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Two driving illegal immigrants arrested
By Tillie Fong, Rocky Mountain News
July 12, 2005

A Colorado College graduate and a Durango resident were arrested in Arizona after the U.S. Border Patrol found three illegal immigrants in their vehicle.

Daniel Strauss, 23, of Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Shanti Sellz, 23, of Durango, were arraigned Monday in federal court in Tucson and released. They were charged with transportation of illegal immigrants and obstruction of justice.

If convicted of the transportation- of-illegal-immigrants charge, they could each face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Border patrol agents on Saturday arrested Strauss and Sellz, who had three illegal immigrants in their vehicle as they traveled east on Arivaca Road, two miles west of Amado, Ariz. Strauss and Sellz, volunteers with the humanitarian group No More Deaths, told the agents they were taking the people to a doctor.

According to a statement released Monday by Margo Cowlan, an attorney for No More Deaths, volunteers with the group found nine illegal immigrants wandering in the desert.

"Three of these persons reported vomiting (and) diarrhea, and one reported blood in his stool - all conditions which are symptomatic of extreme and life-threatening dehydration," Cowlan said.

Strauss and Sellz volunteered to drive the three to Tucson to be treated by a doctor, but were arrested en route, Cowlan said.

Gustavo Soto, a spokesman for Tucson Sector Border Patrol, said members of Border Search, Trauma and Rescue examined the three immigrants. "They were not in medical distress," Soto said. "All they needed was some water and rest."

Soto said the group could have contacted local authorities or border-patrol agents to tend to the three people's medical needs.

Eric Popkin, associate professor of sociology at Colorado College, worried about his former student Strauss. "He is a person with tremendous personal connections, someone who strongly believes in saving lives and trying to offer a hand to migrants in distress," said Popkin, who teaches a course on globalization and migration on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Popkin disagreed with Soto's advice on getting help for sick illegal immigrants: "Last summer, I encountered a migrant in distress and we called border patrol, but border patrol never came. Border patrol is called, but sometimes they respond and sometimes they do not."