Charges dropped against water aid volunteers

TUCSON — Federal prosecutors in southern Arizona dropped criminal misdemeanor charges against four No More Deaths volunteers accused of entering protected lands near the U.S.Mexico border without a permit to search for missing migrants, the humanitarian aid group announced Thursday.

Details of the agreement are unclear. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona said he was unable to comment.

But No More Deaths issued a statement Thursday, saying the three women and one man would be “issued civil infractions carrying a fine of $250 each” rather than facing the criminal charges.

Similarly, a Thursday update to the online court records shows that “The Government indicates that an agreement has been reached to settle this matter via the defendants’ payment of a collateral forfeiture.”

The four volunteers are now due back court on March 4 for a motion hearing on the case against them, where the details of the agreement are expected to be released, according to court records.

“Today might be a victory for No More Deaths, but people continue to die and disappear every day in the desert,” said Logan Hollarsmith, one of the four volunteers. “Our hearts remain with the families of the disappeared. As long as border policy funnels migrants into the most remote corridors of the desert, the need for a humanitarian response will continue.”

According to prosecutors, Hollarsmith — along with Caitlin Deighan, Zoe Anderson and Rebecca Grossman-Richeimer — entered the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, a protected wilderness area south of Ajo, on July 19, 2017.

No More Deaths said the four of them had responded to a call about three migrants in distress on the refuge, one of the deadliest trafficking routes into the United States.

As the four volunteers were leaving after an hours-long search, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials and Border Patrol agents stopped them.

Following the incident, wildlife officials charged all four on one count of entering a wildlife refuge without a permit. Deighan, who was driving, was also charged with operating a motor vehicle inside the refuge.

In December, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tucson filed criminal charges against them. In all, a total of nine No More Deaths volunteers would face criminal charges stemming from humanitarian aid activities at Cabeza Prieta.

Justine Schnitzler, the spokeswoman for No More Deaths, said the group still has more work to do.

“We’re keeping the focus on the border crisis that is ongoing, and reaffirming that humanitarian aid is not a crime for all of our defendants, not just these four,” she added.