Posted on 08/14/2010 8:43:00 AM PDT by AuntB
DOUGLAS, Ariz. (CNS) -- Sue Krentz is a conflicted woman, coping with many strands of the complicated, apparently unsolvable quagmire of what has become normal life near the Mexican border.
She grapples, for instance, with the calls for a humanitarian approach to immigrants that she hears at St. Luke's Catholic Church.
For decades, her family has shown compassion to those who cross the Krentz ranch on their way to find jobs to support their families, she explained, providing water and other aid before calling the Border Patrol. But it pains her deeply that there was no similar compassion from whomever Rob Krentz, 58, encountered while out on his ATV March 27.
That day her husband of 33 years, who had "a big, big heart," was shot to death on their ranch northeast of Douglas, as he made his rounds of the property accompanied by his beloved dog, Blue, who also was shot and had to be euthanized.
Photo: Sue Krentz weeps after seeing a rainbow near her cattle ranch outside Douglas, Ariz. Her husband, Rob, was shot to death in March while working on the ranch 30 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. (CNS/David Maung)
Cochise County Sheriff's Department investigators continue to work the case, a spokeswoman for the department said in early August, but no developments are expected to be announced any time soon.
For Sue Krentz, there's much to deal with while grieving, adjusting to losing her husband suddenly and coping with routine tasks such as filing insurance claims and remembering to pay the payroll taxes.
When he died, the Krentz family's everyday struggles became fuel for an already volatile debate about illegal immigration. With Rob Krentz as its supporters' icon, the Arizona Legislature quickly passed a controversial bill to mandate local enforcement of immigration law, making "illegal presence" a state crime, though under federal law it's a civil violation.
The murder drew attention to the battle against what Sue Krentz calls an invasion of trespassers who cross their property on their way inland from the border, leaving trash, sometimes stealing property and injuring or killing cattle. The Krentzes and other ranchers had tried for years to interest the government and anyone else who would listen to their stories of cattle killed and other property damaged, and of being accosted on their land by gun-wielding smugglers.
Now, the attention was too much, too late.
"It got so I couldn't even turn on the TV without seeing my family in the news," she told Catholic News Service in a lengthy interview in and around her ranch and the nearest city, Douglas.
Krentz supports S.B.1070 and had long backed such legislation, she said. However, she believes the main responsibility for fixing border problems lies with the U.S. and Mexican governments, the latter by doing more to help its own people support themselves in their own country.
"Not only are they pushing out their workforce, but they're pushing their history and their culture and their values out of their own country," hurting their own homeland, Krentz said.
But by the time S.B.1070 was enacted July 29 (in an abridged form, after a judge blocked its most controversial sections), there was a constant drumbeat of news reports, talk radio and political posturing in Arizona, much of it referencing Rob Krentz's death.
When she considers the situation objectively, Krentz recognizes that "there could've been any incident that could've caused this issue to escalate," and her husband's murder just happened at the right time. But every mention of the bill now stabs at her heart. "They couldn't just let Rob pass in peace."
It wasn't supposed to be this way. "I was just worried about getting his hip replaced. Our goal was to get him back on his feet so that he could ride," she said, explaining that Rob drove an ATV around the property after horseback riding became too difficult.
"I was hopeful that by August or September, he'd be riding again."
There would be time to visit the grandchildren in Wyoming over the summer.
Just a few days before he was killed, Krentz said, Rob laid out a plan. "He said, 'I'll tell you what, on Mother's Day we'll go up (to Phoenix) on Saturday and we'll see your mom and we'll stay overnight, then we'll come back to Tucson on Sunday, and you put me in the hospital (for hip surgery) on Monday morning. That's what we'll do,'" she said. "That's the kind of guy he was. He wanted to see my folks. He wanted me to see my folks."
Instead, the spring became a bad dream.
"It's like 'Groundhog Day' every morning," she said.
Krentz is angry at the governments of the United States and Mexico for not addressing the flow of "illegals," as she calls the people who come to the United States without documents. The violent way Rob was killed baffles and pains her -- "I'm not used to that kind of violence" -- though she's not particularly fearful for herself.
"If they're going to kill you, they're going to kill you, so there's no use being afraid," she said. "What are you going to do? Shoot everybody that comes by? You can't live in total paralysis."
A lifelong Catholic, Krentz has turned to Mary "to get me through this." Especially in the last months of sleepless nights, she rises at 4 a.m. to catch a recitation of the rosary, followed by Mass on the Eternal Word Television Network. Through the day, she fingers three items on a chain around her neck -- Rob's wedding ring, a small Holy Spirit dove and a Miraculous Medal medallion.
But she chafes when Father Gilbert Malu, pastor of St. Luke's, preaches about the Christian responsibility to honor the human dignity of every person, no matter their legal status. "Where's my human dignity. Where was Rob's?" she asks, her voice rising.
