Posted on 12/24/2002 1:18:42 PM PST by sarcasm
First drug dealers, next a wave of illegal immigration, then fear of terrorists--and now the rise of vigilantism. It's just a matter of time until blood is spilled in Cochise or Santa Cruz counties.
This isn't good. Here's Glenn Spencer, chief of the private group American Border Patrol, standing on a lonesome dirt road near the Mexican border, where all his nightmares about the future of America play out, and he's stuck in a keystone moment.
His ATV, one of the vehicles he'll use to prowl terrain like this for so-called illegal immigrants crossing into this country without proper documents, will have to stay tethered to the flatbed. So much for a nifty photo op.
"I brought the wrong key," Spencer says, embarrassed. "It won't start."
Oh, well. Worse things happen in the border wars every day, and besides, the ATV isn't crucial to Spencer's mission.
But cameras and satellites are, and on this day, the 65-year-old tech-head with lots of money and a powerful anger at this human flood, demonstrates it.
His assistant fires up a generator rigged to a satellite on a trailer behind Spencer's truck, and begins videotaping the scene. Spencer's excitement grows.
"This is it. This is what we've demonstrated we can do." He points to the camera. "Right now, this image is being sent up to our satellite link and out onto the Internet.
"My idea is that if people around the country can go online and watch, in real time, illegals walking right into this country, maybe they'll ask why the government doesn't stop it. What's wrong with a little competition for the [U.S.] Border Patrol, right?"
In Spencer's view, this human traffic is overwhelming the country's health care and education systems. It is importing poverty. It allows within our borders an army whose leaders seek nothing less than the takeover by Mexico of the American Southwest.
"Plato said only the dead have seen an end to war," he says. "I think conflict is coming."
Ultimately, he wants to set up videotaping stations from San Diego to Texas, in the belief that outrage will brushfire around the country, forcing change.
Until then, it's Spencer to the rescue. When he talks about why he moved to Sierra Vista this past September from Sherman Oaks, Calif., he sounds like he's leading a cavalry charge.
"I concluded this summer that California was hopeless," he says. "The left has gotten what they want and the open borders policy is causing a meltdown there. I could either cut and run and go fishing in Idaho, or come to the belly of the beast and tackle this problem head-on."
ON ONE POINT, Spencer is undeniably correct, if behind the times. Conflict has already arrived, and it plays out every day in the mountains, in the pastures and along the roads and trails that crisscross the border country of Cochise and Santa Cruz counties.
Residents along this broad frontier report a skyrocketing number of illegals crossing their land, turning their daily lives into nightmares.
Some describe living under almost wartime conditions, with high levels of stress, fear, sleeplessness and especially frustration at the inability of the Border Patrol, or any law enforcement agency, to help them.
Ranchers say they've been howling about this for years. But no one has paid attention.
Reporters who took up the border chaos story viewed it mainly from one angle, hammered over and over again--the sometimes deadly suffering illegals encounter in their treks across the desert.
But now that a few ranchers, after years of frustration, have formed self-defense groups to protect themselves and their property, reporters won't leave them alone.
Suddenly, they find ranchers interesting--but only as vigilantes, men loaded down with Skoal and ammo, so dangerous they merit a Congressional investigation.
Both images--the harmless illegal and the out-of-control cowboy--contain some truth. But not enough. They're cartoon cutouts, easy renderings that frame a complex problem too simply.
Stuck in the middle--angry as hell, with nowhere to turn and wary for the future--ordinary ranchers and border residents, American citizens, try to hang on amid the chaos.
B.J. Kuykendall shares a ranch with her husband, Tommy, 34 miles north of Douglas. It has been in their family for six generations. She's not certain they'll make it to seven.
Her voice shakes with anger as she describes some of what's happened to her.
Illegals have chased her down the road near her home on foot, and used their vehicles to run hers off the road. On four separate occasions, they've piled boulders and debris across the road, apparently efforts to steal her truck.
They've tried to steal her horses, too. Two months ago, Kuykendall found her dog, a mastiff, poisoned with strychnine. The animal suffered for five hours before dying a horrible death, "for the crime of barking."
One of Kuykendall's neighbors found his dog dead, too, its throat slashed. Another has had four dogs poisoned.
"Every day of our lives, every facet of our lives is threatened," says Kuykendall, an ER nurse. "We can't leave here for any length of time because there might be nothing left when we come back. We're afraid of losing everything if this keeps up."
Kuykendall's neighbor, Gary McBride, tells a similar story. In a 100-day period beginning in January, he recorded 101 calls to the Border Patrol to report illegals crossing his property--not counting cell phone calls.
"I can pretty much guarantee that tonight there'll be 40 of them, maybe a hundred, going up the road here to Highway 80. You think anybody's gonna catch them? Nope.
"Night before last I had one hollering at the back door, trying to get in my house. It's unbelievable.
"What burns our butts is that the Border Patrol won't let agents on the ground do their job, and that's damn sure our biggest problem. They get their asses chewed if they make too many arrests because the chiefs don't want big numbers going to the higher ups.
