Prosecuted for water: Humanitarian gesture becomes a crime

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Prosecuted for water: Humanitarian gesture becomes a crime

From the Watertown Daily Times editorial page, in its entirety:

An Arizona man will do community service rather than go to jail for his compassion.

Walt Staton was convicted earlier this year of littering in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge Area. His crime: leaving plastic water bottles out in the desert. That might not normally attract a lot of attention, but this case was about more than the water bottles.

Mr. Staton is a member of a No More Deaths, a group that believes it is better to help people rather than let them die for want of food or water in the extreme heat of the Sonora Desert even if they aren’t welcome in our country. He left water jugs along a route known to be used by illegal aliens.

The federal government spent thousands of dollars to bring him to justice on a minor crime supposedly because of the environmental damage that could be done by the jugs.

He was sentenced to 300 days of community service and banned from the refuge for a year. When he refused, the U.S. magistrate threatened him with 25 days in jail. Mr. Staton relented and agreed to do the community service.

His actions would usually be hailed as humanitarian, but in this case he ran afoul of our immigration laws, which likely had more to do with the issue than preserving the natural beauty of our wilderness areas.