Pima County supervisors OK $25K for desert water stops
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The Pima County Board of Supervisors approved another year of funding Tuesday for water stations in the desert over the objections of people who said that such a contribution violates federal law.
The supervisors voted 4-1 to provide $25,000 for a sixth consecutive year to Humane Borders, a faith-based group whose members fill and maintain about 90 stations set in the Sonoran Desert.
The critics said that federal law prohibits the county from providing such funding, maintaining that the stations encourage illegal immigration.
Supporters of the funding for the stations said that illegals come to this country to escape desperate situations in the home country and they will continue coming whether the stations exist or not.
As of this month, 168 illegal immigrants have died in the desert in the border Patrol's Tucson District in 2007, said Supervisor Ann Day.
"The water stations we put in the desert save lives," Mark Townley, president of Humane Borders, told the supervisors.
Critics said that is irrelevant.
"Putting water out there encourages a person to come and the law says it is against the law to do this," Wes Bramhall, a longtime anti-illegal immigration activist, told the supervisors.
Day cast the dissenting vote.
Board Chairman Richard Elías dismissed the argument that the stations present a potentially deadly enticement to illegal crossers.
Fewer deaths occur in desert areas where the stations sit than where none exist, he said.
You absolutely should hear this Professor from UCLA...ABSOLUTELY!!!
This what "La Raza" really stands for.
"This Is La Raza":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1A4bPF9W1A