When Humanitarian Aid Is Considered a Crime

To start with,

I'd like for you to write down any particular question

or thought that you have about the topic at hand for today.

Remember the topic at hand for today is borders,

walls and immigration.

First word was fear.

Borders are supposed to keep us safe and now I have fear.

I'm prejudiced.

I come from a city

where we didn't have any people of any color

till I was about 40, up in Wisconsin.

So yeah, that's the way I was raised.

[Scott] Thank you for sharing that, yeah.

We went through it, yeah?

I guess my thing is, they wanna come here.

They wanna come here for a better life so badly,

but then they also want to say,

Well, do it my old country way.

Yeah.

You know, I guess I don't understand that.

I'll be real quick.

She pretty much stole the some of my-

I'm sorry, I'm sorry Linda.

We have the same wavelength.

Assimilation is very important.

[Woman] Thank you so much. Thank you.

I really appreciate you being here.

Yeah, nice to see you.

Hey, thanks a lot.

Appreciate you being here, yeah.

[Woman] So what kind of work

do you actually do on the border?

Well, so I live in Ajo.

You live in what?

In Ajo, I'm a geographer

but another thing that I do is a lot of volunteer work,

getting water to people who are dying in the desert,

searching for people who have become lost

and have died in the desert.

There's a lot of effort of civilian groups.

But a lot of those have been arrested, right?

I was one of them. Oh, were you?

Yep.

In the interest of full disclosure,

you shouldn't have told us about that.

Probably should have told you that first, yeah.

[Woman] Thank you.

Thank you so much for being here.

I really appreciate it and thanks for your service, yeah.

[Narrator] We turn now to southern Arizona

where a humanitarian aid volunteer is heading to trial

for providing food, water and shelter

to two undocumented migrants.

Scott Warren of Ajo, Arizona,

faces up to 20 years in prison

after being charged with three felony counts

for allegedly harboring undocumented migrants.

People drink from these.

Migrants as they're crossing through here.

Up into here, it'll be a little bit clearer

whether we found a trail or not, I mean,

that's the big unknown factor is finding a trail.

These geysers are probably key like,

the people would want to get to for water.

[Woman] Great.

[Scott] This Scott talking.

[Woman] Maco. Polo.

Great.

T1 network.

[Man] Come on [indistinct].

Growing up here in Ajo, we were always taught

whenever you come to the desert, always carry water.

Ajo is the first town you reach when you cross the border.

I hear a lot of stories

of people who have died in the desert.

Sometimes there will be people passing through

wanting water.

They ask for [speaks in foreign language]

or a glass of water.

You know, I just gave it to them.

What the hell.

Ain't supposed to let somebody die of thirst

or starve to death.

[speaks in foreign language]

To us it's normal.

We've lived with them all of our lives.

That was never a big deal

and then the government stepped in,

made a big deal out of it.

And now it's a big deal.

[Woman] 720142.

Picking up this trash somebody left on the trail.

Not yours is it?

Just tell me, is it yours?

Not yours. Scott Warren,

no more deaths.

Your organization released a report

detailing how US border agents

had intentionally destroyed more than 3000 gallons of water

left out for migrants.

Explain the significance of this.

The timing that same day.

The report was released that morning

and then agents arrested me that evening.

United States of America versus Scott Daniel Warren,

on or about January 17 2018

at Onio, Ajo in the district of Arizona,

United States Border Patrol agents

were conducting surveillance a building known as the barn.

Two subjects that matched a description

of two lost illegal aliens

received the address to the barn

as a place they could get food and water.

After finding their way to the barn,

Warren met them outside and gave them food and water

for approximately three days.

It's a scary thing to face these charges,

but the two men that were arrested with me

have not and do not receive the same kind of support

and attention that I've been getting.

And that's not lost on me either.

Stand up, gather around so you can see the maps, okay?

Okay?

So you all understand that almost everyone

who migrates back and forth across this border

migrates through the urban areas of this border

through the cities,

because it's the easiest and safest place to cross, right?

Except that in 1994,

the United States decided for the first time

to secure the border.

They called it prevention through deterrence.

So they said step one,

we believe we can seal off those urban areas from migration,

and they said step two, when that happens,

people are going to start to go around the edges, right?

But they said, now when they go around the edges,

they will have to go

through the deadliest areas of the border.

And they said that will be a deterrent

to other people trying to cross

and thereby we will secure the border, got it?

And they were wrong.

So this is the result of that strategy.

Every one of those red dots

is where human remains have been found.

[group howling]

We're going to trial next week and I'm scared.

But this isn't just going away.

