Migrants cross the Rio Bravo illegally to surrender to the American authorities, on the US - Mexico border bet... Read More

WASHINGTON: In the hours before she died of dehydration in the Arizona desert after her mother went to look for water, six year old Gurpreet Kaur could not find a “rescue beacon” that US border patrol agents scatter in the wilderness to aid stranded migrants who find themselves in danger. The little girl from India also could not find food and water that Uncle Sam does NOT leave in the desert, and actually FORBIDS Good Samaritans from distributing to undocumented immigrants making the dangerous trek from Mexico to the United States.

Scott Warren would recognize the grim irony of providing migrants a life-saving beacon but denying them food and water for life. The 36 year old geography teacher has been on trial in a US court, charged with conspiracy to transport and harbor migrants, while his defense attorneys are arguing that he and “No More Deaths,” the humanitarian organization he works with, was simply being kind by providing two migrants with water, food and lodging when he was arrested in early 2018.

Little Gurpreet will become just another statistical blip in the humanitarian crisis at the U.S-Mexico border involving illegal border crossing, but the Warren case has drawn worldwide attention for the Trump administration’s hardline policy on illegal immigration and asylum seekers. Last week, a jury in Arizona was deadlocked over sentencing Warren. Prosecutors maintained that he should have gotten 20 years in prison.

“In the time since I was arrested in January 2018, no fewer than 88 bodies were recovered from the Arizona desert,” Warren said in a statement after the deadlocked trial. “The government’s plan in the midst of this humanitarian crisis? Policies to target undocumented people, refugees and their families. Prosecutions to criminalize humanitarian aid, kindness and solidarity.”

While the case has highlighted the work of No More Deaths, which was founded in 2004 by Catholic and Jewish religious leaders and has been active on the border, Gurpreet's death has also drawn attention to the growing number of illegal immigrants from India, mostly from Punjab, who are attempting to enter the U.S not only from Mexico at the Southern border, but also via “panga” boats, an open, outboard-powered, fishing vessel common in the Caribbean and Latin America.

In March this year, six Indian nationals were apprehended in upstate New York, pointing to smuggling rings that also operate on the northern border. Indians have also been apprehended in the Pacific off the coast of California .

But the southern border with Mexico remains the favorite entry point for illegal immigrants from South Asia , including Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Nepalese. Border patrol agents who intercept illegal migrants hidden in tractor trailers and panga boats often find South Asians among them, pointing to ties links between Indian human smugglers and Latino facilitators.

Hundreds of Indians are languishing in US detention centers and many are reported to have resorted to hunger strikes to draw attention to their plight at a time the Trump administration has begun to have tighter norms for asylum applications.

