skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: Border Patrol Agents Vandalize Water Left in Desert for Migrants

play audio
Play

Wednesday, January 17, 2018   

TUCSON, Ariz. – Border Patrol agents have been caught on video dumping out water and confiscating blankets left in the desert by aid workers, according to a report just out from the humanitarian group No More Deaths.

The group put out almost 32,000 gallons of water from 2012 through 2015 and found that 3,000 gallons were vandalized.

Trail cameras caught multiple cases of Border Patrol agents in the act of dumping water and removing blankets – two as recently as 2017.

Kate Morgan, abuse documentation and advocacy coordinator with No More Deaths, maintains these acts can make a treacherous journey turn lethal.

"Oftentimes, we find that our water drops are vandalized in some of the most lethal portions of the desert,” she states. “The act of destroying those aid supplies, we believe, constitutes a deadly act against people who are crossing the border."

Morgan says the Pima County Medical Examiner's office took in the bodies of 539 border crossers during the study period.

The Border Patrol said it will look into the report but did not respond to further inquiries as of the deadline for this story.

In the past, the agency has said it would leave the water alone but would not say if agents have been disciplined, citing privacy concerns.

In 1994, the Border Patrol adopted a tactic called "prevention through deterrence," which posits that making the journey more difficult will convince people not to risk it – the same reasoning behind lengthening the border wall, which leads migrants to cross in more rugged terrain.

It's an argument Morgan rejects.

"People have very, very compelling reasons for leaving their home and making such a deadly crossing,” she states. “It really has very little to do with our presence in the desert."

he study shows that 86 percent of the water put out in the desert is used by migrants, while a small portion of it was destroyed by hunters, people using the desert for recreation and militias.

The report, called Interference with Humanitarian Aid, Death and Disappearance on the U.S. Mexico Border, is available at thedisappearedreport.org.






get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021