"Congressional Quarterly Weekly

July 11, 2009 Saturday

Water, and Litter, Bearer

By Shawn Zeller, CQ Staff

When agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service caught Walt Staton last year setting out water jugs for illegal immigrants along a road through the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge on the Mexican border in Arizona, they issued him a citation. And when Staton, an activist with the Tucson group No More Deaths, refused to pay, the government tried him last month in federal court. Convicted by a jury, he faces as long as a year in jail and a $10,000 fine.

But Staton is not remorseful. Remains of eight migrants have been found in the 118,000-acre refuge since the beginning of October, he says, but the government has refused to allow more than the existing three permanent water stations.

Last month, Staton and representatives of other humanitarian groups wrote and publicized letters to Michael Hawkes, the manager of the Buenos Aires refuge, and to his ultimate boss, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, requesting a meeting on the matter.

"I expect the leadership of Buenos Aires to sit down and talk with us," Staton says, "rather than have their staff chase us around the desert and use their resources on littering tickets."

The Fish and Wildlife Service says it's taking the issue seriously and is willing to have a meeting, but spokesman Jose Viramontes says the activists must abide by the law.

In Arizona, though, Hawkes says he doesn't believe a face-to-face meeting would prove useful because of the activists' apparent unwillingness to compromise.

"They think they can put water jugs out wherever they want," he says, and the containers, combined with litter left behind in the wildlife refuge by illegal border crossers, have helped to create "a real mess."

Source: CQ Weekly
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