Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Rescuers had been warned, court hears
A.J. FLICK
Tucson Citizen
ADVERTISEMENT
Arizona's top border official warned humanitarians that they risked arrest if they transported illegal immigrants, according to a tape made three months before two volunteers were arrested.
Michael Nicley, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson sector, advised religious and humanitarian leaders April 21 to call border agents if they saw ailing illegal immigrants, according to the tape, which was played yesterday in U.S. District Court.
"If it's true that your mission is to get (illegal immigrants) help," Nicley said, "then get help.
"I'm telling ya, there's no special dispensation" if volunteers are arrested, Nicley said.
Shanti Sellz of Prescott and Daniel Strauss of Tucson, members of the humanitarian group No More Deaths, were arrested July 9 near Arivaca with three illegal immigrants in Sellz's car. Sellz and Strauss said they were driving the men to Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson because they were in severe medical distress.
Defense attorneys are asking that charges of transporting an illegal immigrant and conspiracy to transport an illegal immigrant be dismissed.
Border agents had never made such an arrest before, the attorneys told U.S. Magistrate Judge Bernardo P. Velasco, which led No More Deaths to believe the practice was approved. The humanitarian group also believed past border officials approved of the practice.
Sellz's attorney, William Walker, called Nicley's comments "ambiguous" because he thought volunteers would transport immigrants solely in need of drinking water.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Irene Feldman said No More Deaths' protocol does include a provision for transporting immigrants for "oral rehydration."
Last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, at least 279 illegal immigrants died in the southern Arizona desert.
Velasco will make a recommendation to U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins regarding the request to dismiss charges. Collins will decide whether Sellz and Strauss will stand trial.
