decide whether the accused, members of the aid group No More Deaths, should be tried.
The group is led and supported by Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) members and congregations, among them Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, AZ.
Sellz and Strauss, who are not Presbyterians, were caught on July 9 by the U.S. Border Patrol while transporting three illegal entrants from the Arivaca, AZ, border area to Tucson for medical treatment.
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.
Federal prosecutors say 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.
No More Deaths said in a statement Thursday, “We are confident that we will prevail at trial, and we are calling on our community to come together to support Shanti and Daniel and the principle that humanitarian aid is never a crime.”
Presbyterian leaders in Arizona were instrumental in helping form the Tucson-based No More Deaths movement. For the past two summers, the group has provided food, water and basic medical care to illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico into the United States through Arizona’s treacherous desert borderlands.
Defense attorneys argue that the No More Deaths protocol is in keeping with federal law, which says it is illegal to assist “in furtherance” of someone’s illegal entry. They said No More Deaths had made 68 “medical evacuations” between Oct. 1, 2004, and Sept. 30, 2005, and the Border Patrol was aware of them.
Sellz and Strauss were en route to Southside Presbyterian Church when they were arrested.
Velasco said rendering aid in the desert is different from transporting illegal immigrants to a metropolitan area and releasing them.
“The issue, therefore, is whether the illegal aliens treated at Southside Presbyterian Church and thereafter allowed to melt into Tucson, Arizona, have been assisted ‘in furtherance’ of their illegal entry,” Velasco wrote. “The answer is yes.”
In response to the arrests of Sellz and Strauss, 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.
More than 2,000 individuals and organizations have endorsed the campaign, including Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Rick Ufford-Chase, moderator of the 216th General Assembly of the PC(USA), a founding member of No More Deaths.
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 PC(USA). 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 (PDA) to be in relationship with congregations and middle governing bodies in border areas to help migrants in life-threatening situations.
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