U.S. Constitution Article 4 Section 4:
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,
and shall protect each of them against Invasion;"
Posted on 04/03/2005 5:06:19 AM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
HEBBRONVILLE, Texas – A South Texas man who was sued two years ago after immigrants claimed they'd been chased and assaulted on his ranch said he's "100 percent" behind the Minuteman Project, launched Friday in Arizona to protest security gaps along the U.S.-Mexico border.
But Joe Sutton said he isn't convinced the effort will slow illegal immigration and worries that citizen enforcers "are going to be tangled up in a court of law. Just like I was."
Hundreds of Minuteman volunteers this weekend are converging on the Arizona-Mexico border for a monthlong protest of what they describe as the federal government's "decades-long careless disregard" of immigration laws.
President Bush calls them "vigilantes," but supporters say they're trying to protect America from "an invasion."
Impossible task
Mr. Sutton said he backs the spirit of the protest, saying it's a natural evolution "of what I was trying to do." But he now believes that stopping illegal migrants is next to impossible.
In 2003, his own efforts drew national attention after he invited members of a group called Ranch Rescue to help him patrol his property, about six miles from Hebbronville off State Highway 16. A Salvadoran man and his wife claimed that the volunteers detained them unlawfully, threatened them and accosted them. Immigrant advocates sued Ranch Rescue, along with Mr. Sutton and his wife, Betty.
The parties settled the lawsuit, which Mr. Sutton saw as a vindication, but he said the experience left him less willing to take matters into his own hands.
So these days, when he sees suspected illegal migrants wandering near his 5,000-acre ranch, he said he rarely bothers hitting the speed dial for the Border Patrol.
"If my government doesn't care, why should I?" asked the rancher, sounding both frustrated and resigned.
He quickly points out that he's not "anti-government." In fact, he's a Bush supporter. But he said he was "really ticked off" when the president called the Minutemen "vigilantes."
People are only trying to protect what's theirs, he said.
"Whether you rent an apartment or live in a foxhole or on a million-dollar ranch, you have certain rights," he said. "How would you like it if you woke up and found a bunch of illegal aliens taking a bath in your children's swimming pool?"
Immigrant advocates say they oppose civilian efforts to keep undocumented workers out of the country.
"It leads to actions of hate, and we cannot condone that in this country," said Marisol Perez, a spokeswoman for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in San Antonio. "It's obvious there's a very anti-immigrant climate right now."
Nearly 40 percent of the population of North Texas is made up of foreign-born immigrants and their children, census figures show.
"Perhaps one half of our immigrant population is undocumented, while a great majority lives in poverty, does not speak English, has no legal status and is socially marginalized," according to a study by Dallas-Fort Worth International (DFWI), a nonprofit organization bringing together more than 1,600 civic, community and educational groups.
"You have workers who are going to accept the lowest pay and no benefits. And that's why they keep coming," said Anne Marie Weiss-Armush, DFWI's director. "Blocking the border isn't going to do anything. We'd better learn Spanish."
'End of America'
That kind of talk has William Gheen calling it "the end of America as we know it."
At least 10 million illegal immigrants are in the U.S. now, "and that'll double in five years," said Mr. Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration, a private group in Raleigh, N.C. "We're in real trouble."
"It's not just Texas, California and Arizona anymore," said Rick Oltman, western U.S. field director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. "Everybody is being impacted by immigration. That's why the Minuteman Project has drawn so much attention."
Some immigration reform advocates would like to see a similar effort in Texas.
"There definitely should be complimentary efforts in Texas and in all the other border states," said Jack Wright, a spokesman for Ranch Rescue. "What we are witnessing in our border counties is not immigration, it is a crime wave of biblical proportions."
Back in Hebbronville, Mr. Sutton was preparing for another deluge of travelers from the south.
"We've had thousands of illegal aliens come over the border and go through this ranch. We were broken into less than a month ago for the umpteenth time," he said.
"Some people say we're losing the state. I'm pretty convinced we've already lost it."
"Lastly, I would like to say that I campaigned vigorously for Mr. Bush in many ways during the last election, but had I known his stance on some domestic issues, my fervor would have been much less....such is politics."
Same here. Except that now that I think back, his stance on illegal immigration has never changed - he is a man of his word. I just thought he couldn't possibly be that blind and was just trying to get the Hispanic vote and wouldn't follow through on his guest worker program. In this case, unfortunately, he IS a man of his word!
Next time, I will only vote for a candidate if they have the backbone to stand up against illegal immigration. (But I probably won't vote for a Democrat, because I know they'll be lying.)
I used to have a hunting lease between Hebronville and Laredo. The number of illegals coming through those ranches down there was astounding.
And sure they were looking for work, but a lot of them were'nt adverse to taking anything that wasn't guarded. I mean that literally, because the little cabin we used was continually broken into and looted of anything that wasn't too heavy to carry.
No foul, FRiend! :^)
Yet, from such, we are to expect the greatest number of emigrants. They will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or, if able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness, passing, as is usual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of temperate liberty. These principles, with their language, they will transmit to their children. In proportion to their numbers, they will share with us the legislation. They will infuse into it their spirit, warp and bias its direction, and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass. I may appeal to experience, during the present contest, for a verification of these conjectures.
Jefferson was perhaps above all other things a man who believed in the rule of law and rule by the people. The present lawlessness and disregard for popular will likely would not have pleased him.
In any case, things have changed a lot in the 200 years since Jefferson completed the Louisiana Purchase. We no longer have tens of millions of acres of unpopulated frontier.