It irks her when anyone -- particularly in the church -- suggests that human rights might trump some laws, such as one that's existed since 1983 making it a federal crime to knowingly transport someone who's in the country illegally. "That's the law!" she said. "Get a grip, 1070 has nothing to do with it."
She listens to Glenn Beck on the satellite radio in her car, hearing his discourses about the threats of illegal immigration and his attacks on those within the church who are leading the campaign for comprehensive immigration reform. Beck has said "social justice is a perversion of the Gospel" and is "code" for Marxism, communism, and Nazism.
Whether she agrees with him or not on some issues, Krentz sympathizes with those who feel they must come to the United States and worries for them.
"I understand that people are desperate," Krentz said. "I understand that people are terrified. I understand that people have nothing; that they're looking for a better life. But I also understand that there's a criminal element that's testing us."
Though some say it encourages people to cross the border illegally, it doesn't bother Krentz that groups such as the Tucson-based No More Deaths and various church organizations place water in the desert along trails known to be used by migrants.
"Sometimes I wonder if they're putting out enough," she mused.
"Just because I'm white and conservative does not mean I'm a Ku Klux Klanner," she said. "It does not mean I'm not compassionate with people in need. It does mean that they cannot run over me."
For the mid-July interview, Krentz graciously gave a tour of her family's stomping grounds. After meeting at St. Luke's, she showed off where she and Rob lived as children during the school year, in homes that backed up to each other on 11th and 12th streets. During the summers, the Krentzes and her family, the Kimbles, spent their time on ranches 30 miles outside of town, which also back up to each other.
She drove past Douglas High School, where Rob was on the Bulldogs' state championship football team in 1968, pointed out the storefront that once housed his German immigrant great-grandparents' butcher shop and paid a visit to Mayor Michael Gomez.
Gomez and Krentz are allies in his unsuccessful efforts to pass a resolution through the city council calling for Congress to "secure the border," a phrase both use frequently. When pressed to define what that means, neither is able to explain what will constitute "secure" in their minds.
Her tour continued east of town toward New Mexico on the Geronimo Trail, a washboard dirt track through miles of open desert. She pointed out where the two-layer border fence in the city petered out and segued into a stretch of X-shaped vehicle barrier that wouldn't be much of an obstacle for someone on foot. Border Patrol SUVs dotted the graded dirt road every few miles, some located near dry washes where thicker brush and culverts provide hiding places for people crossing the desert.
Long before her husband died, the peace and sense of security that had been a part of Cochise County ranch life for generations of the Krentz and Kimble families had been gradually eroding.
Beginning in 1996 when the Border Patrol began cutting off the most heavily traveled areas for illegal crossings near San Diego and near El Paso, Texas, undocumented migrants began crossing the border farther out in the desert. Cochise County quickly became a favored route. There, even a beefed-up staff of Border Patrol agents that began arriving a few years later can't possibly keep eyes on the county's 80-plus miles of rough, hilly desert.
At one edge of the Krentz Ranch along Highway 80, Krentz pulled over to investigate why there were a dozen or so Border Patrol vehicles clustered inside her cattle fence. Agents explained that they had just picked up 10 people walking across the ranch, in 100-degree heat at mid-day.
"People have to be awfully desperate to even attempt this. I've seen women here with their babies, and their babies are thirsty," she sighed. "I get so mad. I get mad at the (Mexican) government for not taking care of their own people."
Mrs. Krentz, they never will as long as the US Government is loaded with the likes of John McCain and insists the US taxpayer does it instead!
McCain proposed legislation a few years ago to give Mexicans in MEXICO USA paid healthcare.
February 09, 2008 Bill to improve health care…in Mexico! McCain strikes again!
What would Americans think, then, of a member of Congress who introduced legislation, not to improve health care in the United States, but to improve health care in Mexico?
Insane? Drunk? Unworthy of public office?
What would Americans think, then, of a bill introduced in Congress that required federal agencies to come up with a plan, not to expand health coverage in the United States, but to expand health coverage in Mexico?
Impossible? Unthinkable? Wildly irresponsible?
What would Americans think, then, of the motives of a senator, who not only introduced a bill to improve Mexico’s health care system and extend coverage to a growing population of 120 million people, but gave health insurance companies the right to help devise the plan?
Blatantly corrupt? Grossly indifferent to the well-being of the American people? Downright treasonous?
Unbelievable as it may seem, the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005 contained a provision giving insurance companies the right to help devise a plan for extending US health care to Mexico (Sec. 1004. BINATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE AND HEALTH INSURANCE).
Even more unbelievable, the senator who sponsored the bill is not on the verge of being thrown out of office for this odious piece of legislation. No, the senator who introduced the bill, Senator John McCain of Arizona, is on the verge of locking up the Republican nomination to be our next president
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=McCain+temper
http://opensourceactivist.org/content/legislation/S1033/text.php#sec1004
Some of the people she helped would kill her for a sandwich. They don’t want help, they want to be taken care of. Forever. Or else.
