WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a prelude to war! Dear Brigade, Looks like we may need another defense fund -- this time for the ranchers who are forced to defend our southern borders. For the Cause, Linda ------------------------- Date sent: Mon, 08 May 2000 12:47:29 -0700 From: Scott Gold <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: more border news from AZ To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Is border watch crossing the line? Ranchers, officials at odds in detaining illegal immigrants By Tessie Borden The Arizona Republic - May 8, 2000 DOUGLAS -- The U.S.-Mexico border here has become a tinderbox of resentment as complaints mount over area ranchers' practice of detaining illegal immigrants who cross their land and trash their property. Armed with guns, cell phones and night-vision scopes, some of the property owners for months have been rounding up 20 to 80 border crossers a night and turning them over to U.S. Border Patrol officials. Mexican officials are bristling at reports that some of the most militant ranchers have recently moved onto public roads to make their stops. A brochure encouraging tourists to help ranchers catch border crossers alarmed diplomats further when it appeared in Douglas two weeks ago. And last week, Mexican Foreign Minister Rosario Green said her government has hired Washington, D.C., attorneys to look into suing the ranchers over possible human rights violations. "We, as the government of Mexico, can bring suit, with proof, against those who have violated the rights and dignity of Mexico," said Green, who called the detentions racist and dangerous. "We will take this as far as we have to." Phoenix Mexican Consul Salvador Cassian-Santos cited 24 incidents between April 1999 and April 2000 in which armed property owners stopped illegal immigrants, including one in February and one in April that allegedly occurred on public roads. Douglas Mexican Consul Miguel Escobar Valdez said the April stop involved 16 border crossers, in two vehicles, stopped by border resident Don Barnett on state Highway 80. Barnett is brother to Roger Barnett, who raises cattle on 22,000 acres near the border. Details of the arrest Escobar Valdez said the arrest unfolded as follows: As the vehicles headed north, they passed Barnett's stopped pickup. It began following them, flashing its lights and signaling them to pull over. They did not see any Border Patrol markings on the truck, so they continued driving. Barnett then passed them, blocked the road and forced them to stop. Barnett wore a holstered pistol. A woman riding with him wore a pistol in her waistband. Barnett told the drivers to give him their keys. The woman took their pictures and briefly waved her gun. Barnett then called the Border Patrol. Agents arrived and took the people away for processing. Don Barnett said Sunday that he believed the people were legal migrant workers with permits, and he was looking to hire them to help clean up his ranch. When they stopped, he said, he realized they were in the country illegally and called the Border Patrol. "They weren't run off the road or anything like that," he said. "We were just trying to give some of those poor people a job." No evidence of violation Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said he looked into the allegations and found no evidence that anyone broke any laws. Escobar Valdez said Mexico is deeply concerned about the incident, as well as the brochure, which advertised "fun in the sun" while offering tourists a chance to "stay at the ranches and help keep trespassers from destroying property." No one has claimed responsibility foRoger Barnett and other ranchers say they will countersue for thousands of dollars in property damage if the Mexican government takes them to court. They say they have met with politicians, testified to subcommittees and written letters ad nauseam about the problem. They use one phrase for their situation: They are under siege. In part, they blame the Border Patrol, which over the years has forced the northward tide of illegal immigrants into a bottleneck, at Douglas, through heightened border enforcement operations such as El Paso's "Hold The Line" and San Diego's "Gatekeeper." Flood at Douglas Just in the Douglas area, Border Patrol agents say they now are catching 25,800 crossers a month. David Aguilar, chief of the Tucson sector that encompasses Douglas, refused to estimate how many are getting through, but the ranchers say the number is about 10 times as great. Larry Vance and other ranchers wonder who protects their rights when border crossers tear up their fences and water tanks, leave swaths of trash and human waste, and even start wildfires while trying to stay warm at night. Fred Davis, who raises 120 head of cattle on 10,000 acres about 24 miles from the border, says he crisscrosses the land weekly to pick up armloads of discarded blankets, plastic water jugs and dirty diapers left by illegal immigrants meeting rides inland. And Stan White, who trains horses on property that adjoins Davis' ranch, said he spent most of last Thursday trying to put out a 20-acre wildfire he says illegal immigrants likely started while waiting for a smuggler contact. The blackened area reached right up to a broken-down van that they apparently abandoned, he said. Border Patrol officials say they understand the landowners' complaints, but they cannot condone the aggressive monitoring. They say the illegal immigrant trade has turned deadlier as profits rise and armed smugglers fight for their cargo when anyone gets in their way. Sooner or later, they say, somebody is going to die in a matchup between rancher and smuggler. To appease the property owners, the Border Patrol put in place the ranch patrol, a small detachment of agents -- eight per shift -- that transits empty roads between ranches. They go after bands of illegal crossers that get through the dozens of agents deployed at the fence line. Recently, they've had help from another special unit of 18 to 24 agents. 'I want this to stop' But some of the ranchers say the effort is so thin it amounts to public relations. "I don't want some Border Patrol agent to come glad-hand me," Davis said. "I want this to stop." The ranchers' tribulations are drawing the ear of a group responsible for Proposition 187, the now-discarded measure that sought to deny medical care, education and other benefits to California's illegal immigrants. The group, led by immigration activist Barbara Coe, plans a protest in Sierra Vista on Saturday to show support for the ranchers. Mexico weighs in The volume is also rising on the Mexican side. Douglas Mayor Ray Borane on Friday met in Agua Prieta with Sonoran Gov. Armando Lopez Nogales and Jose Angel Pescador, the top immigration official in Mexico. Borane said Pescador wants to meet with the Clinton administration to talk about the problem. He also wants the United States to stick to an agreement setting ground rules for notifying the Mexican Consul and Mexican immigration officials -- an agreement he says has not been followed. "He said they should be treated as illegal immigrants," Borane said, "not invaders." -------------- end ----------- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ T H E I N T E R N E T B R I G A D E Linda Muller - WebMaster Post Office Box 650266, Potomac Falls, Virginia 20165 Email: http://www.buchanan.org/form-contact.html Web: http://www.buchanan.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Have You O F F I C I A L L Y E N L I S T E D Yet? http://www.buchanan.org/form-enlistment.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ **COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? 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