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Press Advisory
Tucson Humanitarians Head to DC to Release Abuse Report
No More Deaths to Share Findings, Recommendations with Congress
Where: Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson, 4831 E. 22nd St
When: 12:00 pm, Friday, September 12
Contact: Walt Staton, No More Deaths Media Rep – 520.240.1641
Sarah Roberts, RN (Habla español) - 520.850.9459
Come join No More Deaths and their supporters as they send off a delegation of volunteers to Washington, D.C., to release their new report, "Human Rights Abuses of Migrants in Short-Term Custody on the Arizona/Sonora Border."
No More Deaths is sending a delegation of volunteers to the nation's capital to present the report to Congress in a briefing hosted by Rep. Raúl Grijalva at 1:00 pm on Wednesday, September 17 and a briefing hosted by Amnesty International the following day. The Tucson-based humanitarian aid group also plans to personally visit congress members' offices and network with other human rights and faith-based organizations.
The group will use the trip to push lawmakers to establish enforceable standards and ongoing public oversight for short-term custody by Homeland Security. Drawing from more than two years of documentation, the report shows that human rights are systematically violated by Border Patrol on a daily basis.
“With every bus load of repatriated migrants, we hear testimonies that they weren’t given enough to eat, they had little access to water after being in the desert for days, and were denied needed medical attention,” said Maryada Vallet, who helped get a migrant aid station off the ground in Nogales, Sonora in June of 2006. “Even more distressing, we regularly have people coming to us still crying, bleeding, or wincing in pain from abuse suffered while in US custody.”
The report supports these allegations with personal stories from migrants and affidavits of Humanitarian Aid workers who have spent time on the border at aid stations in Nogales, Naco and Agua Prieta.Volunteers will share some of their experiences during Friday's event.
Speaking on the panel before congress in Washington will include: Andy Silverman, professor at the UA James E. Rogers College of Law; Norma Price, MD; Sally Meisenhelder, RN; and Maryada Vallet, EMT and Casa Maria volunteer.
“When No More Deaths began, we thought we would just be doing direct humanitarian aid in the desert,” said Reverend John Fife, retired pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church. “But it wasn’t long after starting this work that we heard all the appalling stories. At that point, we had an obligation to act.”
"The systemic causes of these human rights abuses must be corrected by Congress and the American people," Fife said.
Copies of the report will be made available online at www.nomoredeaths.org after it is presented to Congress. The executive summary is already available.
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