Was arrest payback by U.S. border authorities?

You could argue it’s a coincidence. Then again, you could argue that it’s revenge made to look like coincidence. Which to me seems way more likely. A volunteer with the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths was arrested on a federal harboring charge only hours after the group released a report and videos showing Border Patrol agents emptying or destroying water bottles left in the desert for border crossers.

Thousands have died in the desert over the years. And the Border Patrol has an official policy of not destroying the humanitarian aid. But the agents in the videos didn’t seem particularly worried about getting into trouble.

It was an embarrassing display of inhumane behavior and a black eye for the agency.

So, did agents punch back? Volunteer Scott Daniel Warren was busted hours after No More Deaths released its report. Agents said they surveilled a building in Ajo and arrested Warren for providing food, water, beds and clean clothes to a pair of migrants.

The attorney for Warren said that humanitarian groups had a deal with the Border Patrol and the U.S. Attorney’s Office that such assistance would not get them arrested.

Lawyer Bill Walker said, “We don’t smuggle them, we don’t do anything to help them enter the United States, we do nothing illegal. This place that they raided is not in the middle of the desert, it’s not hidden anywhere. It’s in the city of Ajo, and it’s been used for a long time, not to help smuggle migrants, but to give medical care and food and water.”

Do you think, maybe, that after No More Deaths released its damning report and videos the Border Patrol decided that all bets were off?

“It felt retaliatory in that it occurred less than eight hours after our press conference releasing these findings that implicated Border Patrol,” volunteer Caitlin Deighan said. “But we can’t confirm that with certainty.”

No, not with certainty.

But who believes in coincidence? No More Deaths says that about 10 percent of the water left in aid stations, about 3,500 gallons, was destroyed over a three-year period.

The Border Patrol says such behavior is the bad action of a few rogue agents. The folks at No More Deaths believe the problem is bigger than that. And given that a volunteer was arrested within hours of the video release, they may be right.

If all we’re talking about is a few rogue agents the best way to correct the

It was an embarrassing display of inhumane behavior.

problem is to make an example of those caught destroying the water jugs. Fire them. Make it public.

Don’t arrest humanitarians. (More than a few volunteers with No More Deaths have been busted over time.)

The bottom line in all this has less to do with law enforcement than with humanity, however.

Can you imagine any decent human being emptying a water jug onto the ground in front of a person dying of thirst?

Is it any less cruel, any less humane, to empty that water jug before the thirsty person arrives?