summer, arguing that saving lives is nothing to feel guilty about.
In response to the arrests of the two volunteers, No More Deaths launched a campaign it calls "Humanitarian Aid is Never a Crime." More than 30,000 petitions have been sent to U.S. prosecutor Paul Charlton, asking him to drop the charges. More than 7,000 yard signs have been distributed in southern Arizona, and the group has hosted several press conferences in which community leaders and groups have voiced support.
The 261-mile-long stretch of border in the Tucson sector is the nation's main corridor for illegal immigrants entering the United States. A sharp spike in deaths there in recent years has raised the concern of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). In 2003, the denomination's 215th General Assembly approved an overture calling for measures to prevent migrant-worker deaths in the borderlands.
The measure, submitted by the Presbytery de Cristo, which represents 30 Presbyterian churches in southern Arizona and western New Mexico, calls on Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (http://www.pcusa.org/pda) (PDA) to be in relationship with congregations and middle governing bodies in border areas to help migrants in life-threatening situations.