Border Patrol arrests four men at medical camp

PHOENIX — Border Patrol agents descended on a medical camp set up in the Arizona desert to provide refuge and water for migrants in the scorching summer heat, arresting four men who were receiving aid after spending several days in the desert.

The Border Patrol said agents began tracking the men Tuesday while they walked north on a known smuggling route and then entered the camp run by No More Deaths/ No Mas Muertes, an organization that provides care for migrants along the border. The Border Patrol initially said agents began tracking the group Wednesday but the agency later corrected that account.

“The type of operation they are doing, for me, is unprecedented and there’s nothing routine about what they did. It wasn’t part of their day-to-day operation. It was a staged military siege on our camp,” said Catherine Gaffney, a longtime volunteer who was present during the arrests and who said 15 trucks and about 30 agents, some armed with long rifles, entered the facility.

The enforcement action comes after President Donald Trump has made securing the border a top priority of his administration, including a signature campaign promise to build a wall along the border with Mexico. His presidency has coincided with a big dropoff in immigrants crossing the border from Mexico, but immigration authorities have been arresting more people in the country illegally.

Gaffney said agents had been stationed outside the camp since Tuesday afternoon, when the migrants arrived. She said a camp doctor asked the agency on late Thursday morning for more time to treat the men, who had suffered from heat-related illnesses.