Border agents on horseback surround No More Deaths camp just before Christmas
NOTE: No More Deaths camp is a project of the UU Church of Tuscon and UUSC (https://www.uusc.org/initiatives/no-more-deaths/)
Just before Christmas Eve, Border Patrol agents on horseback surrounded No More Death’s humanitarian aid station south of Tucson and told volunteers they were pursuing a warrant to raid the camp, the group said.
If agents do conduct a raid, it would be the third incursion into the camp near Arivaca, Ariz., in five months, coming near the end of a spike in the number of remains found in southwestern Arizona—a likely sign that a larger number of people are attempting to cross illegally, and are dying in remote stretches of the desert.
The raids have occurred at the Byrd Camp, a collection of military surplus tents, trailers, and shacks where volunteers work to provide water food and medicine to those crossing the desert, just a few miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Activists with the group said that mounted border agents rode around the camp’s edge on Wednesday night, telling the group that they intended to obtain a federal warrant to carry out another raid there.