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No More Deaths volunteer Walt Staton labels a jug of water for migrants in this file photo.

The Catholic Sun has been reporting on the efforts of No More Deaths for a few years now. No More Deaths is a humanitarian organization of volunteers that provide food and medical assistance to immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

I learned yesterday that Walt Staton, a volunteer that’s been a source for our stories, will be arraigned in federal court Feb. 9 on littering charges.

Throughout the winter, No More Deaths volunteers had been servicing “supply drop points” along migrant trails in the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona. The group leaves behind for migrants in the hopes that the fewer would die while crossing the border.

“We put out gallon jugs of water in areas we know migrants are traveling,” said Staton, a certified Wilderness First Responder. “Since we began doing this, we have received many testimonies from people who thought they were going to die, and then they found our jugs.”

Then, on Dec. 4, Stanton and three others received littering tickets by a Fish and Wildlife Service officer, but only Staton is being prosecuted.

I don’t know what will come of this, but I do know that every time I’ve reported on No More Deaths volunteers, they always picked up trash as they walked the desert. It seems odd to get a littering citation when your intention is to help a fellow human being that could be dying.

Here’s some of our past No More Deaths coverage:

• 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)
• Photos on flickr

Blogs:

• No More Deaths: ‘Our system is broken’
• No More Deaths volunteer cited for littering
• Border deaths drop

The No More Deaths press release follows:
Two volunteers with the humanitarian aid organization No More Deaths were given littering tickets by a Fish and Wildlife Service officer Thursday, December 4. Two students from the University of Arizona also received the citation while accompanying the volunteers for a class project.

At a brief meeting with US Attorneys at the federal courthouse Wednesday, February 4, attorney Bill Walker learned that the government decided not to prosecute three of the volunteers. The fourth, Walt Staton, will be arraigned in federal court on Monday, February 9.

Throughout the winter, No More Deaths volunteers service supply drop points along trails migrants often use when crossing the harsh desert regions along the border. Since 1995, more than 5,000 bodies of migrants have been recovered from along the border – most dying from a combination of exposure, heat and dehydration.

“We put out gallon jugs of water in areas we know migrants are traveling,” said Walt Staton, a certified Wilderness First Responder. “Since we began doing this, we have received many testimonies from people who thought they were going to die, and then they found our jugs,” he said.

It is impossible to carry enough water to stay hydrated for the entire journey, so many migrants resort to refilling jugs from stagnant cattle ponds and other contaminated sources. Bacteria in the water can cause severe cramping, diarrhea and vomiting, which can immobilize a person and is a sure death sentence in the remote Sonoran desert.

“We often find discarded jugs with green-colored water near the spots where we leave our clean water,” Staton said, suggesting that migrants traded in their contaminated jugs for the drinking water No More Deaths puts out.

Officer Casey from Fish and Wildlife Service approached the volunteers around 2:00 pm near mile marker 7 on Arivaca Road West, just after they completed their final drop location. Accompanied by a Border Patrol agent, T. Collins, Casey made the volunteers hike four-tenths of a mile to a spot where they left eight sealed one-gallon jugs of water and carry them back to the road, where he confiscated the water. He also seized another six gallons from the volunteers’ vehicle.

The volunteers had picked up a dozen empty bottles to recycle. Those were also taken by FWS.

No More Deaths volunteers regularly clean up more used jugs and other trash than what they put out. During the summer, they bleach, rinse and reuse hundreds of jugs per month to cut down on the trash and costs. Jugs which are too old or leaking are brought to recycling bins in Tucson.

“I remember my first experience with No More Deaths in the summer of 2004,” recalls Staton. “We were down in Arivaca Wash looking for people in distress, only about a mile from where I just got this citation, picking up trash.”

Last February, Dan Millis, also a No More Deaths volunteer, received an identical citation. Millis also fought the charges and requested a hearing before a judge. He was found guilty of littering in September by Magistrate Bernie Velasco. An appeal to the ruling has been filed in the federal District court.