Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Part Four of Five

     LUKEVILLE, Ariz. — Monica Zavala and Chris Risley-Curtiss worked together to fill a 65-gallon water barrel atop a wooden platform at the edge of a desert
trail in the rugged Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument here.
     The barrel sits under a bright blue flag, hoisted some 30 feet in the air, and the two women hope it will be spotted by at least some of the 50,000 illegal
immigrants who cross this desolate and dry border region daily, headed into the United States.
     Miss Zavala and Miss Risley-Curtiss are part of a growing cadre of men and women along the 1,940-mile U.S.-Mexico border who have committed themselves
to assisting the illegal immigrants in their northbound trek.
     Their actions have been applauded by some and questioned by others, including federal and local law-enforcement authorities who believe the water stations
serve to entice illegal aliens who might not otherwise try to cross the desert. Authorities also say the stations act as watering holes for drug smugglers who transport
tons of illicit narcotics each year across the southern Arizona border.
     "I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do," said Miss Zavala, a social worker and member of Humane Borders, a nondenominational church organization
that has set up 25 water stations in the desert southwest of Tucson.
     "In my heart of hearts, I couldn't sleep at night knowing that putting out water would save a life and I didn't do it," she said.
     Miss Risley-Curtiss, a college professor and a first-time visitor to the water station, described her daylong visit as "the humane thing to do, to put out water to
save those who try to come into the United States."
     "I teach this stuff. I believe in this. People die, whether you agree or not in them coming across the border," she said. "When you realize that many of them are not
going to make it, what other choice do you have?"
 
     A 'humane environment'
     Humane Borders, based in Tucson, was established in June 2000 for what its founder, the Rev. Robin Hoover, said was to create "a just and humane border
environment."
     Mr. Hoover, pastor of Tucson's First Christian Church, said the group is committed to responding with humanitarian assistance to those who risk their lives
crossing the border and to the creation of public policies toward a "humane, nonmilitarized border" with work opportunities for migrants in the United States.
     The group's spokeswoman, Sister Elizabeth Ohmann, said a revised U.S. Border Patrol enforcement strategy that saw the agency take control of several border
towns and ports of entry forced many illegal immigrants to seek more dangerous routes into the United States, including the southern Arizona desert, where there is
little or no water and summer temperatures can soar to 120 degrees.
     She said several of the migrants, including women and children, have died trying to avoid capture.
     "The Border Patrol has forced these people into dangerous areas of the desert, where they are ill-equipped to deal with the heat and the terrain," she said. "Many
of these people will die. We do what we can to save lives in the desert."
     Stern warnings posted by the Border Patrol from Texas to California and a media advertising campaign in Mexico listing the dangers, including death, have not
deterred the aliens, who continue to pour into this country in search of work, economic security, political freedom and government entitlements. More than 3 million
illegal immigrants are expected to try to enter this country this year.
     Humane Border's barrels are located in some of the areas most heavily traveled by illegal aliens, and the Border Patrol has voiced concerns on whether they have
attracted even more immigrants into the desert.
     "While we understand the rationale for the water stations, we would caution that we would not want them to create a false sense of security to enter these
dangerous desert areas," said Assistant Chief Carlos X. Carrillo at the Border Patrol's Tucson sector headquarters.
     "The smugglers who are taking these people through these areas will abandon them if they can't keep up, including the children who are the most vulnerable to
dehydration and heat exhaustion," he said. "Water by itself will not cure heat exhaustion or heat stroke."
 
     Helping drug traffickers
     Several Border Patrol field agents and other law-enforcement authorities, including members of the Tohono O'odham Nation, believe the water stations are being
used by alien smugglers and drug smugglers to help them through the desert. They said numerous maps have been discovered on both sides of the border showing
the precise location of each of the stations.
     "It's no coincidence the smugglers have found the stations and use those specific trails to get the aliens or their drugs across the border," said one law-
enforcement official.
     There are no Humane Borders water stations on the 3-million-acre Tohono O'odham Nation, adjacent to Organ Pipe. The reservation, which shares 76 miles of
international border with Mexico, already has to deal with thousands of illegal aliens crossing the nation every month and has banned the stations.
     Alexandra Terry, Tohono O'odham spokeswoman, said the water stations attract additional aliens, who further strain an already overburdened police department
and health care facilities trying to deal with the daily influx of illegal immigrants.
     "They serve no good purpose for us," she said.
     Another group looking to help illegal immigrants in the desert is the Samaritan Patrol, also based in Tucson, whose members roam the southern Arizona desert in
four-wheel-drive vehicles to search out illegal aliens.
     The patrol's organizers include former members of the sanctuary movement, which assisted those fleeing Central American political persecution in the 1980s.
Some sanctuary movement members have been convicted of conspiracy and other charges involving the illegal entry of aliens.
     The group, calling its operations humanitarian and within U.S. immigration law, hands out food, water, medical supplies and, if necessary, transports the illegal
immigrants to the nearest hospital or health care facility. The members also will contact the Border Patrol at the immigrants' request if they want to be returned to
Mexico.
     Their vehicles are emblazoned with a sign that says "Patrullaje Samaritano" (Samaritan Patrol in Spanish) and a green cross, the Mexican symbol for assistance.
The organization has a core membership of about three dozen people, but as many as 50 showed up for a recent daylong training session seeking to qualify for patrol
duty.
     "We patrol the high-death areas of the southern Arizona desert and render aid where needed," said Samaritan Patrol member Doug Ruopp, an elementary school
teacher in south Tucson. "We are trying to keep these people from dying."
     He described the members as "committed people of faith" looking to save lives in the desert, adding that "knowing people are in trouble and not doing anything
about it is wrong."
     The patrol, which includes doctors, lawyers, teachers and other professionals, has targeted a 150-mile stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border from the Organ Pipe
National Monument to the Coronado National Forest, near Nogales, Ariz., a rugged desert terrain where several illegal aliens have died.
 