"We don't lie out here. I'll tell you exactly how it is. These Border Patrol chiefs are the sorriest SOBs I've ever seen."
Not all ranchers suffer the same predicament. Some, even those a few miles from the Kuykendalls and McBrides, are largely exempt from these problems by the grace of geography.
Illegals generally avoid wide-open land, preferring the shelter of trees and deep canyons.
But for those who live on heavy crossing routes, whether outside Douglas, to the west in the Huachuca Mountains, or in the Patagonias near Nogales, the story is the same: Water lines cut, cattle gates left open, pastures and canyons full of garbage and human waste.
"They use the canyons as toilets," says Carrol Bercich, who lives near Parker Canyon Lake. "We've got three semi-loads of garbage to haul away right now."
Ranchers also report a change in the illegals they encounter. Five years ago, a group might approach and say, "Excuse us, Señor, could we work for water or food?"
Now, many demand food and water, demand rides and show a profound lack of respect for people and property.
"Every fence they hit they destroy, and that was before they discovered wire cutters," says Anna Magoffin, a Douglas area rancher. "Last year was the worst. We had huge groups, but the destruction, I mean, we still haven't gotten the fences back up. Every acre of the ranch is impacted."
McBride says their level of aggression has increased markedly.
"They make remarks, give you the finger and won't go away," he says. "Sometimes they go into your house and you have to pull guns to get them out."
Numerous ranchers contacted for this story wouldn't speak publicly.
They're afraid of being branded vigilantes and targeted in a possible police investigation on the one hand. And on the other, they fear reprisal by Mexican gangs that operate drug rings and increasingly powerful and nasty people-smuggling rings.
A few ranchers said they've received such threats and are clamming up for good.
Arizona ranchers have always carried guns, mostly for snakes, and to put down injured animals.
But in this siege atmosphere--with law enforcement response times ranging from 20 minutes to forget about it--ranchers now carry weapons for self-defense.
As one said, "Before, maybe a .22 plinker. Now we carry .38s and .357s."
One ranch has a weapons instructor on retainer. The owner requires that employees have a concealed-carry permit, allowing them to keep guns in trucks and other places.
As for the widespread belief that border country is crawling with armed ranchers seeking out illegals, that's more Hollywood than it is reality. The vast majority do precisely the opposite. They do everything they can to avoid them.
"If I see illegals in a ravine, I'll wheel my horse away and call the Border Patrol," says retired Marine general Bud Strom, a Hereford rancher who estimates that a thousand illegals cross his land every week.
"If I see drugs, or what I think are baled backpacks, I might call Customs. I don't have a vigilante mentality and neither do any of my friends."
But when you turn around and find illegals standing in your kitchen, how do you avoid them? When you're a woman alone and you step from the corral and suddenly find yourself surrounded by 35 men, how do you avoid them?
That happened to Kuykendall, who never goes to her corral without a sidearm, a two-way radio and a cell phone.
She quickly called the Border Patrol in Douglas and was told only three ranch patrol agents were on duty, the nearest two hours away.
"Sorry, B.J.," said the supervisor sheepishly.
"They were between me and the house and I couldn't get back there," she says. "I didn't know what they were going to do."
After yelling at them, radioing her husband and making sure they saw her sidearm, which she kept holstered, they retreated.
But with such a volatile mix now pouring across the border--job seekers, drug runners, gun runners and human traffickers, who pull down a reported $30,000 apiece to bring across Asians and Mideasterners--Kuykendall can't know what she'll encounter next.
"A neighbor told me he stepped outside and found 80 Iranians in his backyard," says Kuykendall.
Greg Nicholson, former manager of the Lone Mountain Ranch, which ranges from the Huachucas east almost to the San Rafael Valley, says his ranch used a secret code to communicate with a rancher in Sonora, Mexico.
This rancher, when he saw crossers, would call Lone Mountain headquarters and say, "You've got a red cow out," then identify the canyon by the mile marker. This triggered a call the Border Patrol.
The Mexican rancher had received threats for trying to run off the intruders, and feared traffickers had tapped his phone.
Nicholson spent 10 months at Lone Mountain, but quit over rising concern for his safety, and his family's.
"It's not a legal issue anymore. It's a military issue," says Nicholson. "Whether it's drug runners or illegals, we're being invaded down there."
(Excerpt) Read more at tucsonweekly.com ...
He's not lying,but he IS mistaken. The sorriest SOB's around are the spineless and/or corrupt bastards in the RNC and the White House who not only permit the illegal alien problem to exist,but whose actions even encourage it. All the Border Patrol brass are doing is following the orders of their political masters.
There is no question that sooner or later somebody is going to kill some illegals who are tresspassing and threatening them. The real question is "What will happen when this rancher is arrested,prosecuted,and convicted of both murder,and a hate crime. Will the locals allow this man or woman to be dragged off to serve time in both state and feral prisons for protecting themselves and their property,or will they finally put their foot down and demand he or she be released? What will happen then? Will the feds bring in US Marshalls and others to try to take over the local sheriff's office? I think they will. Bubba-2 and his pals really have no other choice if they want Mexican oil contracts.
