Posted on 05/26/2011 7:37:23 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
FALFURRIAS - CHANNEL 5 NEWS is taking you to the other front line of the border battle. It's no where near the river. It's sixty miles north of McAllen. People here are grabbing guns to protect themselves.
Ranchers blame this border patrol checkpoint. Illegal immigrants know if they come through, they'll get caught, so smugglers are dropping them off and leaving them to roam on ranchers' land.
Rancher Dr. Mike Vickers believes, "It's real threat to our state and our country." He feels like his land is under siege. "We call them criminal trespassers or Ct's because essentially, that's what they're doing. They're trespassing on private property."
Lavoyger Durham shares his concern. "I've lived on a ranch all of my life. I know all of the horror stories," he explained. Durham says things have gotten worse. "You never know what's coming through here now. Nobody does. You know they say they're not any terrorists coming through. Who knows?"
We witnessed the problem firsthand as we drove north out of the Valley. We watched an illegal dart out in Highway 281. He ran right in front out vehicle several miles south of the checkpoint. The man waited for a few minutes in the brushy median. Then, we watched him run across the southbound lanes, jump a fence and escape back into the brush.
Vickers' ranch is just north of the checkpoint. He sees illegals running, walking and stumbling across his land. Sometimes they move during the day. Often it's at night. He believes, "It's a drain on our country. It's broke our county. It's a drain on our state, and the numbers are staggering, and the border patrol really don't have the resources to cover all of this private property."
Grady Cage owns the ranch just across the highway from Vickers. He says in 2009 workers found 13 dead illegals on his land. His family has owned the ranch since the 1920's. "We have trails 5 foot wide through the ranch. We're finding mountains and mountains of trash they're leaving behind.")
He's witnessing what he calls a "human tragedy". "These coyotes are merciless. They leave people behind and leave them out to die."
Photojournlaist Mike Ortiz and reporter Jordan Williams were headed to a meeting with another rancher when they encountered two illegal immigrants on the side of the highway -- just outside Cage's ranch.
The friends from Mexico told us spent three days wandering, lost, in the brush. "We don't even have any soles on our shoes. We want food. We're really in bad shape." One of the men took off a brown boot and exposed his bandaged and bloody foot. He showed us the homemade walking stick he used on the journey north. He told us he's a painter. He wanted to find work in Houston. His friend hoped to get New York to see his wife and five kids.
Lavoyger Durham saw us on the side of the road. He called Border Patrol, and once agents were on the way, we brought the men fresh drinking water. The water they were carrying came from a cow trough.
Durham says these men "gave up" because they were exhausted. He's encountered others who were much more determined. "They still come here to your door and knock and ask how far houston is, but you never know who's knocking. It's not safe. You can't leave women and children on these damn ranches anymore."
Dr. Vickers refuses to watch the illegal immigrants take over his land. He founded the Texas Border Volunteers. Volunteers dressed in cammo converge on his ranch every month for round-the-clock "special operations".
We woke up early one day to see the group's 3 a.m. Muster. It's planned like a military maneuver. Volunteers operate with code names. The operation manager reminds them, "If you find something out there in the field like big backpack, remember you don't want to touch it."
Each volunteer is assigned to a position. The cammo-clad volunteers come from across the country, but many are from Texas. Dennis Morrow makes the trip from Fort Worth. He goes by the name "gumball." "We try to go out there as quietly as possible as you'll see." They operate on 40 South Texas ranches.
The volunteers know their goal -- to spot illegals -- not arrest them. "In fact, if we're confronted, we try to stay 30 feet away from them," Morrow explained. They call in the border patrol for help.
Dr. Vickers says, "I feel like we're losing our country. These people are coming in undetected." That's why he and the others give up at least one weekend every month for their patrols. "We like to stay concealed. That gives us a better chance of getting law enforcement in here to make an apprehension to make an arrest." He says often the illegal follow fence lines or pipelines.
The border volunteers don't see themselves as an armed militia or vigilantes. "We're a neighborhood watch group on this private property reporting criminal activity on private property," Vickers said.
The situation in Brooks County has the attention of Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples. "They (the ranchers) just want to be able to live a safe life, and yet they're being chase off their own property," Staples told us from his Austin office. "I've seen the pain in their eyes, but I've also seen the resolve in their faces."
He created www.protectyourtexasborder.com to share the ranchers' stories with the world. "I refuse to yield one ounce of Texas soil," he concluded.
Dozens have died in Brooks County over the past three years. Animals often get to the bodies before ranchers. Lavoyger Durham explained, "The buzzards and the hogs will eat them up fast. It's happened to me before, and we've found just skulls and everything, and you know what happened to those poor guys."
These ranchers know how serious the situation is. "What could help us the most is securing the border - not here but 70 miles south - and that would stop a lot of this here," Durham said.
For now, they'll keep patrolling their land, locking their gates, repairing their broken fences.
It's the reality of their lives -- why they feel they have no choice but to wage this battle in Brooks County.
And without rain, it will get worse. The death toll with rise as well as our hospital bills.
The coyotes should be shot on sight.
A friend of mine had a whole slew of illegals left off on his property just 20 miles from the border. They thought they were in Colorado, the Coyote had just driven around for hours and then dropped them off.
In the interests of human compassion, this awful traffic must be stopped. We need a solid 1923 mile fence built on the border so that these poor souls will not have to suffer in this manner.
Ping!
Ping!
If you want on, or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
But....but......the borders have never been so secure!
It all depends on how you define ‘is’...
Ain’t ;-)
Border Pictures Worth 1,000 Words
Dr. Mike Vickers with Greta yesterday.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2725504/posts
A fence will only slow them down unless it is watched AND there are unacceptable penalties imposed for trying to climb it. Frankly, the only thing that will stop crossers would be to make the while border region a US military sniper training zone.
Free Fire Zone!
Old military axiom: It’s not an obstacle unless it is covered by fire.
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