Time for landmines.
Posted on 06/20/2005 7:21:55 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Law enforcers ineffective in thwarting thieves, says local farmer
LA GRULLA — A vividly colored watermelon, cut open and abandoned on a narrow trail leading to the Rio Grande, already was attracting a cloud of gnats in the early morning heat.
It was all the evidence Javier Perez needed that someone other than his workers was paying attention to his 160 acres of watermelons.
Perez, 51, said the visitors usually are Mexicans who float or swim across the river, raiding his land and taking the produce back to Mexico to sell.
The problem is not an old one along the riverbanks of the Rio Grande Valley, but it is something Perez wants the authorities to control.
"I would like the Border Patrol to pay more attention to our problem and do something about it," he said.
There were other signs on a recent morning at his three-year-old La Grulla operation in Starr County, indicating one or more people had made a recent trip across the river. A gunnysack and a dirty pair of sneakers lay near a field, and a deflated black innertube rested next to the river’s edge.
"They travel light," Perez said. "They know we are not going to do anything to them. They know Border Patrol will not do anything."
He suspects the thieves come during early morning or late evening hours. They are mostly males, Perez said, though he has seen some females make the trip across the river to perform the crop raids. His land takes up a mile of riverbank, and Perez has counted seven different footpaths used to gain access to his fields.
People coming across the river would have to walk up a steep, bushy embankment to the top of rows of retama and hackberry trees. Tall grass lines the small slope, and large ants scurry from mound to mound. Dirt roads separate the embankment from the fields, which are drip irrigated with river water.
Only four or five watermelons fit in a gunnysack, Perez said. He did some math and could lose 26,000 pounds of the fruit this growing season. He anticipates getting about 48,000 pounds per acre from his crop.
Perez said someone — though he does not know for sure who — also stole 500 gallons of fuel and an alternator off a water-pumping machine last year.
He said he has chased some Mexican intruders in his truck just to scare them. Sometimes, he has gotten into a foot chase with them down to the riverbank.
"You can’t be 24 hours here," he said.
The first time he saw Mexicans stealing watermelons, he called to get a local Border Patrol number but could not find it. Then he called the Starr County Sheriff’s Department, which gave him the correct number to call. An agent eventually appeared and stood on an embankment to see what was happening.
"The illegals saw him and they went to the river," Perez said.
Perez said Border Patrol agents who ride on his property often do not stop the illegals when they are seen handling watermelons. Perez said he has been told to report incidents to the sheriff’s department.
Starr County Sheriff Rey Guerra said he was unaware that growers were having crop theft problems.
"I’ve been here 24 years and I’ve never ran into this situation," he said.
Guerra said his officers can only do so much if they catch Mexicans stealing fruits and vegetables.
"We would not even consider going into the river," he said. "You very well know it’s a different country out there and they have their different laws. You just don’t go into other countries."
An agent for the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector in McAllen said the agency would have no comment on the issue
The Border Patrol uses vibration, thermal, magnetic or pressure sensors along the border. But landowners must give permission for the agency to bury the technology on private land.
Edward Mathers, 40, of Brownsville, allows the Border Patrol to put sensors and cameras on his property to watch for illegal border crossers. Mathers, owner of Mathers Family Partnership Ltd., has raised watermelons in the past but this year grew tomatoes and onions on 3,000 acres near the former Amigoland Mall. His Cameron County land runs along about six miles of river.
"You plant in areas where you don’t have the pressure of thieves," he said.
Mathers has encountered not only Mexicans, but also Winter Texans and local vegetable seekers, parking next to fields to grab what they can during daytime hours. The Mexicans sometimes use ice chests to store the goods to make it easier to get them across the Rio Grande.
People steal his crops because they think they are free, Mathers said, and the crops most likely are sold by others for profit.
"You don’t mind sharing with them, but not every day feeding themselves 25 pounds," he said.