     Coming under fire
     The Border Patrol is keeping an eye on Samaritan Patrol to determine whether its members are violating immigration law by aiding those who have illegally
entered the country. Federal law prohibits U.S. residents from rendering aid to immigrants "in furtherance of their illegal entry."
     Others, including Arizonans for Immigration Control, already believe the group has violated the law, saying patrol members have driven illegal aliens to locations
other than health care facilities. The organization asked in a recent letter to the Border Patrol sector office in Tucson that Samaritan Patrol be investigated and,
perhaps, prosecuted.
     Mr. Ruopp said that as long as Samaritan Patrol members transport aliens for medical care, their efforts can be viewed only as humanitarian and not in violation
of the law.
     He said he has "counseled" members not to take the illegal aliens to anything other than a medical facility.
     However, he acknowledged, "It's a big organization, and you can't control everyone. We have no intention of breaking the law, but we are not the immigration
police."
     Samaritan Patrol came under heavy criticism in July, just after the group organized, when some of its members transported two illegal aliens to a Tucson church,
where they could be given food, water and medical care.
     The two migrants, a man and a woman, have since been turned over to the Border Patrol and returned to Mexico.
     The incident prompted a meeting between Samaritan Patrol and the Border Patrol, during which the organization was asked about its mission and was advised
about U.S. immigration law.
     "The outcome was resolved in a satisfactory way for both sides," said Border Patrol spokesman Rob Daniels. "There needs to be a very defined line drawn
between rendering aid to someone and actually transporting somebody or furthering their entrance illegally into the United States."
     Humane Borders set up its water stations in southern Arizona in the wake of the Border Patrol's success in controlling illegal entry at border towns and
established ports of entry, an enforcement strategy that has forced many immigrants to seek more dangerous routes into the United States.
 
     Trails of death
     Mr. Hoover said the government thought it "could use the desert as a deterrent" but ended up "forcing people down death trails."
     At the water stations, each of the bright blue barrels has the word "agua" painted on the side. The barrels are filled with water hauled to the sites by a Humane
Borders-owned flatbed truck. The truck carries water bottles, which are hand-carried to the water stations, and a 325-gallon water tank, which is used to fill the
bottles.
     Humane Borders claims a membership of 1,200 but mustered just seven volunteers on a hot day here in July to refill two water barrels in Organ Pipe. It also has
distributed blankets and medical kits to shelters in Mexico, along with maps showing the locations of the water stations.
     Last year, the Pima County Board of Supervisors in Tucson gave Humane Borders $25,000 to maintain the stations. A lawsuit by six Tucson residents
challenged the expenditure of the funds, saying they went to a politically oriented group whose purpose was to aid persons who had violated the law. The lawsuit
was dismissed last month by a county judge.
     Deaths of illegal aliens crossing the U.S.-Mexico border declined 20 percent last year. But while the Border Patrol has stepped up enforcement activities in the
towns and ports of entry, illegal immigrants have moved to the more remote areas, where many have died.
     In an effort to reinforce its belief that the water stations give illegal aliens a false sense of security, the Border Patrol last year released a videotaped interview of
Fidel Alonso Mireles, who was among eight Mexican nationals caught trying to cross Organ Pipe.
     The eight had refilled their water jugs at one of the Humane Borders stations, but Fidel, 18, said his brother, Jorge Alonso Mireles, 24, died anyway from heat
exhaustion.
     "There was more than enough water, but he couldn't make it," Fidel said, adding that his group had taken a trail into the United States along State Highway 85,
south of Why, Ariz., because they knew about the water stations.
     In the video, Fidel was asked whether he had a message for others seeking to cross into the United States: "They shouldn't risk it out there. It's very dangerous."
     In Yuma, the Border Patrol has erected six rescue beacons in the desert aimed at assisting illegal aliens who get hurt or become ill in areas where there is little
water and the temperature on the desert floor can reach 150 degrees.
     The beacon towers are 30 feet high with a strobe light on top for easy recognition in low-light conditions. On the lower part of the tower, there is an instructional
sign with a warning written in Spanish and English. There also is an illustrated description on the sign.
     In the bottom center of the sign is an activation button, which operates a transmitter that sends a signal to a sensor repeater. The repeater then transmits the signal
to the Border Patrol, which then dispatches a helicopter and ground units to the scene.
     Between 1994 and 2001, 84 illegal aliens died in the desert east of Yuma where the beacons now stand — about 93 percent of all the deaths in the Yuma
sector, which is responsible for 118 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. During that same period, the Border Patrol rescued 470 illegal aliens.