Border Volunteer 'Littering' Conviction Overturned

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Adam Aguirre (520) 240-1641 daytime or evening

              Dan Millis (928) 821-0331 daytime or evening   

September 2, 2010

“Littering” Conviction of Border Volunteer Overturned by Appeals Court

 

 Las Vegas, NV- In a 2-1 decision the United States 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals today overturned the conviction of a humanitarian activist for “littering” near the U.S. border with Mexico, stating that the clean bottles of drinking water placed on known migrant trails could not be considered “garbage” due to their intended purpose of preventing death-by-exposure. 

 Dan Millis, a volunteer with the faith-based organization No More Deaths, had been convicted in September 2008 for placing such water in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (BANWR), in the middle of one of the highest corridors of death along the Arizona border.

 In response to today’s ruling Millis stated “I continue to be saddened by the ongoing tragedy along the border; but I am pleased and relieved that the Court has finally made clear that humanitarian aid is never a crime.”

 On February 22, 2008 – two days after finding the body of a 14-year-old girl from El Salvador – Millis became the first humanitarian to be ticketed for littering near the border.  In the months that followed his conviction refuge officials ticketed seventeen additional volunteers for attempting to provide water on BANWR. Although sixteen of these cases were later dropped, No More Deaths volunteer Walt Staton was convicted of a more severe littering charge in August 2009.

 This year alone more than 214 human remains have been recovered from the southern Arizona desert, putting 2010 on track to be the deadliest year on record along the Arizona / Mexico border.  Last month, BANWR officials rejected a permit request from No More Deaths and Samaritans to legally place water at designated sites on the wildlife refuge.  This permit application had been negotiated with refuge managers during the course of the previous year, and they had provisionally agreed to its content.  Officials have refused to permit new water stations on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge since 2001.

 For more information, please visit www.nomoredeaths.org, write us at media@nomoredeaths.org, or call (520) 240-1641