The Crime of Giving Water to Thirsty People

Daniel Millis, a volunteer with the faith-based organization No More Deaths, was arrested in 2008 for littering. His crime: leaving bottles of drinking water on trails near the Arizona-Mexico border so immigrants walking through the desert would not die of thirst.

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned Millis’ conviction, by a 2-1 vote. It was an important ruling. However the immigration debate works itself out, we do not want to be a country that puts humanitarians in prison for giving water to people dying of thirst.

What is disturbing, however, is how limited the court’s decision was. As a result, people can still be arrested for doing exactly what Millis did.

On Feb. 22, 2008, Millis and three colleagues were driving through the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in a Toyota 4Runner. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officers stopped them and spotted gallon-sized bottles of water. When the officers questioned him, Millis admitted that he and his friends had been placing plastic bottles of water along the refuge’s trails, adding that they were picking up discarded water bottles as well. Millis was doing his work as a volunteer for the group No More Deaths, a ministry of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson.  Read Article

By Adam Cohen