Court papers show tension over migrant helpers
Feds plan to retry man on harboring charges
TUCSON, Ariz. — Federal authorities for months suspected a humanitarian group of harboring immigrants, eventually resulting in felony charges against a volunteer who says he was simply being a good Samaritan, according to recently released court documents.
In June, a jury was unable to reach a verdict against Scott Warren, of Ajo, Arizona, on charges of conspiracy and harboring and transporting immigrants.
Federal prosecutors plan to retry Warren on two counts of harboring in November.
Warren says he was fulfilling his humanitarian duty by helping two injured migrant men at a facility known as “the Barn,” where members of the humanitarian group No More Deaths is based. Prosecutors say he was helping them evade authorities.
Documents unsealed in the case show the timeline for the investigation that led to Warren’s arrest while also revealing how locals and officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service worked closely with Border Patrol agents.
In April 2017, an anonymous Ajo resident contacted the Border Patrol saying she suspected that No More Deaths members were harboring immigrants in the Barn.
The relationship between No More Deaths members and federal officials, who view them as a nuisance for leaving water jugs on federal land, was already strained.
The group has repeatedly said its mission is to help migrants who might otherwise die in the desert.
In July 2017, Border Patrol agents, sheriff ’s deputies and Fish and Wildlife personnel detained members of No More Deaths for allegedly vandalizing a camera at Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, where the group regularly left water jugs.
Fish and Wildlife officials had banned them from getting permits to enter the wildlife refuge. Warren was among those who had a lifetime ban, according to text messages between a Fish and Wildlife employee and a Border Patrol agent.
Then in November, agents interviewed residents, who said they’d noticed more traffic and littering outside the No More Deaths site.
Agents eventually encountered a migrant man, who said he had traveled across the desert with two other men who were picked up by a van. Suspecting that they might be at the No More Deaths building, agents began watching the Barn on
Jan. 17, 2018, arresting Warren and the two migrant men, both from Central America, that same day.
The men were deported after providing video testimony.
Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered several court documents to be unsealed at the request of the news organization The Intercept and others, including The Associated Press.
Prosecutors argued that the unsealed documents should never have been filed in court and contended that they should be kept under seal because they weren’t relevant to the outcome of the case.