On the morning of a scorching day in August 2017, a group of four young women drove into the dusty expanse of the Cabeza Prieta Wilderness on the southwestern edge of Arizona. When they arrived at their destination, they parked their truck, loaded their backpacks with gallon jugs of water, and trekked deeper into the desert between the boulders and low brush. Even though they wore thick boots, the group stopped periodically to peel the thorns of jumping cholla cacti out of their legs and feet.
The Cabeza Prieta, a national wildlife refuge, abides by a strict "leave no trace" principle of environmental conservation. But these people, volunteers with the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths, planned to leave their water jugs, along with pop-top cans of cooked beans, out in the desert. They were intended for migrants crossing the US-Mexico border.
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