A delegation of volunteers from No More Deaths, a humanitarian aid group based in Tucson, Arizona, will participate in a Congressional briefing in Washington, D.C., on September 17, 1:00 PM. Their new report, "Human Rights Abuses of Migrants in Short-Term Custody on the Arizona/Sonora Border," will be released at that time. The briefing is hosted by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ). The following day, September 18, the report will be shared with human rights groups in another briefing hosted by Amnesty International.

Global Exchange activist Kate Raven has been volunteering with No More deaths for three years. "One day, a group of migrants, including three children, limped into the center and reported that Border Patrol had forced them to run in front of their truck for over a mile in the mid-day heat of the Arizona desert," she said. "A young boy in the group stared at me vacantly and stated, 'They told me it was so I remembered to never try to cross again.'"

No More Deaths has supported three aid stations in border cities that receive migrants dropped off at the ports of entry by Homeland Security/Border Patrol. The first two stations opened in Nogales and Agua Prieta, Sonora, in the summer of 2006 to offer food, water and medical care to migrants repatriated back to Mexico by the United States. More than 350,000 people have come through the stations. Humanitarian aid workers staffing the stations heard stories from migrants of abusive treatment during their apprehension, transportation and processing by Border Patrol. More than 400 individual accounts of abuse compiled over the past two years are included in the report.

"On a daily basis, migrants coming through the aid station in Agua Prieta, Mexico, reported that they had been denied food, water and medical condition after being in the desert for days," stated Raven. "For me, the hardest things to see were the bruises, black eyes, swollen ankles and lacerations caused not by the harsh Arizona desert or bandits, but rather by employees of the United States Government. Border Patrol must be held accountable for these abuses and meanwhile, policymakers must strategically reevaluate the free trade policies that are driving people away from their homes and across the border."

No More Deaths is making the trek to DC in hopes of "bringing the realities of the desert" to federal representatives and to ask congress to create custody standards and ongoing oversight for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol.

Andy Silverman, an immigration law professor at the University of Arizona and No More Deaths legal advisor, will be on the briefing panel. "Everyday we hear from migrants of the cruel, inhuman and degrading way in which agents of our government have treated them, which is now documented in the No More Deaths report," Silverman said. "Thus, it is time that Congress adopts standards concerning how people will be treated who are in short-term custody of our government."

Also on the panel will be Norma Price, MD, and Sally Meisenhelder, RN. Both Dr. Price and Meisenhelder have witnessed the denial of medical care first hand. Affidavits containing testimony of their experiences are contained in the report.

More information about No More Deaths, including the executive summary of the report, can be found online at www.nomoredeaths.org. The final report will be available for download on September 17.

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