Three months after a jury acquitted him of felony charges of harboring undocumented immigrants, U.S. District Judge Raner Collins threw out the final remaining misdemeanor charge against Scott Daniel Warren, closing the Trump administration’s yearslong taxpayer-funded quest to criminalize the No More Deaths volunteer for his humanitarian work ensuring that migrants don’t die agonizing deaths in the searing southern-border desert.
“Collins granted a motion from U.S. prosecutors to dismiss the charge on Thursday,” The Arizona Republic reported, as Warren was going to be sentenced for the final charge of driving in a wildlife area. His attorney, Greg Kuykendall, wasn’t able to find out why, with the judge “adjourning the hearing after about five minutes,” The Arizona Republic continued. "This case has gone [on] for two and a half years, and it ended with the government throwing in the towel at the very last second," Kuykendall said. "Why any of us taxpayers should be paying for that kind of legal representation is a reasonable question."
But the federal government certainly had no qualms about spending our money and taking years to criminalize Warren and other No More Death volunteers—and using them as an example that you too may be punished for trying to be a decent human being to brown people. The government actually sought to imprison Americans for conducting humanitarian work but appeared to do nothing about the fact that Border Patrol agents were exposed on tape by No More Deaths gleefully destroying lifesaving supplies such as jugs of water. Rather than addressing this culture of violence and death within Border Patrol, the government instead targeted Warren and other humanitarians.
But, in what has felt so rare these days, justice has at least for now been on the side of these workers. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez reversed the convictions of four workers who had been charged along with Warren, ruling, “Defendants argue that those actions, taken with the avowed goal of mitigating death and suffering, were sincere exercises of religion and that their prosecution is barred by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” Márquez’s ruling, noting the thousands of sets of human remains that have been found in Arizona during the past two decades, further castigated the government for “gruesome logic.”
"The government seems to rely on a deterrence theory, reasoning that preventing clean water and food from being placed on the refuge would increase the risk of death or extreme illness for those seeking to cross unlawfully, which in turn would discourage or deter people from attempting to enter without authorization,” Márquez wrote. “In other words, the government claims a compelling interest in preventing Defendants from interfering with a border enforcement strategy of deterrence by death. This gruesome logic is profoundly disturbing."
The Arizona Republic cautioned, though, that the four workers “still face some degree of uncertainly about their cases,” because the federal government may decide it hasn’t yet caused enough harm and appeal Márquez’s decision to a higher court. "We're still in the process of evaluating whether we want to take an appeal. I certainly disagreed with that ruling," U.S. District Attorney Michael Bailey said. But as we’ve said before, and will continue to say, humanitarian aid is not a crime.
Following the dismissal of the charge against Warren, advocates pledged to continue their work, tying the prosecution of volunteers with anti-immigrant and anti-asylum policies overall. “As we speak, thousands are stuck along the border due to the disastrous Remain in Mexico Policy,” said No More Deaths’ Paige Corich-Kleim. “In the interior, the Trump administration has also promised to use SWAT-like teams aided by Border Patrol, to enforce immigration … we celebrate another victory today, and we celebrate the overwhelming support of our southern Arizona community, but this is not over. We will continue to find ways to intervene and reduce harm in the borderlands.”
“I hope that No More Deaths is no longer going to be targeted anymore,” Kuykendall said. “There’s certainly no reason for people of conscience trying to save lives in an environment where the government has intentionally weaponized the desert and people are losing their lives in droves, there’s certainly no reason why the government would target people like No More Deaths.”