This story was updated Thursday afternoon with a response from Customs and Border Protection.
Byrd Camp, run by volunteers with humanitarian aid group No More Deaths, is on private property in the outskirts of Arivaca, a small town close to the U.S.-Mexico border.
The group says that on Sunday, Border Patrol agents were at the entrance of the property and said, “United States Border Patrol. Come out, come out” from their vehicle before requesting permission to enter. The volunteers denied access and say the agents did not have a federal warrant.
An hour later, the agents entered anyway, according to volunteers, saying they were in “hot pursuit” and therefore did not need a warrant. Video taken by the aid workers shows agents entering trailers by breaking open doors and windows.
The hot pursuit doctrine is an exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement, permitting police to pursue a fleeing suspect onto private property without a warrant when they have probable cause for an arrest. Courts typically assess the legality of such entries on a case-by-case basis.
Tucson Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva condemned the raid on the House floor on Wednesday and called it illegal.
“Volunteers told agents they could not enter without a warrant,” she said. “Agents left, then returned claiming they were in hot pursuit, even though there was no chase, no threat, and no legal justification that would allow entering a protected structure.”
This is the first time Border Patrol entered Byrd Camp’s structures without a warrant. Volunteers say agents entered the property once with a federal search warrant in 2017 and twice in 2020.
The humanitarian aid camp provides medical assistance, food and shelter to people crossing the perilous desert of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands into Arizona. No More Deaths volunteer Mónica Ruiz House says migrants may have often walked 30 to 50 miles when they arrive, through hilly, mountainous terrain.
“When folks are coming across the border, they have been walking for miles and miles,” she said. “So typically we'll see folks with blisters. We'll see folks with trench foot. Sometimes folks, in the summer, are extremely dehydrated.”
During Grijalva’s speech, she cites the thousands that have died crossing the border into Arizona over the last 25 years.
“This camp has existed for decades to keep people from dying in the desert…” she said. “The camp has been raided before, but previously with a warrant. What happened on Nov. 23 was different. It was lawless, intentional, and part of a broader pattern of unchecked enforcement that treats border communities as if the Constitution does not apply.”
Typically, close to a couple hundred sets of human remains are found in the Arizona borderlands every year, according to data from the Pima County Medical Examiner. As of early November, the office had recovered 83 bodies of border crossers this year, including at least two teens.
Customs and Border Protections confirmed that agents arrested three men on immigration charges. Two were from Mexico and one was from Guatemala.
A CPB spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday that the men from Mexico have already been removed from the country and the one from Guatemala will remain in custody pending removal.
The statement went on to say: "There are no legal sanctuaries where aliens can hide and avoid the consequences for breaking the law."
The statement didn't say anything about reasons for entering the property without a federal search warrant.
