Thread: Ex-prosecutor: Migrant aid not a crime

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php? ... rint_story

CLAUDINE LoMONACO
lomonaco@tucsoncitizen.com

A former Arizona U.S. attorney is urging the state's current U.S attorney to drop charges against two aid workers charged with unlawfully transporting illegal immigrants.

"The prosecution is a waste of resources," said A. Bates Butler III, who served as the federal government's top prosecutor in Arizona from 1980 to 1981. "The resources of the federal government can be better spent prosecuting people who pose a danger to our society, and the two defendants in this case are not that."

Butler, a partner in the law firm Fennemore Craig, joined a campaign launched last week that seeks to persuade U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton to drop the case against Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss, both 23, who were arrested while volunteering with the humanitarian group No More Deaths.

The faith-based organization, which provided food, water and medical assistance to distressed migrants in the desert, held the first of what will be weekly news conferences Wednesday at Southside Presbyterian Church, 317 W. 23rd St., to garner support for the two volunteers. The campaign, dubbed "Humanitarian Aid is Never a Crime," plans to send more than 10,000 signed postcards to Charlton.

Sellz and Strauss were arrested on Arivaca Road with three illegal immigrants in their car July 9. The two said they were taking the immigrants to medical help at a church in Tucson. The Border Patrol said the migrants were not in medical distress and denied assistance once in custody.

Sellz and Strauss were charged with transporting an illegal alien and conspiracy to transport an illegal alien.

Butler said he doesn't believe Sellz and Strauss committed a crime. Transportation of illegal immigrants is against the law only when the intent is to further their illegal entry, not to get humanitarian help, he said.

Mike Johns, acting spokesman for the Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office, said that he was aware of the campaign to have the charges dropped and that the government would press ahead with the prosecution. A trial is set for Dec. 20.

Butler speculated that the government was prosecuting the case to deter others from volunteering.

He cautioned against the strategy.

"The best thing the government ever did for the Sanctuary Movement was indict the people," said Butler, referring to the prosecution of 11 religious workers in 1985 for illegally bringing Central American refugees into the county. Butler, who started a private practice in 1981, served as lead defense attorney during the trial.

The government's prosecution inspired more people than ever to join the movement, and, he said, it's already had the same effect on No More Deaths.

served from 1980 to 1981 didn't take them long to kick his sorry butt out.