Posted on 02/22/2009 10:27:46 AM PST by Sammy67
"My country has let me down." That's the assessment of an Arizona rancher who was sued by six illegal immigrants he detained on his property and turned over to the Border Patrol in 2004.
On Tuesday an eight-member federal jury in Tucson threw out the claim brought by the six illegal aliens that Roger Barnett violated their civil rights when he detained them at gunpoint on his ranch nearly five years ago. The panel also ruled against the plaintiffs' claims of battery and false imprisonment.
But the jury did find Barnett liable on four claims of assault and four claims of emotional distress, ordering him to pay $77,804 in damages, $60,000 of which were punitive.
The Arizona rancher says he would not have had to detain the illegal immigrants if the U.S. government did its job and
(Excerpt) Read more at onenewsnow.com ...
This is outrageous and needs to be brought out into the full spotlight of the media by pervasive tactics.
You and I are next on the list.
Rogers latest interest is with our National Security. Roger and his wife, Barbara, and brother, Donald, spend most every weekend at the Cross Rail Ranch. The ranch is a working cattle ranch and was purchased by Roger in 1995. The 22,000 acre ranch is about 1 mile from the Mexico/United States border in Southeastern Arizona. His small squad patrols the ranch and have actually observed and reported over 14,000 illegal border crossers in the last 10 years. The United States Border Patrol responds to his call and picks up the illegal aliens and ships them back to their country of origin. In the last 10 years they have actually stopped shipments of drugs from entering the United States numerous times. Roger believes that the citizens of the United States have the right to protect their property and in doing so supports the Constitution of the United States. He feels It is time we take our Country back.
The larger question: how many Mexicans are in the Border Patrol?
There are plenty of Mexican-Americans on the Border Patrol. Two of them went to jail because Bush's prosecutors saw fit to persecute them for enforcing the law. (He did commute their sentences, but the felonies are on their permanent record).
Beck had a guest on the other day who stated that it was instances like this where the government loses credibility and creates people willing to set up their own mini-governments.
The idea has a certain appeal.
Big ideas like this have a certain appeal, but the day-to-day reality is that individuals like Barnett are being stomped into the ground with legal expenses and judgments. Here's a sample:
"If they're not going to help me, what am I going to do -- throw the ranch away? Back off? ....All these groups like [the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund]...there's a Voter Action Network in Tucson, they're just a small group -- they don't like what I'm doing, what I'm saying. And they're trying to put a stop to me."
Where's our Legal Defense Fund to fight these legal battles? We need to organize and match these people dollar for dollar. It's pointless to say we support them if all we end up doing is venting on Free Republic.
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