There may just be revolution in the air.
Well, it's not really your land anymore, is it? Once the illegals force the ranchers out, the Feds can declare it a wilderness area, destroy any roads, and let the illegals take it over completely.
"WON'T" is the right word,not "can't". They aren't even pretending they can't anymore.
Homeland security is a total joke as long as anyone can cross our borders at their convenience.
"Homeland Security" has nothing at all to do with illegal aliens,and everything to do with controlling American citizens.
It is going to take a lot of light shed on this subject to get the powers that be in Washington to do anything about it.
They aren't going to do anything about it because illegal aliens are a tool they are using to destroy our sovereignty,and to create a new nation composed of Canada,the US,and Mexico. Of course,a new Constitution will be needed. It's about "Corporate Communism".
I agree with this,but I still think the feds trying to take over a local sheriff's dept will be the spark that ignites it. No,this won't happen in middle-America,but plenty of folks are fed up along the border towns,and these people have families who had stood together for generations. These aren't the same type of people who live in the big cities. All it would take to get this thing started would be for one of them to be sent to federal prison for defending themselves. If the locals were to rise up and toss the feds out,there is no telling how many people who go there to back them up. It could get ugly quick.
I have to tell you,if I ever come home and find people standing in my kitchen and eating my food,nobody will be calling them "undocumented workers". They will be calling them "dead SOB's".
That's another myth, that we own land. The State allows you to own it as long as you pay them their dues. Don't pay your property tax and you won't own it.
I'm afraid I would not have the patience these people are showing. I would probably have been in prison a long time ago.
WarHawk42
WarHawk42
Agreed.
I know. I chose that word for that very reason. It isn't a question of "can't". It is obvious they won't.
"Homeland Security" has nothing at all to do with illegal aliens,and everything to do with controlling American citizens.
Homeland Security was to make the sheeple feel safe while they lost more of their freedoms. 9/11 was a convenient excuse to put into place what they already wanted to do but hadn't got done yet.
They aren't going to do anything about it because illegal aliens are a tool they are using to destroy our sovereignty,and to create a new nation composed of Canada,the US,and Mexico. Of course,a new Constitution will be needed. It's about "Corporate Communism".
I'm not convinced we can't win this battle. The polls are with us and if we can keep stepping up the pressure I think it can be done. There isn't hardly anyone left in America that doesn't see the disaster we are headed for. Illegal immigration has become so wide spread there are few places that aren't affected.
It isn't just the border states anymore and it isn't just the mexicans either.
I know what the agenda is and I think this could be a big set back for them.
WarHawk42
' The rancher shot the wolf and then made the mistake of reporting it to the local federal agency to insure he complied with the Federal requirements because the wolf is endangered.
A couple of weeks later, without checking in with the local Sheriff, a couple of Fedral Law Enforcement folks showed up at the guys ranch and indicated they were going to investigate and that he needed to answer some questions. The rancher called his Sheriff.
The Sheriff came out and got into a verbal match with the Federal guys. The Sheriff ended up ordering them to leave his county and he and a deputy had to all but draw down on the two to get them to leave. They left, threatening to come back and go after the Sheriff for interfering with a Federal "investigation".
I was living a good 90 miles away in Dillon, MT at the time and word of this spread all over that part of the country. Many of us determined to assist the Sheriff if the Feds returned to make good on their claim. If they had, there would have been several hundred armed locals to back up the Sheriff.
They never came back and bothered the Sheriff in that way and the rancher was cleared of issues with that wolf.
What you are talking about could easily happened if it was pushed too far. No one wants it to. Everyone wants to resolve the issues and have our government stand up for its citizen's rights. If they don't ... and it continues ... there will be trouble. It was close last year in Klamath, and I thank God that they stood down and at least returned things to the status quo (but they didn't fix it and the ranchers there recognize this).
The issues along the border are a tender box ... even more volatile IMHO than Klamath was or any issue dealing ith endangered wolves or other species.
I agree. There will be people die and other people go to jail and lose everything they own,for no good reason other than trying to do the job the feral gooberment is obligated to do,but ignoring. This doesn't need to happen,but thanks to government neglect,it will. I see no way around it.
The truth is they can shoot them and bury them in the back yard and no one would know...that is what America has come to
I acquired a ham radio license in 1976 while attending graduate school at SDSU. An elderly rancher (WB6DSP) was selling a nice 2-meter rig and was in the hospital nearby SDSU. I purchased the rig from him so he would have the funds necessary to buy an even nicer radio. He mentioned the problem with illegals trespassing on his property at that point in time (near Campo).
In 1979, my company sent me to the home of a fisherman to install a new marine HF SSB radio so his wife could communicate with the boat. She was lamenting all the damage done to their property by illegals. That home was located on a "truck trail" off 94 beyond Dulzura.
The south and east county rural residents have been fighting the illegal problems for over 30 years. Many of the brush fires in that area are started by illegals. Sometimes it is accidental. Sometimes it is with the express intent to do harm to the people who own and live on the property in that area.</p.
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