Some say Samaritans abetting undocumented immigrants

TUCSON, Ariz. - The undocumented immigrants cross the vast southern Arizona desert at their own peril. The summer heat collects many before they reach their destination. They are warned, yet they still come.

And so, members of nine religious groups in the Tucson area have begun patrols in four-wheel-drive vehicles bearing emergency aid.

Volunteers with the "Samaritan Patrol" not to be confused with the U.S. Border Patrol, which is keeping a watchful eye on the fledgling group carry water, food and first-aid supplies to assist migrants who have become lost or otherwise endangered in the desert.

"I think people of faith really resonate with this," said Rick Ufford-Chase, a member of Southside Presbyterian Church, which participates in the desert patrols. "Story after story in the Bible reflects on the critical importance of providing hospitality to people in need, beginning with the good Samaritan."

Not everybody sees it that way. Critics such as Wes Bramhall, president of Arizonans for Immigration Control, have suggested that Samaritan Patrol's "aiding and abetting" of immigrants could lead to illegal acts and may encourage more people to enter the United States illegally.

"Are they going to transport [undocumented immigrants] to their destinations?" he asked, speaking to the Tucson Citizen newspaper. "If they break the law, I think they should be [prosecuted] to the full extent of the law."

Since July 2, Samaritan patrollers have taken to the desert in the early morning or late afternoon, divided into groups of three or four. One member drives often using his own vehicle, or a four-wheel-drive truck loaned by a fellow volunteer and is accompanied by at least one medically trained volunteer and one Spanish speaker.

"This is not a bunch of lone rangers going out to help people," Mr. Ufford-Chase said. "It is committed people of faith intentionally gathering together and working out a strategy ... to live out [their] vision of what community is. Community is not hearing that another person just died in the desert and not doing something about it."

The vehicles bear a red magnetic sign emblazoned with the words Patrullaje Samaritano (Samaritan Patrol) and a green cross, the Mexican symbol for immediate assistance. The patrol found its first border crossers Tuesday.

For Tucson residents, living about 60 miles from the Mexican border, immigration issues strike close to home. Many have extended family living in Mexico. The U.S. Border Patrol's light-green trucks frequently travel on nearby Interstates 10 and 19, as well as on city streets. And as the temperature rises, so does publicity of the growing body count of border crossers who did not survive the desert trek.

Since October 2001, Border Patrol authorities have discovered the bodies of at least 69 presumed undocumented immigrants in southern Arizona 43 of whom died from heat exposure, said Rob Daniels, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol.

In June, 34 people died in the agency's Tucson sector, which oversees 281 miles of the 350-mile-long Arizona-Mexico border. During that time, Border Patrol agents rescued 373 desert crossers.

The Samaritan Patrol, which began with 15 volunteers, is an ecumenical effort including Presbyterians, Quakers, Methodists, Jews and Roman Catholics. Last week, about 50 people attended a daylong training session to qualify for patrol duty.

Participants suggest that Tucson's Samaritan Patrol may be the first U.S. church-based group to formally train civilians for desert patrol and rescue missions specifically aimed at undocumented immigrants.

Volunteers are taught basic first aid and navigational and desert-survival skills. They learn about economic and political forces that affect migration, as well as the basics of immigration law, said Matthew Moore, a patroller and member of St. Mark's Presbyterian Church.

"People don't just decide one day, 'I'm going to take a walk across the border,' " he said. "Folks do not come up here by choice, but by an act of desperation. You'd have to, to make that trek."

When encountering border crossers, the Samaritan patrollers are to offer food, water and options for rescue, Mr. Moore said. If immigrants are injured, patrollers may drive them to the nearest medical facility for medical treatment, or contact the Border Patrol at the immigrants' request to arrange transport back to Mexico.

Controversy erupted in the patrol's second week of operation, when immigration authorities learned that one patrol drove two undocumented immigrants, a man and woman, to a Tucson church to rest and re-hydrate.

"The group established a set of protocols from its inception, after advice from their legal counsel," the Border Patrol's Mr. Daniels said in a statement, referring to the Samaritan Patrol. "They followed those protocols. We interviewed the [immigrant] individuals in question, and they were determined to be in the country illegally."

Mr. Ufford-Chase has said that the group's protocol is to encourage undocumented immigrants to turn themselves in to Border Patrol authorities. On Wednesday, immigration authorities took the immigrant pair into custody and returned them to Mexico.

The Rev. John Fife, a local Presbyterian minister who won national attention for establishing the "sanctuary movement" in the 1980s, leads Samaritan Patrol. For his role in creating and maintaining an underground railroad helping Central American refugees escape death squads in their homelands, Mr. Fife spent six months in jail.

In addition to church groups, Samaritan Patrol counts among its supporters agencies such as BorderLinks, an education and community-development organization; Healing Our Borders, a migrant support group; and Humane Borders, an all-volunteer group that has placed 25 well-marked water stations at various locations in the desert, dispensing about 300 gallons a week.

Many Mexican border crossers simply don't understand the risks they face, said the Rev. Robin Hoover, president of Humane Borders and pastor of First Christian Church in Tucson.

"Migrants that we see and interview have no clue what they were getting into," said Mr. Hoover, who served at churches in Fort Worth, Arlington Heights, Freeport and Lubbock before coming to Tucson. "They didn't know the distances, dangers, the heat this was not an act performed with informed consent."

Despite some criticism, the overall response has been positive, Mr. Ufford-Chase said.

"On the most basic level, very few people will disagree to giving a glass of water and a tin of tuna fish to a person dying in the desert," he said. "Some people, even at that level, say you're encouraging illegal immigration. But I have yet to meet someone who will walk 80 miles in 110-degree heat for a glass of warm water."

Isn't there a penalty for helping someone break the law?

I'm certain of it. From the article:

"The group established a set of protocols from its inception, after advice from their legal counsel," the Border Patrol's Mr. Daniels said in a statement, referring to the Samaritan Patrol. "They followed those protocols. We interviewed the [immigrant] individuals in question, and they were determined to be in the country illegally."
Mr. Ufford-Chase has said that the group's protocol is to encourage undocumented immigrants to turn themselves in to Border Patrol authorities. On Wednesday, immigration authorities took the immigrant pair into custody and returned them to Mexico.

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