Water Rights

On Dec. 4, a year after he was cited for littering on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, activist Walt Staton was back in
federal court, because he refused to pick up garbage.

Staton, a seminary student, told Magistrate Jennifer Guerin that he
couldn’t in good conscience agree to 300 hours of trash-gathering
community service, imposed as part of his sentence for placing water
jugs on the refuge. The water is meant for the thousands of
undocumented immigrants passing through the 118,000-acre border-area
preserve each year.

So goes the latest twist in this false competition between
conservation and humanitarian concerns on the refuge—a confusing
fight which has seen the U.S. Department of Interior offering carrots,
even as Mike Hawkes, its manager of the Buenos Aires, adopts an
increasingly trenchant stance against the immigrant-assistance group No
More Deaths.

Hawkes now keeps handy a bumper sticker mocking the group’s slogan,
“Humanitarian Aid Is Never a Crime.”

“Littering is always a crime,” says the hand-printed sticker he
hauls out of his desk drawer for reporters.

At the same time, at least two bodies have been found on the Buenos
Aires in recent months (Hawkes contends the deaths weren’t
water-related), and the taxpayer tab for prosecuting these littering
cases continues to rise.

Nor does the refuge manager show any restraint when it comes to
Staton. “I expect he’ll go to prison,” he tells me, “if he’s not
cooperating with the court.”

All of which highlights an apparent disconnect within the federal
government over this issue. Consider that in July, a handful of No More
Deaths volunteers were invited to Washington, D.C., where they met with
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to discuss the Buenos Aires conflict.
That same month, federal law-enforcement officials were on hand to
ticket 13 more humanitarian volunteers as they put out water on the
refuge.

While there appears to be a genuine desire for conciliation in
Salazar’s office, some observers say that Hawkes and his overseers at
Southwest Region Fish and Wildlife Service headquarters in Albuquerque,
N.M., are embracing the get-tough approach. Tom Harvey, Fish and
Wildlife’s Albuquerque-based refuge supervisor for Arizona and New
Mexico, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.

While Hawkes tells the Tucson Weekly that negotiations are
ongoing with the activists, others contend that the refuge manager has
no intention of reaching a compromise. They point to the fact that
Hawkes has rejected two permit applications from No More Deaths to
place water on the refuge, with the latest thumbs-down coming just last
month.

It’s exasperating, says Margo Cowan, an attorney for the group. “You
know, we’ve tried really hard. We took a medical doctor (to the
meetings with Hawkes). We took a gentleman who does all of our mapping,
and he was a former department head at the UA. There was a pastor
there, and myself. We tried very, very hard to figure out ways to
accommodate everybody’s concerns.”

Although Hawkes’ primary sticking point has been the one-gallon
water jugs placed on the refuge by activists, Cowan says that litter
seems to be the least of his worries now. “We offered to carry out
twice as much trash as the bottles that we bring in, and (refuge
officials) just rejected that out of hand.”

Still, behind-the-scenes maneuvering may soon neutralize Hawkes’
hard-line approach, says one source who spoke to the Tucson
Weekly who asked not to be named, due to the sensitivity of
negotiations. According to the source, prosecutions of the 13
humanitarian volunteers cited in July have been placed on hold by
Dennis Burke, the new U.S. attorney for Arizona.

In addition, says the source, Tucson lawyer Bates
Butler—himself a former U.S. attorney for Arizona—has been
in discussions with Burke’s office on behalf of No More Deaths.

A spokeswoman for Burke declined to comment on the No More Deaths
cases. But Butler confirmed the meetings. “I’ve just had some
discussions about the policy,” he says. “And that’s really all I’ve got
to say.”

Regardless, any shift in policy isn’t necessarily going to come soon
enough to help Staton. In a Nov. 2 letter to Magistrate Guerin, Staton
argued that current Border Patrol policies violate international
human-rights law, since they push immigrants into remote and dangerous
desert areas. Countering those policies by putting out water, he wrote,
is simply a humanitarian act of conscience.

“Given the above philosophical and moral reasons, I do not believe
it is appropriate for me to undertake the task of completing the 300
hours of community service assigned by the court,” Staton wrote. “At
this point, I will not complete any amount of community service, nor
pay any amount of fines.”

But Magistrate Guerin noted that Staton’s guilt had been determined
by a jury, and by defying the sentence, he was simply disrespecting the
court.

She said she didn’t want to send him to jail back during his initial
sentencing in August. “I didn’t think that was appropriate then, and I
don’t think it’s appropriate now. … But if you defy what the court
has ordered, you will be punished for your defiance.”

Guerin then threatened to send Staton to federal prison for 25 days.
Another hearing is slated for Dec. 21.

Outside the courthouse, No More Deaths volunteers and supporters
were rallying on his behalf. Among them was the Rev. John Fife, who
helped lead the sanctuary movement in the 1980s. His movement gained
international attention by running an underground railroad for refugees
fleeing the wars in Central America. Fife was also among a handful of
sanctuary activists tried and convicted by the federal government for
illegally harboring those refugees.

Today, he says, the parallels are unnerving. “I think all of us were
hopeful, with the change in the administration. But now, I think it’s
clear that the Obama administration and (Homeland Security Secretary)
Janet Napolitano believe—and are acting on their
belief—that in order to get an (immigrant) legalization program
through Congress, they have to look tougher and militarize the border
more. It’s more of the same, only maybe redoubled.”

And that makes Staton’s situation a bit too familiar. “For decades
now, faith communities and people of conscience have had to resist
violations of human rights by the government,” Fife says.

Twenty years after Sanctuary was put on trial, “it is clear that we
were right. Our actions have been vindicated. And now people like Walt
Staton have to stand up and continue to resist violations of human
rights and international law.”

This article appears in Dec 10-16, 2009.