Shame on the clergy at St. Luke's who push such garbage in the one place who should know just how rotten of garbage it is.
We need to deport or imprison ALL illegal aliens, including their anchor babies, seal/secure the border with a fence and armed troops, and have an armed response to everyone who tries to re-enter illegally.
Some of the invaders would just kill her because they want to erase her and the rest of older America from history.
Krentz acted in a humanitarian manner and was slaughtered for his kindness. Buy a back hoe, learn how to use it and make numerous temporary trenches. Keep weapon close at hand.
Probably should have called border patrol first, If they gave water and or aid, and the illegals left on their merry way before they called border patrol, then all they did was help encourage others to follow. jmo
Excellent article. She sounds like a good person, struggling with watching people suffer and at the same time having a basic sense of right and wrong.
The bias of the writer does show in sentences like “not addressing the flow of “illegals,” as she calls the people who come to the United States without documents.”
But it is balanced.
“Krentz acted in a humanitarian manner and was slaughtered for his kindness”
Even one case like this would be reason enough to take the border problems serious. There are many other reasons out there, too numerous to address here.
And still the President and Congress too, ignore their oaths of office.
Today, we have a government in Washington, D. C. that has come off the tracks. It doesn’t even pretend to honor the U. S. Constitution any longer.
The American public has grounds for removal. A lot of federal judges have gone far outside their guidelines as well.
The only question is, what spark is going to set this powder keg off?
The feds know this, and that’s why they have militarized the police and seek to bring a division of the U. S. Army to our own soil, to keep the citizens in line.
Never in our nation’s history, has the pure hatred by the U. S. Government office holders, revealed so much contempt for the American public.
On the one hand you have this nation being over-run by design, our citizens being slaughtered, women and children raped, homes invaded, good taken at gunpoint...
On the other hand, you have the federal government attacking Christian rights, and supporting access of Sharia Law to the U. S.
Some have written of a second revolution. I have seldom read about a revolution conducted against the people from those who hold power in Washington, D. C.
It is almost complete ladies and gentlemen.
What incident will set off the powder-keg? What forces will be brought to bare to utterly annihilate those who love this nation too much to see this continue, without correction?
We have so long ago passed the point where our Founding Fathers stood up and said, “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it any longer.”
But for a spark, so goes the nation.
And I didn’t shed a tear when that drunk-driving illegal alien killed that nun.
HER CHURCH advocated for people like her killer, against US law and the wishes of US citizens.
Sue Krentz is a Liberal. Emotions do not alter the facts about illegal immigrants. She should save her compassion for the LEGAL immigrants.
Catholic church looks at illegals like Democrats look at them...more fellow travelers
Ping!
“I get so mad. I get mad at the (Mexican) government for not taking care of their own people.”
It’s not just Mexico, Mrs. Krentz, it’s the entire world.
Some of any group numbering in the millions would kill you for your sandwich too. Some for just looking at them.
It is heartbreaking that this Rancher was murdered.
More AuntB. When the trenches start to fill, the flood of criminal border crossers will stop.
Sue Krentz is NOT a liberal. She is a human being, that cares about other human beings.
I am convinced if we don’t secure the border and deport illegals our country will not survive and yet I help illegals that are in dire need of help. The vast distances in this area to any town mean long response times for ambulance, law enforcement, and at times even for Border Patrol. If the people here don’t help illegals in need they likely will die. This is not the city where there is all sorts of help available. I will not let someone die for lack of water, or from anything else if I can help it. I do not want the illegals to die, I just want them to stay in their own country, and I want my country to make sure that happens.
It is easy to say don’t help the illegals, or shoot them or whatever- it is different when you live every day with the crisis brought about by the incompetent government of our country and others. I call Border Patrol on every illegal I see, and yet I will also help the illegals if they are in dire need of help and there are no authorities available to help them.
You really should think about the old saying of not judging someone until you have walked a mile in their shoes.
Normally we have NO WAY to call Border Patrol or anyone else until we return home to a landline, or get where a cell phone works which can be hours later. Cell phones do not work at all over large stretches of country along the border. I am 110 miles from the nearest city and my phone works for about 10 minutes of that trip. The usual scenerio is we are out checking cattle and see illegal activity. If the illegals are suffering heat stroke, snakebite or other emergency we help them same as we would help you if you were out here. If we don’t help them they will likely die before anyone else gets to them. That is a fact we all understand. When we return to the house and have a phone to use we call Border Patrol and let them know what and where we saw activity and contact we had with the illegals if any. If we are lucky we may see a Border Patrol to wave down and get help sooner. Most of the time you see BP everywhere until you need one and then there aren’t any. Murphy’s law or whatever.
I know it seems to many of you that those of us that live here do things that make no sense, but most of you have no understanding of what it really is like in the middle of nowhere. We do the best we can with what we have. It does not mean we are supporting illegal crossers or that we are liberals.
bttt
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