Trial For No More Deaths' Scott Warren Begins In Tucson

TUCSON, AZ — The federal trial for Scott Warren, an activist with No More Deaths who faces charges of harboring and conspiring to transport two Mexican men in the U.S. illegally begins Wednesday.

Noam Chomsky stood with Warren's parents outside the federal courthouse downtown and about 50 others with No More Deaths demanding Warren's charges dropped Wednesday morning. More than 126,000 signatures were collected online in a petition asking the court for the same.

Throughout the morning, potential jurors were questioned. At least two were pulled aside by the judge for followups. One of those potential jurors is a Border Patrol agent. The other a volunteer with Humane Borders, according to KJZZ reporter Michel Marizco.

Warren, 36, was arrested in 2017 and faces three felony counts including conspiracy to transport and harbor migrants. In its complaint, the government claims Warren was seen talking to two migrants who sheltered in Ajo. He denies being part of any sheltering plan.

Warren says his spiritual values compel him to help all people in distress.

Drawn to the Sonoran Desert surrounding Ajo, Arizona, back in 2009, Warren joined No More Deaths to help their cause. Since then, he's encountered the remains of 16 people during his water jug-dropping treks through the remote wilderness.

The fact that so many people have died near Ajo is “unconscionable to me and it requires me to act and to do something,” he told The Arizona Daily Star.

Some 7,000 people have died crossing Pima County's expanses in the last two decades, although those numbers are thought to be higher.

Arrests of people for harboring, sheltering, leaving food and water or otherwise protecting migrants have been on the rise since 2017, when then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered federal prosecutors to prioritize cases covered under the harboring statute, NPR reports.

"It is scary to be intimidated like this and to be targeted but there really is no choice," Warren said. "For the government, it's kind of been an expansion of the interpretation of what it means to harbor."