A leaked audio recording from a recent meeting of humanitarian aid nonprofits No More Deaths, Green Valley, and Tucson Samaritans revealed potential plans to use the entrapment of border patrol agents to get aid workers off charges in court.
The question was raised that if a volunteer and group of four were in the “Samaritan” vehicle and threatened with arrest and impounding the vehicle, was it possible for the driver to turn themselves into border patrol and arrange for the others to go on so the car wouldn’t be impounded.
Disgraced immigration attorney Margo Cowan responded to the question, claiming the car would be returned without it costing money.
Cowan then began explaining how she would address a situation where “law enforcement was acting without authority,” as she called it.
“It’s better not to pick a fight,” she advised. “My name is Margo Cowan. I’ve been doing this for so many years. I know I have a right to do this, but if you believe you need to arrest me, then please do.”
Ripples of laughter were heard from the other humanitarian aid workers on the leaked recording.
Cowan went on to advise the group of advocates to ask, “Why?” why the authorities were arresting them? She described creating a record of the incident, even though being able to write something down was doubtful, so remembering everything said was vital. She claimed there were “puppeteers” pulling the strings above the border agents in the desert.
While denoting aggression and anger were not beneficial, she emphasized being polite and engaging as possible “and set a trap.”
“You’re setting a trap,” Cowan said, “because if we have to go into federal court and get an injunction against them, whoever is detained will be the key witness.”
As for law enforcement acting without authority, Cowan’s immigration law experience should steer her toward upholding the law rather than the alternative. Current U.S. immigration law states that Customs and Border Protection and immigration officers’ authority involves the detection, prevention, and apprehension of terrorists, undocumented individuals, and human smugglers at or near the land border by maintaining surveillance from a covert position, following up leads, responding to electronic sensor television systems, aircraft sightings, and interpreting and following tracks, marks and other physical evidence. Some of the major activities are traffic check, traffic observation, city patrol, transportation check, administrative, intelligence, and anti-smuggling activities.
According to current law, encouraging or inducing illegal immigrants into the U.S. is breaking the law. Current law indicates entering the U.S. at any place other than a Port of Entry makes you inadmissible. Immigrants can claim asylum, but the burden of proof of needing asylum is on the immigrant claiming asylum. Crime and economic hardship are not listed as valid reasons for seeking asylum in the U.S.
Additionally, during a September interview with the Border Chronicle, Cowan said her organization, Keep Tucson Together, organized research groups, “scholars,” she called them, to investigate the home country conditions of “asylum seekers” to help them make their case and facilitate their stay in the U.S.
In July, Cowan was suspended from practicing immigration law for two years. She was found negligent by the Department of Justice’s Immigration Board of frivolous behavior, conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, competence, and the failure to act with reasonable diligence and promptness in representing a client.
The board also found Cowan negligent in filing court-ordered briefs or pre-hearing statements while she excused her failure by exercising a unilateral assessment that the statement or brief would not have helped her client. The court deemed ignoring the immigration judge’s order, allowing the deadline to lapse without any communication, only impaired and interfered with the efficiency of the Immigration Court, ill-serving her clients and creating disrespect for the immigration system and Immigration Judges’ orders.
The court document reads: “Lawyers are essential cogs in the machine of justice. When lawyers refuse to obey court orders, they jeopardize the fair and efficient administration of justice.”
Robyn Spradlin is a freelance journalist working as a contributor for Christian News Journal covering news and politics on the national and state levels. She has worked as a copywriter for Victory News on the Victory Channel since 2022. Robyn has a BA in Communication Studies and an MA in Journalism from Regent University and is a member of the Evangelical Press Association. She is an author, evangelistic minister and a musician. She lives in South Florida, where she enjoys the outdoors when she’s not writing.