We're in this.

We're in this till the end,

whatever the end looks like.

There's this water source

and then to the south like 15 miles out

and across the valley,

there's another water tank like this.

And I think basically

why so many people are dying in this area

is that they're trying to get to here

and then don't make it.

[flies buzzing]

So we can't at this moment say

exactly what will be prosecuted

and exactly what will not be prosecuted.

We're in this really interesting moment in history,

we're kind of tracking human rights defenders

increasingly becoming targeted, intimidated,

harassed and prosecuted by state actors,

including the United States.

I have had over a dozen illegals,

they ask food, I feed them, I give them water.

But my question is, can the Border Patrol go in my yard

and get me?

Would I be in trouble?

So is it my responsibility as a United States citizen,

to get identification for every person

I give a glass water to?

Can you not put water on the other side of your fence post

or your property line?

[Woman] Then you're at liberty

and you have misdemeanor [indisctinct].

Can you hang it on your fence on the other side?

Is that legal?

If it's not touching the ground.

It's all legal, legal, legal, legal, legal.

All these details.

Details.

Power is in the details.

[Man] 500 years of legal, legal, legal.

When slavery was legal and slaves were running away

and people were helping them, it was probably illegal.

In your heart you know what is right to do

for another human being.

[group applauds]

I know where my personal decision making

and my personal conscious stand with those things.

I cannot tell you what the answers are to those questions

in terms of the legal framework of the US code

or anything like that.

Sometimes this doesn't get reported,

but there were three of us arrested that day.

It was me along with Jose and Kristian.

The judge released me on my own recognizance

after about 24 hours in custody.

He said, Yeah, whatever you're not the kind of person

that we need to put in jail right now.

Right now.

They kept Jose and Kristian in detention

in order to depose them as material witnesses

in a case against me.

And then in exchange for that,

they very quickly deported them back to the places

which they had been fleeing for their lives.

Do we know those people

that were deported back to the countries

to which they had been afraid to live in are still alive?

[Scott] I don't know.

Before, I see somebody on the road, need some water?

I go, here.

Now I won't do it

because I'm afraid of

consequences.

[speaks in foreign language]

Everyone and Scott should be innocent.

Yeah, I don't think it was right.

He was just helping someone in need.

He broke the law.

If you do the crime, you do the time.

[Woman] Shoe size.

[Scott] Shoe size?

14 or 13.

[Woman] Do you have a preference

between shiny and not shiny?

Always non shiny.

I'm a matte finish kind of a human being.

This can be okay or like this kind of blue I like.

I like the black one looks like you're going to a funeral.

The navy blue looks like you're getting on a yacht.

[Woman] This is strategy.

[Woman] Okay. It's not for you.

But we want you to look sharp for jury selection.

Yeah.

I love you.

I love you too.

So I'll see you really early.

All right, so thank you all for coming out today.

We're here to stand in solidarity with Dr. Scott Warren

and everybody else who believes that water and food

are basic human rights.

[Woman] Have a good day.

[Scott] Thanks.

[Woman] Yeah, you got this.

You are doing an impressive job of maintaining your cool.

Thanks.

Humanitarian aid is not a crime.

It's not only not a crime,

it's a duty, it's a responsibility.

[Woman] Scott Warren, you go on trial today.

Amnesty is called for all charges to be drafted

the judges refused to drop the charges.

Scott, are you prepared to spend 20 years in prison?

[Woman] A federal criminal trial in Tucson

is hatching national attention.

[Man] Trial of an Arizona man

began today in Federal Court.

[Woman] Warren has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

[Man] If he's convicted, he faces--

[Woman] 20 years in prison, reporting in studio.

[Woman] The legal aspect of this case--

[Man] As Martin King said,

the arc of history is long indeed

but it always bends toward justice.

Well, it bends toward justice

because people keep pulling on that end of the arc.

[Woman] And deliberating for five hours still no verdict.

When you get to be my age,

you understand that it's gonna be a lifelong struggle

and you just gotta keep bending.

[Man] Could you get any feel for this--

So I'm gonna speak first

as representative in Scott's legal team.

Scott Warren remains innocent

because the jury could not unanimously conclude otherwise.

The government put on its best case

with the full force of countless resources

and 12 jurors could not agree with that case.

We remain voted today in our--

The trial ended in a hung jury.

So there will be another trial

and that will happen in November.

You know, you think of places in the world

where extreme forms of violence and oppression are used

to coerce people into doing things or to not doing things,

and they still do them.

So, the short answer is,

I think that people always provide humanitarian aid

regardless of what the consequences are.