Jury Deadlocks in Case of Arizonan Who Helped Immigrants

Humanitarian aid worker Scott Warren walked out of court to cheers from supporters today after a jury deadlocked on charges that he helped two undocumented immigrants get into the United States and hid them from border agents.

{snip} The volunteer for the nonprofit aid group No More Deaths was charged with one count of conspiracy to harbor or transport and two counts of harboring illegal aliens. His seven-day trial before U.S. District Judge Raner Collins went to jurors this past Friday.

{snip}

“Since my arrest in January of 2018, at least 88 bodies were recovered from the Ajo corridor of the Arizona desert. We know that’s a minimum and many more are out there that have not been found,” Warren said. He noted the government’s response, which includes criminalizing humanitarian aid and planning a wall.

{snip}

Prosecutors claimed Warren conspired with Mexican aid worker Irineo Mujica and No More Deaths nurse Susannah Brown to help two undocumented migrants – Kristian Gerardo Perez-Villanueva from El Salvador and Jose Arnaldo Sacaria-Godoy from Guatemala – into the tiny town of Ajo, Arizona, about 30 miles north of Mexico where No More Deaths maintains a permanent aid station they call the “barn.”

Mujica, prosecutors said, was in contact with Warren in the days before the men climbed the border fence outside Sonoyta, Mexico, across the border from Lukeville, Arizona. The men hiked two nights, eventually getting to Ajo and finding a man who prosecutors say was Mujica, who gave them a ride to the barn.

The jury deliberated two days before coming back deadlocked.

{snip}