>>A policy of open immigration will advance the economic well-being of all Americans. All major recent studies of immigrants indicate that they have a high labor force participation, are entrepreneurial, and tend to have specialized skills that allow them to enter under-served markets.<<
Would you mind expanding on this? Be sure to include more on "specialized skills".
U.S. Constitution Article 4 Section 4:
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,
100 million Chinese would board ships and come over tomorrow. Should we extend your policy of open immigration to them?
Another 100 million would come next year and for years to come, from all over the 3rd world.
Please explain to me how this would "advance the economic well-being of all Americans."
Or are you just for extending this open border policy to Mexicans, and you are predjudiced against the rest of the 3rd world, who would come to America if they could?
Which is it?
What a shame. This rancher has to tolerate Mexican trespassers. What happens to me if I go onto George Bush's Texas ranch to see the wildlife? Will I be asked to leave or else I'll be arrested for trespassing?
Chef
Do you work with illegal aliens? I've read Anthony Bourdain's book "Kitchen Confidential" and I can tell he's working with many illegal aliens in addition to recent legal immigrants, mostly Hispanic
You really don't have a dang clue what's going on. Does it really make you feel good about your self to parrot such libertarian nostrums?
Gosh, no - I'm my own business a personal chef. Luckily I've never had to work in a restuarant. Plenty of chefs I know are getting out of the restaurant and catering biz because those stories are all TRUE. I rarely eat out at restaurants anymore!
"...but supporters say they're trying to protect America from "an invasion."
He didn't mean that was a stretch did he? A Balkanization is an invasion, the same as Kosovo-- its an invasion that exploits a nation's lack of barbarism.
Thomas Jefferson also emphasized that the American people have the right to change the U.S. Constitution whenever they see it necessary. This is perhaps the most important clause in the document. "Open immigration" was perhaps permissable throughout the 19th and early 20th century, but it is obviously getting out of control as the United States is not big enough for everyone in the world to come live if they want. You said the Minutemen were just "playing grown-up cowboys and Indians." I think you would join too if you lived in a border state (or anywhere for that matter) and your house was broken into or worse, someone in your family hurt, and the culprits just came across the border with no regard for American laws or Americans themselves, looking to take advantage of us anyway possible.
I'm with you. This silent Mexican invasion costs American taxpayers about $65 billion a year in medical services, education, housing, welfare, prisons, etc. In addition the millions of illegal aliens willing to work for substandard wages suppresses the wages for all Americans. Whole industries now employ these illegal aliens, virtually to the exclusion of American citizens. The Center for Disease Control issued a report on the increase of once eradicated diseases, plus some diseases new to this country, being brought in by illegal aliens, who, of course, enter without any screening whatsoever. Reps. Tancredo, Rohrabacher and Hayworth seem to be the only ones in congress even willing to address this invasion disaster. Illegal aliens are stealing our votes in our elections. The illegal alien crime rates for vicious crimes, as well as other crimes, are astounding. The "catch and release policy" is ridiculous. I am so upset over the magnitude of this invasion problem that I can't go on to finish this list. What is so hard for President Bush and co-Presidente Fox to understand about "illegal" when it pertains to aliens.
That's a picture of an MPC....Mexican Personnel Carrier.
Thanks. Have you noticed how cheap genuine canned Alaska salmon is these days? Ate some today. Delicious. $1.50 for 16oz can. The fish farming operations are killing them
Most of us know a little bit about Ellis Island and how health and character criteria were applied to our immigrant families. I know that they were applied to the immigrants that I sponsored twenty years ago
Not so with ILLEGAL immigrants. Are you not aware of such things as TB, gangs like MS-13, drug smuggling?
At least respect our views enough to acknowledge that we make a difference between ILLEGAL immigration and the traditional immigration that made us a proud nation of immigrants.
RE: Most studies show that immigrants actually lead to an increase in the number of jobs available.
I'd be interested to see recent studies. I can cite a Northeastern University labor study from last year that shows just the opposite. The Pew Hispanic Center also released a study last year that showed just the opposite.
http://www.nupr.neu.edu/7-04/immigration_july04.shtml
"The number of new immigrants who joined the labor force between 2000 and the first four months of 2004 was between 2.260 and 2.35 million representing 60 to 62 percent of labor force growth.
"Between 2000 and April 2004, the total number of new foreign-born workers who were employed was 2.1 million. During that same period, employment of native-born workers and established foreign immigrants declined by 1.3 million, due to higher unemployment and reduced labor force participation."
[End excerpt]
RE: It appears to me the boys in the Minuteman Project are simply playing grown-up cowboys and Indians.
Playing? Oh well, you did not call them racists and bigots. Opus seems to have removed most of the taunters who use that kind of stupid liberal tricks.
Apparently, MALDEF cannot even educate themselve on the distinction between legal immigrants and illegal aliens. Or, maybe they don't care about that distinction any more than numerous other AZTLAN, Reconquista, La Raza types. They are all part of the same Pro-Hispanic, Anti-"Gringo" agenda.
If you cannot distinguish between "immigrants" and an uncontrolled influx of illegal aliens bringing in who knows what (diseases, drugs, nukes, etc.) then don't be quoting Jefferson. Jefferson recognized the role of government in managing the borders and security of the nation.
Nobel sounding quotes about "immigrants" do not apply in any way to the massive, uncontrolled, lawless, influx of illegal aliens.
There is a difference between legal immigrants and illegal immigrants. Most studies show illegal immigrants are a net drain on the economy and the Nation overall.
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