Border Patrol accused of destroying aid sites
Report: Agents slashed, emptied water jugs left for migrants in desert
CORONADO NATIONAL FOREST — U.S. Border Patrol agents’ destruction of potentially lifesaving water aid stations in the Arizona desert is “widespread and routine,” according to a report published Wednesday by a humanitarian group.
Tucson-based No More Deaths accused border agents of kicking, slashing and dumping plastic gallon containers of water that the humanitarian organization leaves for migrants trekking through the desert while attempting to enter the U.S. illegally.
“We’ve had video footage, and still people were saying, ‘Maybe it’s just a few rogue agents,’ ” said Kate Morgan, abuse document coordinator for No
More Deaths. “We really wanted to show that this is systemic, that this is part of a larger policy, and we wanted to offer people raw numbers to show that.”
But the federal agency tasked with protecting the nation’s borders said the actions of a few individuals shouldn’t reflect badly on all agents.
According to the report, from 2012 to 2015, No More Deaths placed more than 31,500 gallons of water at 139 aid stations on trails used by unauthorized migrants in and around Arivaca — a swath of land between Interstate 19 on the east and the Tohono O’odham Reservation to the west.
By the group’s measure, during that period, about 86 percent of the water was used. That’s proof, they claim, of the need for their work.
Meanwhile, roughly 10 percent of the stashed water, some 3,500 gallons, was destroyed during that period.
Volunteers said the destruction of water at aid stations continues.
Two trail-camera videos from 2017 that the group released Wednesday show an agent puncturing water containers and another taking a blanket from an aid station during winter.
A Border Patrol spokesman said Wednesday that they are aware of videos from several years ago showing agents damaging water stations, but had just learned about the more recent videos released by the group.
Destruction of water containers is not condoned or encouraged by the agency, Border Patrol public-affairs agent Christopher Sullivan said. “That’s not something that Border Patrol stands for,” he said.
“All agents within the Tucson sector have been instructed not to remove or destroy water stations, food or other resources left along the trails in the desert,” he said, adding that those instructions have been in place for years.
Sullivan said agents can face “corrective action,” including termination, for misconduct, including tampering with water and food aid stations. The Border Patrol didn’t have information readily accessible on disciplinary actions, he said.
He said the Border Patrol will face difficulty investigating the 2017 videos because so much time has elapsed.
“It’s hard to track down specifically where it was, who was working in that area that day and what agent is responsible,” he said. “That’s why if a situation like this is encountered, we need to know right away.”
However, Moran, of No More Deaths, said they have reported agent misconduct in the past, only to see the same agents in the field a short time later.
The report marks the latest chapter in the adversarial relationship between the humanitarian group, seeking to reduce the number of migrant deaths in the desert, and the federal agency, tasked with patrolling the border and stemming the flow of undocumented immigrants and illicit drugs into the country.
In June, those tensions came to a head when Border Patrol agents surrounded a No More Deaths medicalaid camp near the town of Arivaca, some 11 miles north of the border. After 48 hours, agents entered the camp and detained four individuals.
Volunteers denounced the raid as an attack on humanitarian aid. But the Border Patrol denied it, saying they tracked four men to the camp “wearing camouflage and walking north on a known smuggling route,” a statement read. One of the four people arrested had been previously convicted on drug charges and deported.
The group also accuses border agents of harassing and intimidating humanitarian volunteers, even at gunpoint in certain cases. The 23-page report calls on the Border Patrol to cease harassment and to designate destruction of water aid as a fireable offense for agents.
“It’s very disheartening,” volunteer Gabriela Perez said of the tampering with water-aid stations. “It takes a lot of energy just as a volunteer to bring water out. So imagining that you get to that place and you see remnants of water that have been intentionally destroyed, it is very hard to see and it is unfortunately something that we see often out here.”
The Border Patrol said that in addition to enforcing the nation’s immigration laws, it also is committed to protecting human life. Sullivan said that’s why the agency has invested in things like rescue beacons and first-aid training for agents.
No More Deaths presented the report’s findings Wednesday from a remote location 16 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The area is marked by a wooden cross commemorating the deaths of hundreds of migrants in the area over the past two decades.
The group attributes those deaths to the Border Patrol’s strategy of forcing migrants to cross in more remote and rugged areas of the border.