The two No More Deaths videos that I shared yesterday end with a call to action.
We conclude that these deadly practices cannot be dismissed at the misguided behavior of a few rogue agents. Rather, the culture of the U.S. Border Patrol both authorizes and normalizes such acts of cruelty.
Consequently, we recommend the U.S. Border Patrol designate the destruction of humanitarian aid supplies and the obstruction of aid efforts a fireable offense.
We call for the establishment of policy guidelines prohibiting this destruction.
We call upon the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to open inquiries into these practices.
And finally, because we recognize that humanitarian aid ameliorates but does not solve the crisis caused by militarized borders, we call on Customs and Border Protection to permanently dismantle the U.S. Border Patrol.
It comes as no surprise that the U.S. government did not respond to these calls by dismantling the Border Patrol.
The Border Patrol did appear to respond, however—by retaliating against their aid operations.
No More Deaths released that video and the accompanying report just over a year ago, in January 2018. “Hours after the report was published, one of the group’s organizers was arrested in a remote area of Arizona, along with two undocumented immigrants, and hit with felony charges.”
…that’s per the Intercept’s coverage at the time. Here’s more from the same article:
NINE HUMANITARIAN ACTIVISTS FACE FEDERAL CHARGES AFTER LEAVING WATER FOR MIGRANTS IN THE ARIZONA DESERT
Ryan Devereaux
The Intercept
January 23 2018, 6:39 p.m.
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/23/no-more-deaths-arizona-border-littering-charges-immigration/
“They’re definitely connected,” said William G. Walker, a Tucson-based attorney who has represented No More Deaths volunteers for more than a decade and is currently providing counsel to the latest round of defendants. No More Deaths has maintained “a cooperative, working relationship with both the Border Patrol and the U.S. attorney’s office,” Walker said in an interview before Tuesday’s court hearing. The activities the volunteers are accused of taking part in, the attorney explained, are activities the organization has “been engaged in for the last several years.”
“Border Patrol — and the U.S. attorney — knows about the activities, has surveilled the activities, has permitted the activities, has recognized that we’re out there helping to save lives,” Walker said. “And now all of the sudden it’s all changed.”