Posted on 07/13/2005 10:03:10 PM PDT by TERMINATTOR
The experience of being arrested and held in what they say were inhumane conditions while in federal custody has strengthened the resolve of two local immigrant aid workers, who spoke publicly for the first time Tuesday.
Daniel Strauss and Shanti Sellz, both 23, were released from custody Monday, two days after they were arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol when an agent stopped their vehicle and found three illegal entrants inside. The pair said they were taking the entrants to receive medical care. Both face federal charges for transporting illegal entrants.
"Groups like ours absolutely have to stay out there and stay strong," Sellz said in an interview Tuesday evening. "The U.S. Border Patrol is not humanitarian. It does not have a humanitarian agenda, policy or protocol. This experience has absolutely validated our commitment to what we're doing."
The U.S. Border Patrol says the pair should not have transported illegal entrants and denies volunteers' accusations of mistreatment in their facilities.
The two volunteers, in their second summer of working with the Tucson-based No More Deaths movement, were scheduled to appear in federal court at 10:30 a.m. today.
Immediately after their arrest, Sellz said, the pair spent hours in a processing station hungry and cold. While she was at the Border Patrol's detention facility at 1970 W. Ajo Way, Sellz said people were sharing filthy blankets in cold cells, and she could not get a toothbrush or toothpaste. She said detainees who had been walking for days in the hot desert were crammed into small facilities without the opportunity to shower.
"This is just going to strengthen everyone's resolve. The Border Patrol is not in the business of saving lives," said Strauss, who says he was in a cell with no toilet paper and that some of the detainees were using blankets as a substitute.
Sellz and Strauss are part of an immigrant aid group that gives food, water and medical assistance to people who illegally cross the border on foot from Mexico to the United States. The group says their work is necessary at a time when illegal entrants continue to perish in the desert while making the trek.
The pair are being represented by Tucson attorneys Jeff Rogers and William Walker, who say their clients did nothing illegal in seeking medical treatment for the three migrants, whom they described as suffering from serious, heat-related illness. The Border Patrol has described the ailments as relatively minor.
Gustavo Soto, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, said detainees are treated humanely and regularly given food, water and other amenities. He said Strauss and Sellz were offered food and did not take it.
"We made every effort to make sure, as with other detainees, that they received the necessary amenities," Soto said. "We believe they are entitled to necessary services. There are showers."
The Border Patrol's detention facility at 1970 W. Ajo Way has no showers.
Add another charge - Destruction of Government Property.
You don't suppose one of those angelic illegal invaders swipped the TP, do you?
Daniel Strauss, 23, a Colorado college student, and his fiancee leave the federal courthouse yesterday accompanied by the Rev. John Fife, a former pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church (rear left, with collar). Behind Strauss is Shanti Sellz, 23, a college student from New Mexico, who was also arrested.
Two college students charged last weekend with smuggling illegal immigrants were released from federal custody yesterday as more than 100 supporters packed a courtroom and hallway.
Shanti Sellz, 23, and Daniel Strauss, 23, were volunteering with the humanitarian group No More Deaths. They said they were taking three illegal immigrants to a hospital.
Seven illegal immigrants were found dead in the desert south of Tucson over the weekend.
Sellz and Strauss were arrested on Arivaca Road just after noon Saturday.
"Two volunteers with No More Deaths could be charged with smuggling illegal immigrants, a Border Patrol agent said yesterday. The volunteers, Daniel Strauss and Shanti Sellz, both 23, were arrested Saturday after an agent pulled them over on Arivaca Road and found three illegal immigrants in their car," according to the Tucson Citizen. "We've gone on record numerous times. If we stop you guys and find you're transporting illegal aliens, we will arrest you," a DHS spokesperson said. "This is not a secret."
Isn't it amazing lawbreakers are treated like the felons they are?
Sounds like they had some Abu-Grabass in captivity.
Oh the Humanity.
Maybe they can get Cultural Jihad and Bayourod to bail them out. 
Who is funding the group I wonder?
Soros. He funds em along with churches. And Kolbe.
Arizona in the height of summer?
Yep it got down to 90 last night. I know - I was up. I live in Tucson
They ought to....perhaps the desert heat will save a few taxpayer dollar$
No More Deaths
http://www.nomoredeaths.org/
http://www.laresistencia.org/no_more_deaths_campaign.htm
ANSWER,soros,ucc,wcc
The experience of being arrested and held in what they say were inhumane conditions while in federal custody has strengthened the resolve of two local immigrant aid workers, who spoke publicly for the first time Tuesday.I guess they don't have a problem with others roasting to death in the back of a trailer or living packed in a house like sardines.
Because that is what happens to the illegals they help jump the border if they are here for the purpose of earning slaves' wages for manual labor. If they're here to join a gang, they probably do much better.
Illegal immigration is wrong because it violates our borders, but it is also wrong because it destines a lot of them to living in horrid conditions. These two lefty twits just don't understand they are nothing more than useful idiots who are facilitating criminal gangs or helping traffic near-slave laborers.
Next time take them to a hospital in Mexico.
Dirty hippies- they should be used to the blankets, and why bitch about air conditioning in an Arizona jail in midsummer?
"The U.S. Border Patrol is not humanitarian. It does not have a humanitarian agenda, policy or protocol.
Hmmmmm...... U.S. border patrol.......what is their function again?
Punk criminal.
OH! the shame! /s off
"NAFS Volunteers have been working hard in Arizona to register people to vote in immigrant communities through the Arizona Interfaith Network, the Arizona Leadership Institute (ALI) and the Border Action Network (BAN). Other volunteers who've been placed with the Center for Immigrant Democracy (CID) have been working hard to contact low-propensity Latino and immigrant registered voters to persuade them to vote and to persuade their unregistered household members to register to vote."
"NAFS volunteers traveled to the border region with the Tucson-based No More Deaths (NMD) campaign.
"Working with SEIU is just one example of the ways NAFS volunteers have made a difference for immigrant workers."
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:ZopqzQkhJPQJ:www.cirnow.org/file/15.doc+%22No+More+Deaths+%22+SEIU&hl=en
Why didn't they drive them back to Mexico for medical assistance? Is it that far the other way?
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