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."
I don’t think using the term “invasion” was much of a stretch.
" legal immigrants and illegal immigrants"
Please...you're starting to get PC. It's actually "legal immigrants and illegal aliens."
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..."
I wonder what the terms of the settlement were?
Southern Poverty Law Center version *here*. Expect considerable propaganda.
We seem to be well on our way to Balkanization.
"Ending illegal intimidation against immigrants"
when "suppressing American's right to defend against illegal immigrants" would be far more truthful.
They seemed to make up for that (somewhat) when describing their intent:
"Leiva v. Ranch Rescue has the important goal of stopping violent paramilitary activity along the US-Mexico border. If vigilante groups like Ranch Rescue and the ranchers who conspire with them are forced to pay money damages for their unlawful actions, they will think twice before taking the law into their own hands and attacking peaceful, unarmed migrants in the future."
BTW - good to see you posting again.
I'm around, still limping quite a bit, but back to making morning runs around the local track with National Guardsmen, ROTC cadets, and recent returnees from The Sandbox.
They don't slow me down TOO much.
Of course, my instructors always told me that if I applied what they taught correctly running will always be the other guy's job (bless their evil little hearts).
How I would love for them to try this one day with a previously undetected Marine division in the area - with permission to attack once the first bullet is fired into US territory and to engage the Mexican army on either side of the border for as long as necessary until they are destroyed.
It would only have to happen once. Vicente Fox wouldn't dare squawk to the UN - he'd instead frantically try to pass the incident off as a misunderstanding, and the illegal migration would slow down dramatically. ;)
Negative connotations? How about this, from an article I read a few minutes ago:
Many of the Minuteman volunteers were recruited over the Internet and some plan to be armed for protection. (ABC Action News)
I think that is supposed to have a negative connotation. Probably does, to the average left-wing idiot.
I think it's more likely he likes his $5.00/hour landscaping.
With a very large and vicious Latino criminal gang supposedly on the way and with the very real possibility of encountering armed drug and people smugglers they would be fools not to be armed.
A policy of open immigration will advance the economic well-being of all Americans.
I'm willing to learn, show me in history where open immigration has worked.
Slaves brought to America were cheap labor and we still are working through that mess. Aren't the Palestinians "workers" in Israel?
I know I've read in history about disastrous consequences to more than one nation who brought in cheap labor.
Turks in Germany...
Pakistanis in France...
Southeast Asians in Australia...
Just about every other Islamist country buggering England...
Those country's problems are compounded by "the religion of peace"; ours is pretty much a matter of law and economic imbalance in the abutting country.
Here in the U.S. the pseudo-religion of Liberalism more than makes up for the hassles those nations have to deal with.
Forget "Illegals doing the jobs Americans won't do,"
it's
"Americans doing the work that their government won't do."
The more I look at it the more I realize that that's the most offensively jingo-militaristic patch I've ever seen.
Awesome! Scan more!
nice patch!
I would love to see that also, but "It ain't never gonna happen!!!" USMC orders come from above and the orders coming from above are to AVOID any confrontation...
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