TUCSON, Arizona – Thirteen members of a group trying to prevent deaths among undocumented migrants were fined for leaving gallons of water inside the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, which lies in southern Arizona on the border with Mexico.

Volunteers from the No More Deaths organization tried to place bottles and gallons of water along the routes most frequently used by immigrants.

The group acted ahead of a weekend when temperatures in southern Arizona are forecast to exceed 110 F (43 C).

From the time they arrived at the refuge, the volunteers were shadowed by agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Forest Service, according to a press release from No More Deaths.

Federal officials confiscated all the water the volunteers placed at four strategic points between the town of Arivaca and Interstate Highway 286.

“They followed us every step of the way, grabbing the water that we left there,” Maryada Vallet, a volunteer paramedic with No More Deaths, said.

Among the volunteers fined for littering were two Protestant ministers and a Catholic priest.

The humanitarian group told the refuge administation on Wednesday of its intention to leave water in the region frequently used by illegal aliens trying to cross into the country and where another migrant was found dead this week.

Up to now, two No More Deaths volunteers have been found guilty by a federal court of littering in a national park – a minor infraction – for leaving gallon containers of water inside the Buenos Aires refuge.

One was Walter Staton, 27, who faces up to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine when he is sentenced this August.

The U.S. Border Patrol says the number of deaths of illegal immigrants along the border fell from 492 in the 2005 fiscal year to 386 in fiscal 2008, which ended last Sept. 30. EFE