Please, sir... May I Have A Drink Of Water?

Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly - Border Ethics

A bill passed in the House has caused controversy because it would make illegal immigration a crime, not just a civil offense as it is now. Also, the House bill would criminalize the actions of those trying to help illegals -- clergy, doctors, teachers, social workers, and others. Several hundred Catholics in Los Angeles have begun a fast to protest those provisions. Advocates for immigrants hope the Senate bill will not be as punitive as the House version.

We have a Lucky Severson story today from the border area south of Tucson, Arizona, where he talked with some of those trying to save immigrants' lives, and some of those trying to catch illegals and send them home.

LUCKY SEVERSON: This is the Sonoran Desert south of Tucson, Arizona -- miles of dry, desolate terrain hospitable only to snakes and lizards. It's a very dangerous place for illegal immigrants.

Reverend ROBIN HOOVER (Pastor, First Christian Church and Founder, Humane Borders): Each of these dots represents one death, and some locations there have been so many deaths they're stacked on top of each other.

SEVERSON: Over a thousand men, women, and children have died miserably in the Arizona desert in recent years, and those were only the bodies that were found. It's why Robin Hoover, pastor of the First Christian Church in Tucson, started Humane Borders.

Rev. HOOVER: There are people bleeding and suffering and hurting and dying out here in the desert, and we have to do a response. It's the only way to go. America is better than what we're presenting out here to the world -- just a lot better.

SEVERSON: Each week his volunteers replenish water in the 73 tanks Humane Borders has situated in the desert to prevent even more deaths. Migrants can spot the tanks from the blue flags that fly overhead. Tim Shipe is a volunteer.

It would appear that good Christian acts that save lives and offer food and water to people crossing through a desert are now being elevated to ths status of criminal acts. Most states don't even consider providing food and water to an escapee from prison a crime. What does this say about the form of Christianity that the ultra-conservatives in Congress practice? Are we so callous in our effort to be secure and so hardened in our hearts that we would deny men, women and children crossing a desert some water and food? In Saudi Arabia it is against the law to refuse water to anyone in the desert... What does this say about us?

And under this proposed bill, even advocating for asylum for those that crossed our borders could be considered a crime. We need border security, but this is not the way to go. One has to wonder who are the idiots coming up with these proposals. We are the United States of America. We believe in fair and just treatment of all people. It appears that the ultra-conservatives in our nation would object to giving a drowning man a drink of water. One wonders what they would have offered Jesus after spending 40 days in the desert. So much for their "Christian" and family values... and the idea that all life is sacred.