On 6th March 2019 Emily Saunders (a US citizen) was accused with her colleague Ana Adlerstein of aiding and abetting human smuggling. Emily Saunders is a clinical social worker, and a humanitarian volunteer with the organizations Ajo Samaritans and No More Deaths, in Ajo, Arizona. On that day, they and three other volunteers observed a Honduran family of 16 approach the Lukeville Port of Entry to request asylum, after driving to the port of entry together with the family on the Mexico side of the border. Ms. Adlerstein told Amnesty International: “In the family of 16, half of them were kids. They had been shot at the night prior, and wanted to present. One or two of them were wounded so badly, they were taken to a hospital. [...] We drove them to the Mexican side of the port of entry, and it was a beautiful scene of triumph. And then half of the CBP officers ran and charged at them, and tackled them to the ground, pulled Tasers on them, while a CBP officer sought to close the gate. That night, when Emily and I were driving home, that was the first time we were taken to secondary. [...] The things that stood out to me there were the word ‘aiding,’ and that brutality.” The CBP officer who questioned Ms. Adlerstein and Ms. Saunders that night informed them that they had been “aiding” the family in “an illegal entry, so technically you could be charged with aiding and abetting.”

On 3rd and 10th April, Ms. Saunders was subjected to her second and third “secondary inspections”. After volunteering for five hours at a shelter in Sonora, Mexico on 10th April, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers held and questioned her for approximately 45 minutes. During her questioning, the CBP officer informed her that she was under surveillance: “I know you. I know everything about you. I know you used to work at the school. I have my eyes on you, and Ana too,” Ms. Saunders recalled him saying. “Before I left, he told me: ‘We’re keeping your belongings as evidence. We believe that you’re aiding and abetting in human smuggling.’ They brought out evidence bags. The ‘evidence’ was a spiral notebook, and a green file folder filled with blank documents, G-28s [legal representation forms], and pre-screening forms that paralegals and volunteers can complete. Another volunteer from Canada had a journal, and they took that as well. They’re trying to say I’m ‘coaching,’ that I’m practicing law without a license, and that I’m getting people to lie.”

This case was documented by Amnesty International.