Volunteers fined for leaving water for border crossers

Thirteen members of humanitarian organizations received fines for littering earlier this month after putting gallon water jugs along the Arizona border with Mexico, intended for undocumented immigrants entering the country. The people were issued citations in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, which stretches 30 miles north of the border in southern Arizona, near the town of Arivaca. The refuge has been identified as an active corridor for migrants. Members of three humanitarian groups - No Más Muertes (No More Deaths), Samaritanos de Tucson (Tucson Samaritans) and Fronteras Humanas (Humane Borders) - tried to place gallons of drinking water in four specific points of the corridor at a time when forecasts had temperatures reaching 110. No Más Muertes developed a program in which gallon jugs were left in large numbers at specific points with the date and GPS coordinates written on the side. The volunteers said they checked the locations weekly to replace the used gallons and to collect any discarded bottles and other garbage...YumaSun