On Friday, July 31, armed border patrol agents entered a No More Deaths camp near Arivaca and detained an estimated 30 undocumented migrants in what the humanitarian aid organization is describing as a “military style raid.” The encounter occurred after a series of escalations between the two organizations, and the detained migrants’ whereabouts are currently unknown.
“They immediately detained all our volunteers and took their phones,” said Paige Corich-Kleim, a representative for No More Deaths. “It was a heavily armed presence, with agents in fatigues, masks and assault rifles drawn. It was as if they were entering to neutralize a threat.”
According to No More Deaths, one day prior, on July 30, Border Patrol agents entered the Byrd Camp without a warrant and detained one migrant. In the following hours, agents established 24-hour surveillance, surrounded the property, and a drone was spotted circling the camp.
This led up to the raid on July 31, when Border Patrol entered the camp with a warrant. Agents operated multiple vehicles including a helicopter, an armored vehicle, ATVs and dozens of trucks. Although no No More Deaths volunteers were taken from the camp, they were handcuffed and had their phones taken while agents arrested the migrants.
No More Deaths experienced a similar raid by Border Patrol in 2017. However, Corich-Kleim says a key difference is that in 2017 No More Deaths volunteers were allowed to film the agents, whereas their only photos of Friday had to be taken with a phone that wasn’t yet confiscated.
“It’s like they were entering a war zone, not a medical aid station,” Corich-Kleim said.
After the confrontation, No More Deaths volunteers found their aid station had been “ransacked,” with tents torn apart, medical supplies destroyed and power to their well disconnected.
According to the warrant, items to be seized by Border Patrol agents included cell phones, computers, US and Mexican currency, photographs and “maps and other papers relating to the transportation, harboring, and smuggling of illegal aliens.”
“On a daily basis those who migrate through the Arizona desert are targeted, terrorized, detained, and deported,” said No More Deaths volunteer Scott Warren, who was previously charged with and acquitted of felony charges for harboring migrants. “Last night we witnessed these tactics deployed against people who sought medical care and relief at our Byrd Camp aid station. As always when humanitarian aid in the borderlands is targeted, those who seek care are the ones that face the brunt of these violent escalations.”
Tucson Weekly is awaiting comment and further information from the Border Patrol.
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2020.
January 20 2021this nazism ENDS!
Let’s commend these heroic border patrol agents for the good they bring to the world.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5dBwDysQW8U
““On a daily basis those who migrate through the Arizona desert are targeted, terrorized, detained, and deported,””
Good. If these illegals would stay out of my country none of this would happen to them.
harboring and aiding is a crime in it self, illegal or unlawful entry is a crime. If you truly wish to protect the migrants then do not entice them to enter illegal and risk the trek through an inhospitable desert environment. You set out water stations consisting of gallon jugs that I and other sportsmen find scattered along with their little orange caps, along with the trash they leave in their wake. It is my feelings that a person following one of your maps you provide of your water and aid stations should die a horrific death in the desert, or becomes a victim of the bandits that prey on them, that you should shoulder some blame and liability, civilly as well as criminal.
CBP knows who you are, where you are, what you’re doing, and yes, they are watching you. How stupid can you be having 30 illegals in your camp at one time?
What a waste of precious resources. This is to not only punish those that enter the country illegally but to discourage people wishing to join humanitarian efforts to save lives. Our government should be ashamed of itself.
Our government should be commended for finally going something to get these illegals out of our country. I wish they would charge the people harboring them. I guess the idea of punishing people for their illegal acts is foreign to some people.
The only wasted resources are those spent on welfare, medical care and education of illegals and their children.
The irony of white vitriolic racists who think they own America.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WEiCbalBy2w
The irony of brown people breaking the door down to illegally enter a white racist country.
Well, Wesley,I wholeheartedly welcome immigrants who can travel thousands of miles and pass the gauntlet in order to find some level of refuge in the US, even if that means they have to live in the shadows. To survive what they have requires brains and courage. Many end up working for little pay and no protections in highly essential industries. Immigrants are what made us the greatest country in the world because we attracted the best and the brightest from all over the world. “Illegals” pay billions in taxes into a system for which they cannot utilize. The idea that illigal immigrants suck welfare is a lie. Ignorant racists are easily manipulated into blaming a scapegoat, much like the Nazis.
In contrast, your ancestors probably came over on the mayflower and believed that witches should be burned at the stake.
Keep in mind, Wesley, you represent the vocal minority. The “sleeping giant” is going to vote this racist orange buffoon and his junta of con artists and psychophants out of offic. It’s just a matter of time before we can finally call America a majority brown country. Maybe you should go find refuge in Putin’s Russia, since you seem to love autocratic strong men so much.
Sigh, so much drivel from 666; none of it worthy of a rebuttal.
Drivel doesn’t cover half of it. Why is skin color so important to 666? he has listened to the left and the lying media for much of his life. The immigrants that made America great did not sneak in, hide, or lie about who they were,. There are even more out of the country that are accessing government benefits illegally so drop the lie that they pay billions into a system they get nothing from. Whose SS# do they file taxes under? Did they give that SS # to their employers?
Check your story because I thought the folks on the Mayflower came over and destroyed the Indians and the buffalo. Not the witches. They were burned in Europe.
“The myth of burnings at the stake in Salem is most likely inspired by European witch trials, where execution by fire was a disturbingly common practice.”
Devilled Eggs writes: “The myth of burnings at the stake in Salem is most likely inspired by European witch trials, where execution by fire was a disturbingly common practice.”
Those executed in Salem were, except for one, hanged. That poor fellow was pressed to death.