Thursday, June 15, 2006

I'm Endorsing Vandalism

I never thought I would endorse vandalism, but it has come to this. Maybe actions like these will encourage more Mexicans to stay home.

Mich, along with hundreds of other Humane Borders volunteers, travels into the wilderness each day to refill tanks with water meant for the lips of illegal immigrants crossing the border.
Marked with a blue flag, the jugs are placed deep in the desert just outside Tucson in areas where volunteers say the most illegal immigrants have died from dehydration.
"We save lives by doing this," said Humane Borders Volunteer Frank Saavedra. "I don't know how many, but if it's only one it's worth it."
Not everyone agrees with Humane Borders placing water tanks in areas heavily trafficked by illegal immigrants.
Mich says vandals have been coming out to the water stations, pulling the caps off the tanks and dumping the water out into the desert.
The volunteers also say vandals are destroying the blue flags that fly atop 30-foot poles in the middle of the desert -- flags the immigrants look for when seeking out a water station on their journeys.
"Flags have been destroyed, and not in this station but in others. They've put bullet holes [the water tanks]," Mich said.
Mich also says each week Humane Borders finds at least one or more of their 70 water tanks vandalized, an act these volunteers say can kill.
"If they're planning on getting their water at that location and they get there and there's no water, then the next time they could get water could be not before they die," Saavedra said.
Russ Dove, a local immigration activist, says he understands why people trash the tanks.
"The vandal issue is a sign that Americans have had enough," Dove said, "and from observation, I think it's only going to get worse."
Dove says Humane Borders is helping illegal immigrants, some he calls criminals, cross the border safely.
"These are robbers, rapists, murders. This is simply aiding and abetting criminal activity," Dove said.
The volunteers, however, say the border crossers are innocent, crossing in search of a better life.
"We're going to continue to do this regardless of how many empty tanks we find," Mich said. "We're going to continue to do this."


I endorse the vandals.

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