Humanitarian Who Placed Water on Wildlife Refuge Sentenced to Community Service : AZ IMC

Tucson, AZ: On Tuesday, August 11 No More Deaths volunteer Walt Staton was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and 1 year unsupervised probation by federal Magistrate Jennifer Guerin. Staton was convicted on June 3, 2009 for littering, after placing clean bottles of drinking water along known migrant trails in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (BANWR). Staton is also banned from entering the refuge for one year.

In response to the sentence, Bill Walker, Staton’s attorney, made the following statement:

“I think that the judge was very brave in not inflicting the kind of punishment that the U.S. attorney recommended. She didn’t impose a harsh fine, nor did she give 5 years probation, which is what they wanted. The U.S. Attorney’s office, on the other hand, was awful in the way they conducted themselves throughout the proceedings. They politicized this case, and made significant misrepresentations in their statements to the Court. They spent untold thousands of dollars prosecuting this case when they should be going after terrorists and others who threaten our communities. There is no reason for them to have gone after somebody who was simply doing humanitarian work, the way that they did.”

Staton, who is moving to the LA area next week to begin seminary school, stated that he will continue to support No More Deaths' life-saving work, and believes that both humanitarian groups and the government should pursue the most effective tactics possible to prevent needless suffering and death along the border.

"Before the sentencing this morning, I read a story in the local paper about another body of a migrant discovered in the desert. We have to continue working towards bringing these deaths to an end," Staton said.

Letters of support for Staton had been delivered to Magistrate Guerin from the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, Tucson Bishop Gerald Kicanas, and former U.S. Attorney Bates Butler, among others.

2009 is set to be one of the deadliest years on record along the Arizona-Mexico border. Already, the U.S. Border Patrol reports 161 migrant deaths in its Tucson sector. In the past week alone, 7 bodies of unauthorized migrants were recovered in southern Arizona.

Since 2001, officials at BANWR have systematically refused to approve permits that would allow humanitarian groups to provide adequate drinking water on the wildlife refuge. Following the July 9, 2009 citation of thirteen additional humanitarian volunteers, members of No More Deaths, Tucson Samaritans and Humane Borders have sat down with various officials, including Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, regional U.S. Fish and Wildlife director Chris Pease, and BANWR manager Mike Hawkes to attempt to resolve this impasse.

Since the mid-1990s, U.S. border policy has been focused on channeling unauthorized migration into remote and fragile desert areas. This has resulted in more than 5,000 deaths along the U.S./Mexico border, and damage to protected wildlife habitat. Volunteers from No More Deaths consistently work to mitigate the environmental impact of these policies, by incorporating trash cleanup into their regular patrols. Each year, No More Deaths removes hundreds of bags of trash from the southern Arizona desert.

While reading this article, I admit that I didn’t understand why they forbid these volunteers who is doing a humanitarian way of placing water on wildlife refuge to prevent deaths to the migrant. I do believe that this is their free will to save life and prevent this migrant to be dehydrated because of long-way run deserted place. Of course I know that this migrant might bring harm to US/Mexico state but still we need to be merciful. These drinking bottled of water doesn’t cost them to get cash advance but the life that they like to save is more important than material things. I just hope they will be considerate of this! Saving life is still the best way to show how much we value each other.

By leaving this water out they are helping and promoting illegal immigration , I wonder how many convected killers,Drug dealers , gang bangers, and people convicted of pedophilia have drank this water coming here to do it again .

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"By leaving this water out they are helping and promoting illegal immigration , I wonder how many convected killers,Drug dealers , gang bangers, and people convicted of pedophilia have drank this water coming here to do it again ."

Such a question was asked on a site whose very foundation is the Free Mumia type.

Soon I'll be just as unpopular as nessie to the psychopathic zionazi I always call Yada.
Warmth is in my heart.
But back on topic; how can capital be free to move across borders when the people are not.
End NAFTA & GATT and these people would gladly go to their real homes to work, raise their children and live.

Well, you are like nessie, after all. You're a brain dead bastard, a spammer who goes around the indymedias trying to shut them down with spam, such as you did with Cleveland, and you're also a NAMBLA goon, as evidenced by your actions when the pre-teen "editor" of LA spurned your advances, setting you off on your little escapade in Cleveland.

You know, like nessie always did. Either he got his way or the whole collective paid the price.

http://la.indymedia.org/news/hidden.php?id=230867

before they lock me out again with malware
by what? • Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009 at 7:56 PM

nice try.
This IMC needs what I've always said they needed and was told was in progress; was a
reason for hiding
open process so the staff would have to act in the open.
I, myself hide many posts like Bobby Meade johnny whizzard Yada the psychopath and other offensive, and wasted noise.
and trying to take the CIA out of al CIAda is pretty funny.
But dialogue is good.
Splatter, repetitious splatter, is not.