Aid workers found guilty of dropping off water, food for migrants in Arizona desert

The nation is celebrating Martine Luther King Jr. Day.  One is left to wonder what Dr. King would think of the following story?

Rafael Carranza for the Arizona Republic reports that a federal judge found four humanitarian aid volunteers guilty of charges for dropping off water and food for migrants at a protected wilderness area along the Arizona-Mexico border.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Bernardo Velasco found Natalie Hoffman, a volunteer with humanitarian aid group No More Deaths, guilty on all three charges against her. He also found three other volunteers guilty of the two charges they each faced.

Hoffman had been charged with operating a vehicle inside the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Arizona, entering without a permit, and leaving water jugs and cans of beans. The charges stemmed from an encounter with a U.S. Fish and Wildlife officer at Cabeza Prieta on Aug. 13, 2017.

The court found her three co-defendants, all passengers in the truck Hoffman was driving inside the refuge, guilty of entering the area without a permit and abandoning personal property.

KJ