Border Patrol raids medical camp, arrests 4

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 said talks between agents and camp representatives on gaining access to question the men about their citizenship and legal status were unsuccessful.

Agents then obtained a search warrant and swooped into the camp Thursday evening.

Catherine Gaffney, a longtime volunteer who was present during the arrests, said agents had been stationed outside the medical facility since Tuesday afternoon, when the migrants arrived at the camp.

She said a camp doctor asked the agency late Thursday morning for more time to treat the men, who had suffered from heat-related illnesses and needed an additional 24 hours of supervised care.

Gaffney said that 15 trucks and about 30 agents entered the facility. The camp is a little over 11 miles north of the border, near the small town of Arivaca.

“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-today operation; it was a staged military siege on our camp,” Gaffney said.

Gaffney said volunteers were escorted to a different part of the camp as a helicopter circled overhead and the agents arrested the four men, all Mexican nationals. Gaffney said the men were ages 19 to 40.

“They didn’t need 30 agents to apprehend four sick people,” Gaffney said.

The Border Patrol has launched a media campaign aimed at preventing desert crossings.