Magistrate Judge Bernardo Velasco of U.S. District Court is considering whether Daniel Millis, 29, is guilty of littering in Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge by leaving the one-gallon plastic jugs filled with drinking water. Millis, who was raised Presbyterian but is no longer a church member, said he left the water jugs as part of his work with the Tucson, Ariz.-based No More Deaths organization.
The group, whose founders include two former Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly moderators, regularly helps undocumented border crossers by offering them food, water, and medical assistance.
The federal citation from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service amounts to a $150 fine, and a $25 processing fee. If Millis continues not to pay, he says he faces up to six months of jail time and/or a $5,000 penalty.
“Paying the ticket would be an admission of guilt,” Millis told the Presbyterian News Service by phone on Aug. 5. ”I feel littering is a crime, but I feel that humanitarian aid is never a crime. I don’t want to equate [No More Deaths’] humanitarian aid work with littering. I think that is false and unfair and would set a really bad precedent.”
Velasco postponed a decision on the case following two hours of testimony on July 25. About 80 supporters from No More Deaths crowded a small, standing-room-only federal courtroom in Tucson for the trial. A ruling is expected within the next 30 days.
At his arraignment, Millis entered a plea of not guilty to littering on the national wildlife refuge, which is a Class B misdemeanor.
After the hearing, No More Deaths released a statement that said, “We welcome the decision of the court and are hopeful that Magistrate Velasco will stand up for justice and the value of human life.”
Millis is a former Tucson high school Spanish teacher who is on a one-year sabbatical with No More Deaths, who resides in Tucson. He was cited Feb. 22 as he and three other volunteers with No More Deaths were placing the jugs on a trail in the refuge known to be heavily traveled by migrants who are illegally crossing into the United States from Mexico on foot.
Officials with the 118,000-acre refuge, which is situated along the border with Mexico within the Altar Valley, said at the time that they have an enormous problem with trash, caused mainly by the illegal entrants who regularly travel through, and it’s imperative they enforce littering laws. Ironically, Millis said, he was also picking up trash as he worked to place the jugs.
Millis said he was particularly compelled to offer the water aid after being among a group that two days earlier found the body of a 14-year-old girl from El Salvador who had died of exposure near Arivaca, Ariz., in an area about five miles from the refuge.
No More Deaths says its purpose is to eliminate the annual toll of people who die in Arizona’s treacherous desert borderlands while trying to make the trek into the United States.
Presbyterian leaders in Arizona were instrumental in helping form the humanitarian organization, which is led and supported by PC(USA) members and congregations, among them St. Mark’s Church and Southside Church, both in Tucson.
Founding members of the organization include John Fife, retired pastor of Southside Church who was General Assembly moderator in 1992, and Rick Ufford-Chase, the 2004 GA moderator who for years worked along the Arizona-Mexico border as a mission co-worker for the denomination. Ufford-Chase co-founded Borderlinks, an educational and advocacy organization along the border, about 20 years ago.
“Regardless of the outcome of this trial we’re going to continue our humanitarian aid work whenever and wherever it is needed, until there are no more deaths in the desert,” Fife said in a statement.
Millis, who is originally from Flagstaff, Ariz., is not the first No More Deaths volunteer to experience legal problems while working for the group.
Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss were arrested July 9, 2005, while evacuating three sick illegal immigrants from the Arizona desert to a medical clinic at Southside Church. If convicted, the two could have faced a 15-year jail sentence and $500,000 fine. A federal judge threw out the charges against them on Sept. 1, 2006 because, he said, the government had led the group to believe its members could transport ailing migrants.
