If someone hurts themselves while breaking into my home (trespassing), I'll call the cops first and foremost, especially since the perp is likely to want to cause me bodily harm, and its's not unlikely for illegals crossing the border to want to harm those in their way. jmo
The point is you have someone to call to take care of the situation and a way to call them. We don’t.
Most of the time there is no way for us to call for help immediately as I explained. Cell phones don’t work in this area and we are usually miles from any landline when we encounter illegals in an emergency situation. Maybe you can watch someone die when you could help them, but I can’t and won’t pretend otherwise.
Most of you misunderstand the real situation when you read about ranchers helping illegals. We don’t greet them with punch and cookies. I don’t hand out food or water to healthy illegals- I will give water to one that is dying for lack of it. Normally we don’t interact with them at all. We normally just observe and report them ASAP. Occasionally we find one in an emergency situation and we are the only ones for miles around. If it is possible to get Border Patrol or other authorities there to help then of course we call them and let them handle it. Sometimes we are the only ones in the area, often with no way to communicate with anyone until we return home.
I know this is hard to grasp, but in this area the NORMAL response time for law enforcement or ambulance is more than an hour- often closer to two hours. When my hubby had a heart attack I drove him to the local hospital myself because I knew I could get him there much faster than I could get help to our house and they could get him to the hospital. When my hubby had a punctured lung and numerous broken bones from a horse wreck last fall I was afraid to move him and it took 2 hours for an ambulance to get to him, three plus hours from when he was injured before he was at the small local hospital; and over 5 hours before he arrived at a trauma center. Theoretically we can get life flights but that has never worked out when we needed them, they can be on other calls, there are not enough available. Response time for Border Patrol varies wildly and there is no way to predict what their response time will be, it depends on where they are when you call, they patrol this vast area. BP response time can be minutes or hours.
To say you would call the cops first and formost- of course you would, and of course we do that when it is an option. What if you had no phone, and knew even if you could call someone it would be hours before they could get there?
Some of you should look at a map of the remote areas of the border. Figure the distances involved, and remember most of the towns you see on the maps no longer exist- the maps have been copied for so long many of the towns were mining towns in days gone by and have already become ghost towns so many years ago there aren’t even any buildings left. Google some of the small towns you see on the map and see what the population is- you can figure from that what type of services will be available.
I have to drive at least 50 miles to get groceries- I am over 100 miles to the nearest trauma center and shopping mall. I am over 100 miles from my county court house, and all of my elected county officials, including the sheriff’s office. My kids rode a bus for nearly an hour one way to attend school. Our fire/rescue/ambulance is volunteer meaning when they get a call they have to get ready and go to their station before they can begin to respond. Law enforcement is luck of the draw- often they are in other parts of the county- 50-100 miles away.
Things just work a little different out here than most of you are used to. Please try to understand our situation before you judge our actions.