Samaritans Say They Haven’t Crossed a Line at the Border

The immigrant aid volunteers encountered three men wandering across the sun-baked desert hills here a few miles north of the Mexican border. The migrants, dehydrated from the 100-degree heat, were put in a car to be taken to a hospital in Tucson, the aid workers said.

It was a mission of mercy to volunteers Daniel Strauss and Shanti Sellz, both 23. But U.S. Border Patrol agents, who said they examined the immigrants and found them healthy, arrested the pair for alleged smuggling.

Strauss, a recent college graduate, and Sellz, a student from New Mexico, are charged with felonies in a case that highlights increasing tensions between immigrant aid groups and Border Patrol agents on the Arizona border, where a record 183 people have died trying to cross into the U.S. since October.

Aid workers may give migrants food and water but may not take them to the hospital, Border Patrol spokesman Gustavo Soto said. In medical emergencies, he said, aid workers must call 911 or summon agents.

“The Border Patrol has never told them that they can’t provide humanitarian aid,” Soto said. “But once they begin transporting the aliens in furtherance of their illegal entry, then they are breaking the law.”

Aid workers said the arrests marked a shift in Border Patrol tactics that could put migrants’ lives at risk. Volunteers for No More Deaths -- a coalition of church and human rights groups -- have been patrolling the desert for several years and have evacuated dozens of sick migrants to clinics or hospitals without being intercepted by Border Patrol, they said.

Now, agents regularly stop and look inside volunteers’ vehicles, which are marked with “Samaritan” signs on the door. They also watch their tarp-covered campsite every night from a nearby hill, the volunteers say.

Some volunteers -- who belong to a diverse group that includes middle-aged pastors and young college students -- say they are now reluctant to drive sick migrants to a hospital because they don’t want to face felony charges. But most said they wouldn’t hesitate.

Strauss’ and Sellz’s lawyers said prosecutors had offered to drop the charges in exchange for a guilty plea and a year of probation, but at a news conference Thursday in Tucson, Strauss and Sellz said they would reject the offer.

“We can’t stand by and watch others perish,” Sellz said.

The volunteers operate out of a small camp deep in the desert scrub along one of the busiest illegal immigration corridors in the U.S. Tens of thousands trudge north along mesquite-lined paths and rocky washes hoping to reach Tucson, 70 miles away.

The volunteers, carrying packs filled with food and water, look for migrants every day. Nurse volunteers bring medical supplies to treat common injuries: strained ankles, abrasions and severe dehydration.

“Hello. We are friends. We are not the law. We bring food, water and medical assistance,” yelled Sarah Roberts, a 49-year-old nurse, reciting the regular greeting in Spanish while walking through dense mesquite scrub.

On Thursday, a humanitarian patrol ran across 10 migrants sleeping under a makeshift shelter of branches and grass, some of the more than 1,800 migrants volunteers say they have assisted since opening the summer camp last year.

The aid workers treated the migrants’ blisters, giving them creams and ointment. When the volunteers returned with water, however, the migrants had left, fearing the Border Patrol.

In emergency situations, aid workers say, they call a nurse who decides whether hospitalization is needed. The volunteers say they have called the Border Patrol but that agents often take too long. Before transporting immigrants, the volunteers also call the organization’s lawyer.

Strauss and Sellz said they followed the same protocol when they were arrested July 9.

That day, aid workers said, they encountered nine immigrants walking in a wash near the camp. Six were healthy, but a father and son showed signs of severe dehydration, volunteers said. A third migrant, Emil Hidalgo-Solis, a 36-year-old bricklayer from Chiapas, according to his affidavit, said that his feet were covered in blisters and that he had been vomiting for three days after drinking contaminated water from a cattle trough.

With the three in the back of their red car, Strauss and Sellz were stopped by agents near the small town of Arivaca. That night they slept in the same detention center with other migrants, they said.

Two days later, nearly 200 fellow volunteers showed up at their hearing in a show of support. Strauss and Sellz were released by the judge, who rejected prosecutors’ arguments that they were a flight risk, according to the volunteers’ lawyers.

On some levels, Border Patrol agents understand the volunteers’ humanitarian efforts. Agents have helped the volunteers in searches for dead people. Others allow the volunteers to board detention buses and give immigrants food and water.

They say there are limits, however. One agent, who declined to give his name, said the volunteers often transported migrants who were not sick. “Basically, that means [the migrants] get a free ride to Tucson, and if they don’t get admitted at the hospital, they just walk out the door,” he said.

The three immigrants transported by Strauss and Sellz were not hospitalized, Border Patrol officials said. The father and son were deported, and Hidalgo-Solis is being held in a detention facility as a material witness in the case.

Aid workers deny that they transport migrants who are healthy. Lawyers for Strauss and Sellz said prosecutors would have a difficult time convincing a jury that it was illegal to give migrants a ride to the hospital. “The law doesn’t mean that you should choose to leave [migrants] there and die,” said Jeffrey J. Rogers, Strauss’ lawyer.

Times photographer Robert Gauthier contributed to this report.