The problem has not been as bad lately because of an influx of homeland security officers patrolling the river. He has talked about the issue before with border agents, but has gotten the impression some care and others do not.
"They are not going to be able to control the border 100 percent, unless you make it a police state," Mathers said.
The fruit and vegetable stealing problem is something Arturo Salgado, vice consul for the Mexican Consulate in McAllen, has not heard much about. He said the issue sounded complicated.
"I can see undocumented migrants taking the risk to come back across the river and try to escape from Border Patrol," Salgado said. "But, I don’t know about the people coming in, taking the risk and coming across the river and possibly being caught by Border Patrol just to take some vegetables."
He said it concerns him how easy it is for people to cross into the United States without going through legal ports of entry, and the lapse in border security could make it easier for people to transport firearms. There already has been a problem with people taking used clothing from the United States to sell in Mexico because Mexico does not allow such products to be imported.
"The Mexican border patrol, we don’t have one," Salgado said. "We just have the federal police and Mexican immigration."
Perez said assigning more agents to the border is probably not the solution to curbing theft problems. U.S. Congress must enforce the laws it has, he said, and if illegals are caught, the government should deport them and take away any wages they might earn while on American soil.
"If they couldn’t get away with it, they wouldn’t come so often," Perez said.
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Daniel Perry covers Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4454.
They are only stealing watermelons that Americans won't steal themselves.
Border Ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
Couldn't some nice puppy dogs (with sharp teeth) get this job done?
Boy, that would be fun to try to tote back across the border. I can't imagine trying to run from a landowner with a sack filled with 5 watermelons.
What risk? In the extremely unlikely event that they do get caught, they just have their stolen vegetables taken away and are dropped back off in Mexico to try again tomorrow night.
But Claymores can.
And I was thinking claymores.
And this...
http://www.barrettrifles.com/images/82A1_04.jpg
TLR
Simple solution: Electrified fence:
http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/archives/archives2005/kashmir20050115c.html
Positive Effect Of LoC Fencing
15 January 2005
The Times of India
New Delhi: The multi-tiered (electrified) fencing along the Line of Control, in conjunction with surveillance gadgets and vigilant troops, has brought cross- border infiltration down to negligible levels, said Army chief General N C Vij on Saturday. 'Despite continuing attempts by militants to sneak into J&K, the fence has helped to stop infiltration almost completely. This has given the nation a very big psychological advantage,' said Gen Vij, after reviewing the Army Day parade.
Though there are still around 60 terrorist-training camps operating in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, the completion of the 750-km-long fence in a 'record' 12-month period was a 'very big achievement'. The Army, in fact, is so thrilled with the fence that President A P J Abdul Kalam was presented with a 'fully-fenced LoC' cake to cut at the traditional Army Day reception in the evening. The cake depicted the fencing, with snow-capped peaks.
There are millions of illegals entering illegally. Many of our our once great cities are over run with illegals, costing American's many billions of dollars, and the are complaining about illegals stealing fruits and vegetables?
Or, until the intruders come armed.
He needs to just start shooting. It's his land, his property and the law is completely on his side for once.
Federal prosecutors have ID'd terrorist/people friendly to terrorist that have entered and are entering our southern border, changing their names and obtaining Matricular cards.
Al Quida members have been entering from our southern border and have been entering through Texas and blending into towns....
I was thinking the same thing, maybe a couple of Rottweilers per acre. But how would they keep them in the fields without having to surround it with eight-foot chain link fencing?
That would obviously be cost-prohibitive, not to mention what would happen if the dogs actually hurt some of the illegals. With the spectre of their being granted rights that even we can't get (free medical care and in-state college tuition), there's no telling what the courts would do to the landowner/farmer.
This story is written in Texas along the Rio Grande...but you know it's being played out in large cities all across our nation.
Police departments are overwhelmed with this problem - just look at LA, Chicago, Denver, Atlanta, Phoenix, Raleigh...
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