Every year, thanks to the Right's increasing militarization of the U.S. Mexico border (something Bush has vowed to continue even as he tries to persuade the Tom Tancredos to accept guestworker programs which give migrants very little rights but look like Walmart's dreams come true) and the racialized policing of the migrants who try to cross to find work or escape violence and persecution elsewhere or a combination of some or all of these, hundreds of people die in the Sonora desert of southern Arizona. No More Deaths is a movement which practices "civil initiative," providing migrants with water, food, and medical care, and fights for justice on the border. On July 9 of this past year, two activists, Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss, were arrested for trying to bring three people to a hospital for emergency medical care from a camp outside a small town called Arivaca. I almost went to this camp when i was visiting Julie and Lauren and Amelia in Tucson a year and a half ago, but it was monsoon season, and there was a monsoon, and we were in a minivan with bad tires, so we couldn't make it. Anyway. Daniel and Shanti are facing the possibility of 15 years in prison. As they continue to attempt to get the cases thrown out, No More Deaths is asking for people to contact Arizona's U.S. Attorney, Paul Charlton (here's the action toolkit,) donate funds, and take other actions to defend the principle that it cannot be a crime to provide humanitarian aid.
So, I actually went to high school with Dan Strauss. I haven't seen him in like five years. I ask folks to do what you can to support No More Deaths because I don't want him or anyone else in this movement to have to go to jail for doing work that is profoundly important and which must continue.
Holler!
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