Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss - political prisoners in Arizona Original Article Testing America's tolerance for the criminally humane Dec. 4, 2005 12:00 AM One day last week, 23-year-old Shanti Sellz was asked to speak to a class of students at the University of Arizona about the lifesaving work she did during the summer on the U.S.-Mexican border, for which the federal government wants to put her in prison. "It left me very discouraged about my peer group's apathy and outright ignorance about what is going on in their own back yard," she said. "I don't believe that they have many of their own thoughts. It was more as if they were repeating what they'd heard rather than having investigated things for themselves and made up their own minds." I couldn't bear to tell her that among more mature adults it's even worse. Border Patrol agents arrested Sellz and Daniel Strauss in July while they were attempting to take a couple of migrants to the hospital after finding them lost and hurting in the desert. The young people were with a faith-based group called No More Deaths, which attempts to lower the number of people who die each summer trying to enter the country by crossing the Arizona desert. It offers food, water and medical assistance to those in trouble. "The questions I got from the students kind of shocked me," Sellz said. "They didn't seem to understand the difference between helping people to live and breaching national security. These aren't people who have crossed the border in the dead of summer because they want to harm America. Crossing is a last resort for them. It has to be. And all we were trying to do is to prevent some of them from dying. But a lot of those in the classroom didn't see that." Neither does the federal government, which indicted Sellz and Strauss on one count each of conspiracy to transport an undocumented immigrant and transporting an undocumented immigrant. If convicted, they could spend 15 years in prison. The two were offered a plea bargain in which they would have had to admit to a crime but would have avoided any jail time. They turned it down. I asked Sellz how her parents feel about that. "When I called my mom and told her that I was not going to accept the plea, she kind of paused a little then told me that she was very proud of me," she said. Sellz grew up in Iowa. Her mother is a social worker. Her father spent years as a chiropractor. They worry about her. A trial is set for Dec. 20, though lawyers for Sellz and Strauss are attempting to have the charges dismissed. In the meantime, Sellz continues her botany studies at Prescott College and talks to media types who want to know how she feels about the prospect of going to prison. "A lot of Americans are frustrated with the way immigration is going," she said. "All we're trying to do is show that this isn't just a political issue. It's a humanitarian issue, a human rights issue." If she's lucky, a jury will see it that way, too. If not, she'll pay a fairly heavy price for her idealism. And all at a time when she's still not sure what she wants to be when she grows up. "The botany interests me, but I see my work more in the social services and human rights," she said. "Although first I have to see this through." And so do we. Unless we already have. After all, we have no problem with the college students to whom Shanti spoke, the ones who were "repeating what they'd heard rather than having investigated things for themselves." The curious young adults, however. The committed ones. The ones who believe that freedom is meaningless without a humane purpose, we indict as criminals. Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8978.