This man could go to jail for 20 years for giving migrants food and water

[FiveGoodMen]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/10/scott-daniel-warren-migrants-food-water

Donald Trump claims his administration’s heavy-handed immigration policies make us safer. But a criminal trial in Arizona this week shows that, in the Trump era, safety has lost its meaning. Federal prosecutors are pursuing criminal charges against activist Scott Daniel Warren for doing nothing more than giving food, water and shelter to migrants trekking through the desert. The stakes are high for Warren and for everyone concerned about unrestrained border policing.

Since the days of Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, the justice department has feverishly pursued migrants. In April 2017, Sessions stood before Customs and Border Protection officers in southern Arizona, part of the federal Department of Homeland Security, and described macabre machete attacks and beheadings supposedly perpetrated by migrants. “Criminal aliens, and the coyotes and the document-forgers seek to overturn our system of lawful immigration,” he said. To show the frontline DHS law enforcement officers that the justice department is on their side, Sessions issued a memo to prosecutors asking them to ramp up prosecution of five federal crimes about immigration.

A few months later, prosecutors charged Warren with several counts of one of those offenses, conspiracy to transport and harbor migrants. A federal felony that could land Warren in prison for 20 years, prosecutors rarely tap this charge. Even Sessions appeared to recognize that harboring cases are not big-ticket items. His April 2017 memo, which is still in force despite Trump ushering him out of the justice department, recommends targeting people who helped at least three people or where someone was injured. Prosecutors aren’t alleging either against Warren.

Instead, court records paint him as saintly. Border patrol agents, prosecutors claim, saw Warren arrive at a remote desert location called “the Barn”. There he encountered two people fitting the description of “lost illegal aliens”. The two men, both of whom allegedly entered the United States clandestinely, didn’t know Warren and he didn’t help them get to the Barn. But once he met them there, Warren is said to have given them “food, water, beds, and clean clothes” for three days. Federal prosecutors don’t allege anything more sinister.

[watoos]

1. Wow, Trump may be in trouble,

how many years for hiring illegals for decades?

[A HERETIC I AM]

2. Just take him out back and shoot him, for crying out loud.

After all, what would Jesus do, eh?


As if I needed the fucking Sarcasm thingus.

[gratuitous]

3. Hmmmm

I wonder how a defense of honoring his deeply held religious beliefs would fare? It worked for Hobby Lobby (Who knew a corporation could have religious beliefs?), and the Trump administration is willing to create all kinds of mischief in the name of deeply held religious beliefs. In this case, there is even biblical support (both testaments!) for feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and ministering to the sick, as well as welcoming the alien and the stranger.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

4. Un-fuckin-believable! Those who should go to jail for 20 years are the prosecutors of this great man

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[mitch96]

5. And Manafort gets 7.5 years... somtin's wrong............. nt

[MyOwnPeace]

6. Guess their Bibles were "off line....."

Matthew 25:35-37 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
"35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?"

Maybe Falwell or Graham will come running in to end this mess............... or maybe even St. Pence.................