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TUCSON – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement officers charged a humanitarian aid volunteer with littering after he left jugs of water in the desert for immigrants crossing the Arizona-Mexico border illegally.

No More Deaths volunteer Dan Millis has entered a plea of not guilty for the Class B misdemeanor of littering on a national wildlife refuge. He faces a maximum penalty of six months in jail and/or $5,000 in fines.

“I didn’t pay the ticket because I’m not guilty,” Millis said. “Littering is a crime; humanitarian aid is not.”

The Arizona Daily Star reported that Judge Bernardo Velasco will decide if the water jugs Millis left in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge constitute litter. According to No More Deaths, Millis and three other humanitarian aid volunteers were picking up trash and leaving jugs of drinking water along border trails in Brown Canyon north of Sasabe Feb. 22.

Millis, who has volunteered with No More Deaths since 2005, has previously brought groups of high school students to the border to pick up trash.  He coordinated an educational partnership with the Leave No Trace program and currently coordinates No More Deaths’ participation in the Pima County Adopt-a-Roadway program.

“I felt especially compelled to leave drinking water out that day, because only two days earlier I found the body of a young girl in the desert.  She was only fourteen,” Millis said.  “It was heartbreaking.”

During the 2007 fiscal year, 238 migrants were found dead in the Arizona borderlands. During the summer of 2007, No More Deaths reported encountering 388 migrants along the border, including 27 women, 14 children, and one pregnant 17-year-old. Many required serious medical attention.

“The Samaritans and No More Deaths have been working in Brown Canyon for several years. We’ve never had a problem like this before,” Millis said.

The Catholic Sun has reported on No More Deaths in the past. In the July 6, 2006 issue, we ran a story with Millis as a source.

I was impressed, while reporting on the story, that the group picked up so much trash. The day I walked with the group, the four young adults filled two trash bags.

That day Millis came across a child’s backpack in an area strewn with empty water bottles, clothes and shoes. He inspected it for identification papers, as is the group’s practice, but found a pair of adult socks instead.

“They just leave their things behind on their journey,” he said then. “The extra weight is a lot in this heat.”

(Caption for photo above: No More Deaths volunteers Dan Millis, Katie Resendic, Micah McCoy and Dave Andrew map a patrol through the Arizona desert in search of migrants in distress.)

Additional No More Deaths stories in The Catholic Sun:

• Dangers along the road less traveled (Sept. 20, 2007)
• Humanitarian group works with Border Patrol (July 6, 2006)
• Amid desert dangers, humanitarian group works to save lives (Aug. 18, 2005)

-JD