No, it’s not. Water is a basic human right. But some people in this country seem to think (or pretend to think) otherwise. I’ll start with an incident I heard about last week. A volunteer with No More Deaths, an organization that provides humanitarian aid to migrants crossing the desert in Southern Arizona, was found guilty of littering (yes, littering) after leaving fresh water jugs for migrants lost in the desert. Feetin2worlds reports:

[Walt] Staton, 27, a volunteer with No More Deaths, was cited by the Border Patrol for leaving water containers in the park south of Tucson. Staton, who faces up to a year in prison for the charges, told the Arizona Daily Star he will continue to place water in the desert. “We’re not asking permission from the United States to save people’s lives. We never have, because we know they’d say no,” Staton told the Tucson publication.

After a two day trial Staton”s attorney, William Walker, pointed out a glaring irony to this whole process, “What really surprised me, though, was . . . this trial must have cost the government more than $50,000 . . . they say there aren’t enough agents on the border, that they can’t stop terrorists from coming into the country . . . and then they spend all of this time and money prosecuting a humanitarian who is putting out water to save lives.”

This isn’t about littering. It’s about using death as border enforcement. If the US government put as much energy into repairing trade agreements with Mexico as they do into chasing down humanitarian aid workers, there wouldn’t be so many desperate people trying to cross the desert. Inhumane enforcement only forces migrants to more dangerous situations.

This brings me to the second water-related atrocity occurring in the United States. The United Farm Workers recently sent out a call for support of blueberry workers in California. There was widespread illness and death last summer when farmworkers were not allowed access to water and shade while working in scorching heat. This year there is possibly a more egregious crime being committed against these workers. They are provided water, but if they take the time to drink it they are fired.

Rigoberto Ramirez, a Blueberry worker quoted by the UFW said,

“Supposedly we have the water available, we have the shade available, we have bathrooms available but dare not use them for fear of being fired. It was as if we had none at all.”