LAS VEGAS — Walt Staton wanted to help people, and his tool was a water jug. On the morning of Dec. 4, he and three others drove southwest from Tucson, to the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, which tens of thousands of illegal immigrants traverse each year.
But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the plastic jugs he left for the immigrants endanger wildlife, and this week Staton was sentenced in federal court in Tucson on a charge of littering. He was given one year of unsupervised probation and ordered to spend 300 hours picking up trash.
The sentence, however, does not quite capture the emotions surrounding the case -- yet another testament to the volatility of the illegal immigration debate in Arizona. Prosecutors had asked for a $5,000 fine and five years' probation. Staton, for his part, had insisted on a trial, rather than pay a $175 fine.
In recent months, as the legal proceedings progressed, each side has essentially accused the other of staging a show trial to bolster its view of U.S. border policy.
Staton, a 27-year-old Web designer and soup kitchen volunteer, viewed his actions as humanitarian. As he had done for five years with the faith-based aid group No More Deaths, Staton in December lugged water up hills and through scrub to remote, migrant-carved trails. Only this time, when he and his comrades returned from leaving eight jugs at their last stop, authorities were waiting, and he was cited by a Fish and Wildlife Service officer.
Staton joined No More Deaths in 2004, after graduating from the University of Arizona. Volunteers hike the heavily trafficked refuge -- about 54,000 immigrants passed through in 2008 -- during often-sweltering days, offering food, water and medical help to anyone they find. Some migrants have died while crossing the punishing desert.
But most border crossers travel at night, so No More Deaths also leaves water bottles along the refuge's 1,300 miles of migrant trails. "It's a human rights issue, from our perspective," group spokeswoman Danielle Alvarado said. "We have people crossing and dying in our desert."
Mike Hawkes, manager of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, said he has no problem with providing water to illegal immigrants -- another aid group, in fact, runs three stations, each with two 55-gallon water drums and spigots. Stray bottles, though, can endanger mule deer, mountain lions and other wildlife, which might eat chunks of plastic or catch their antlers or paws on them, he said.
