Thursday brought another very welcome moment of appeals court sanity when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal overturned the conviction of activist John Millis, of NoMoreDeaths.org, declaring that leaving jugs of water for immigrants crossing the desert does not constitute “waste dumping.”
The LA Times’ Carol J. Williams has the story:
Here’s how it begins:
A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned the littering conviction of an Arizona activist who left gallon-size bottles of water for illegal immigrants crossing into the United States through a desert wildlife preserve.
Daniel Millis of NoMoreDeaths.org had been convicted of violating a statute prohibiting the dumping of garbage in an area designated as a refuge for endangered species.
In a 2-1 ruling, judges of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said water didn’t meet the definition of waste. They also took note of Millis’ practice of removing empty water bottles he found while on his missions to avert dehydration deaths in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge.
I met the No More Deaths people when I was is Tuscon several years ago. And their mission is just that: preventing deaths. Immigration hardiners feel the practice of saving people, literally, from dying by putting out water and other emergency supplies in the desert where the crossings are the most perilous, “encourages illegal immigration.”
Right. Whatever. Not very shockingly, I too am for the saving-people-from-dying thingy. Crossing the border without papers may be illegal, but it shouldn’t mandate a death sentence.