Group: Border Patrol agents destroy immigrant aid in Arizona desert
Jan 17, 2018, 5:41 PM | Updated: Jan 19, 2018, 8:54 am
PHOENIX — A humanitarian group has accused Border Patrol agents of destroying items left in the Arizona desert to help those entering the country illegally survive the brutal journey.
The group, No More Deaths, posted a video made up of several clips to its Facebook page. It appeared to show agents emptying water jugs and confiscating blankets near Arivaca, Arizona between 2010 and 2017.
“Get a good shot,” a man appearing to wear a Border Patrol uniform who was emptying water jugs said at one point in the video. “(I’m) picking up this trash that somebody left on the trail.”
In a report, No More Deaths alleged the agency has destroyed more than 3,500 gallon jugs of water left for illegal immigrants.
“No More Deaths demands an immediate end to the destruction and confiscation of humanitarian aid supplies,” the group wrote on social media. “We demand that the Border Patrol institute a formal policy prohibiting the destruction of humanitarian aid supplies, and make this act a fireable offense.”
Christopher Sullivan, a Border Patrol spokesman, said some of the agents in the video were “given corrective actions” but the agency had not seen some of the clips prior to them being posted.
Sullivan said the agency does not support the actions of the agents.
“Border Patrol agents are instructed to not remove, destroy or tamper with any items left along the trail,” he said, adding the agency teaches agents to both enforce laws and work as first responders to help people.
“We see people coming across the border as human beings,” he said. “We don’t care what crimes they committed, what country they’re from — if someone needs help, we’re going to do our job to make sure that person lives another day.”
Sullivan asked people who have similar videos to come forward immediately so the agents can be corrected.
Longtime South Arizona activist John Fife, a No More Deaths co-founder, said the group and the Border Patrol reached an agreement in 2014 that said officials would not tamper with the humanitarian aid the organization left at its desert camp, mostly jugs of water and medical supplies.
Fife is a former Presbyterian minister who was active in the sanctuary movement that provided shelter to Central Americans fleeing civil war in the 1980s.
But he said that understanding fell apart last summer when the agency raided the camp while volunteers were providing medical aid to four migrants and arrested the men who had entered the United States illegally.
Even if people enter the U.S. illegally, “there are international standards that must be respected when it comes to human rights and humanitarian aid,” Fife said.
Alicia Dinsmore, a volunteer with No More Deaths, said crossing into the United States has been more perilous since Border Patrol increased enforcement in places that are easier to cross, which drives illegal immigrants into rougher terrain.
“Prior to the 2000s, human remains were found, on average, once a month of someone who was crossing the border and now the average is once every three days,” she said.
KTAR News’ Martha Maurer and Ashley Flood and the Associated Press contributed to this report.