Jewish Women Help Mexican Migrants

Larry Luxner:

Shanti Sellz says she never meant to be a troublemaker. A college student just back from a seven-month biological research project in Ecuador, Sellz, 23, was driving the back roads of southern Arizona looking for Mexican migrants in distress when she and a friend stopped to help a family suffering from dehydration.

"I still remember very clearly this family: a man and a woman with two older teenagers, walking along the side of the road," Sellz said.

The migrants were ill and had severe blisters; one was vomiting. After consulting two doctors and a nurse via satellite phone, Sellz was advised to take the Mexicans to a clinic in Tucson for emergency medical treatment.

But they never made it.

U.S. Border Patrol officers stopped her car and arrested Sellz and her companion, Daniel Strauss, also 23. Their car was confiscated, and the two were charged with one felony count of transporting an undocumented person and one felony count of obstruction of justice.

Just four days later, the Border Patrol offered to drop the two federal charges if Sellz and Strauss would agree to enter a "diversion program" including admission of guilt and probation for one year. They refused the plea bargain.

According to news reports, Border Patrol officials said the men in the truck weren't ill and refused medical attention once in custody.

A trial is set for October at the federal courthouse in Tucson. In recent weeks, more than 100 activists with the local group "No More Deaths" have demonstrated in support of Sellz and Strauss and against immigration laws that make it illegal to bring undocumented migrants to a hospital or clinic, even if they're in obvious medical danger.

"I was not expecting to be arrested," Sellz said. "I still think, what if this was me on the side of the road? I hope to God anybody would do the same for me."

Of course, if the immigrants would enter the United States legally then none of this would happen. These deaths are caused by the immigrants' belief that the laws of the United States don't apply to them.

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