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Judge Reverses Convictions of Activists Who Left Water for Migrants
A federal judge found that four volunteers with the group “No More Deaths” were acting on their religious beliefs when they left food and water for migrants in the desert.
Four women who drove into a forbidding desert and left food and water for migrants crossing illegally into the United States were following their religious beliefs, not violating federal laws, a federal judge has ruled, reversing their criminal convictions.
Judge Rosemary Márquez of the United District Court in Arizona decided last week in favor of the women, members of the organization No More Deaths, a faith-based group in Tucson that aims to alleviate suffering at the border.
“The depth, importance and centrality of these beliefs caused defendants to restructure their lives to engage in this volunteer work,” Judge Márquez said in a 22-page ruling that was released on Monday.
She also appeared to rebuke federal prosecutors for trying to argue that leaving behind food and jugs of water in the desert would have the effect of encouraging more migrants to cross the border.
Judge Márquez said prosecutors appeared to be claiming that without clean water and food, there would be more deaths and therefore fewer people willing to cross the border illegally.
“This gruesome logic is profoundly disturbing,” she wrote.
Officials from the Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesman for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service declined to comment.
For years, members of No More Deaths have left food and water for migrants along paths of the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, where dozens of people have died trying to make the treacherous journey across the border. The organization’s efforts have gained international prominence as the Trump administration has moved to shut down illegal border crossings and targeted private citizens who help migrants.
In 2019, Scott Warren, an Arizona teacher, was acquitted of harboring and concealing undocumented immigrants. Mr. Warren said he gave shelter and food to two migrants who arrived at a watering station set up by No More Deaths, which is connected to a ministry of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson.
Four other volunteers with the organization were also charged criminally, but prosecutors dropped the charges and the defendants were issued $250 fines, said Anne M. Chapman, an Arizona lawyer who has represented many of the defendants, including the women.
The case involving the four women — Natalie Hoffman, Oona Holcomb, Madeline Huse and Zaachila Orozco-McCormick — began in 2017, when they were arrested for entering the refuge without a permit, driving on a restricted-access road and leaving behind the food and water.
They were charged with entering the refuge without a permit and abandoning property.
A magistrate judge convicted them the following year, after a three-day trial, and they were issued fines and sentenced to 15 months of probation.
They appealed, arguing that their actions were taken to mitigate death and suffering, and were “sincere exercises of religion” protected from prosecution under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Judge Márquez, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, agreed that “the prosecution of defendants for these actions substantially burdens their religious exercise.”
Judge Márquez noted that 32 sets of human remains were found in the refuge in 2017, evidence that undermined the prosecution’s argument that “fatalities had any effect in deterring unlawful entry.”
Judge Márquez’s ruling has important implications for people who would carry out the sort of work done by No More Deaths, said Ephraim A. McDowell, a lawyer with O’Melveny & Myers in Washington, who represented the women in the appeals case.
“It’s a very important ruling for the organization so that the work can continue,” Mr. McDowell said. “It does set up an important precedent for future defendants.”
While the case was pending, volunteers were not told whether to continue leaving water in the desert, said Paige Corich-Kleim, a spokeswoman for No More Deaths.
“We didn’t want to tell people not to do something that they felt driven to,” she said. “We just wanted people to understand the risks and that if they were arrested we would fight charges.”
The ruling is critical to an organization whose members feel they have a “moral imperative” to help people in the desert, Ms. Corich-Kleim said.
“It’s one of the deadliest corridors in the area,” she said. “If we didn’t actively intervene in one of the deadliest areas, it would undermine our entire mission and it would be really insincere to our core values and beliefs.”
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