Sunday, April 17, 2011

Rancher tells Congress the way it really is down at the border. "The Border Patrol must CONTROL THE BORDER AT THE BORDER."



From Hugh Holub at The Tuscon Citizen.

My name is Jim Chilton. I am a 5th generation Arizona rancher. My address is Box 423, 17691 W. Chilton Ranch Road, Arivaca, Arizona 85601. Arivaca is approximately 55 miles southwest of Tucson, Arizona in native mesquite and oak grassland grazed for over 300 years since the explorer priest Fr. Kino brought cattle ranching to the area. The north end of our 50,000-acre ranch is adjacent to the town of Arivaca. The ranch continues south to the international border with Mexico. The ranch includes private property, State School Trust land, three federal grazing permits within the Coronado National Forest and a private land farm.

We have been in the cattle business in Arizona for over 125 years preserving our western ranching customs, culture and heritage dating back to our pioneering ancestors who settled in Arizona Territory in the 1880’s. Our multi-generational responsibility has given us a long-term view of the necessity to be excellent stewards of the grasslands and water resources we respectfully manage in Arizona. The Arizona Cattle Growers’ Association presented me with the Cattleman of the Year award in 2002.

However, we are challenged by the fact that 4 miles of the southern boundary of our ranch is the international border. The border is not signed or marked and consists of a five-strand barbed wire fence similar to most ranch fences. Our ranch house and headquarters are located 19 miles from the border. We have been burglarized twice by drug packers on their way back to Mexico. Our losses have been great and our sense of security in our own country has been severely damaged. We live with weapons near our bed, at the doors, in our vehicles and attached to our saddles. . .


Another serious concern facing border ranchers and residents of border communities is that criminals engaged in human and drug transportation find it convenient to use Wildlife Refuges and Wilderness areas as easy corridors to hide and travel. My fellow rancher, Rob Krentz, was murdered with the killer escaping back to Mexico through the San Bernardino National Refuge. Emphatically, we oppose the designation of any and all new Wilderness Areas, Wildlands or Refuges within 100 miles of the southern border. Such designations are virtual gifts to Mexican drug cartels.

In addition, the Border Patrol must have the ability to immediately construct helicopter landing pads on mountain tops and any other locations so that Mexican cartel scouts occupying mountain tops inside the United States can be easily and quickly rooted out. Waiting for months or years for NEPA analysis, Endangered Species Act concerns and slow federal land management decisions is not compatible with the Border Patrol mission to CONTROL THE BORDER AT THE BORDER.

Unfortunately, Mexican cartel scouts, with the best binoculars, night vision and encrypted satellite phones, have been found to occupy the tops of mountains near our ranch headquarters and other locations all along the border and dozens of miles inside Arizona. As a consequence, the foreign cartel scouts know where the Border Patrol is located at all times and can then carefully guide the druggers and people smugglers through the mountains and valleys without being spotted. Not only do the scouts know where the Border Patrol is at all times, but they can observe me, my brother and our three cowboys riding horseback conducting our daily ranch work. Our houses are also easily monitored from mountains surrounding our headquarters. The cartel scouts must be immediately taken out of action by force if the border is to be secured.

I have an acquaintance who is a retired federal worker whose house has been burglarized 10 times by illegal border crossers on their way back to Mexico after having dumped their drug loads. We have been burglarized twice with serious losses. Many of our neighbors have suffered similar loss of security and property. Most all ranchers in the border area can not leave their houses since experience demonstrates that their homes will certainly be broken into if someone is not there. The Border Patrol must CONTROL THE BORDER AT THE BORDER so that citizens’ civil rights, property rights and human rights are protected. Ranchers along the border can not have peace of mind until the border is secured.

16 comments:

chinasyndrome said...

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China
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Bill (Bad Cyborg) Mullins said...

Sorry for my cynicism, but how is this in any way at all interesting to any congresscritter NOT from AZ?? Most especially how is this supposed to be alarming to ANY statist not DIRECTLY affected by the incidents described?

I have formulated a description of human behavior that I (in all modesty) call "Mullins' Law". The zeroth and most fundamental statement of Mullins' Law is as follows: "Nothing hurts if it doesn't hurt me."

Since this does not affect anyone who "counts" I see no reason for it to matter to anyone who "counts". This is happening thousands of miles away from the most important people so it is of no import. If it WERE to affect anyone who counts; if, speaking purely hypothetically, someone were to fly an airliner into a major landmark in New York City, or Washington DC, THEN katie bar the door! You would be AMAZED by how fast things would move.

Bad Cyborg

Sedition said...

How many tens of thousands of US taxpayer dollars could have been saved by a single belt-fed M1919A4 and a thousand rounds?

Mark Matis said...

Ain't gonna happen until enough "Law Enforcement" officers rot where they belong. And Border Patrol clearly don't count as "Law Enforcement" officers. Can you imagine what the "Law Enforcement" response would be if a REAL "Law Enforcement" officer had been killed as Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was? Then compare that to their response with regards to HIS murder. He might as well have been a mere citizen!

Anonymous said...

All I can say is that these people deserve our support. The Keystone Kops now in power have done nothing but play politics and lie about this issue. Getting rid of them cannot happen soon enough for me. We have the same problem here in Utah. Nothing but politics and lies with the church involved.

otterhauser said...

What? Control the border with all of those new Democrat voters and welfare recipients walking into the country? Why that's the left's DREAM, boys!!! Of course, were these Republican types walking across, they would be met with TANKS, wouldn't they!

Longbow said...

Please!

Pretty Please?

Extra special pretty please with sugar and cherries on top...will you come close the border and stop the INVASION OF OUR COUNTRY?

Anonymous said...

As if the FedGov cared about him or his plight.

This statement though?

"The cartel scouts must be immediately taken out of action by force if the border is to be secured."

Sounds like a WARNO (warning order) to me, for citizens and militiamen in the AO. A classic counter-recon mission.

Got militia?

AP

Anonymous said...

One wonders: Since the US Government refuses to protect the border resulting in loss of use of one's land, would that not be the grounds for a lawsuit claiming an effective "taking" of property under the law?

Dakota said...

It is sad that ranchers not only have to battle weather, and government. They must also worry about being murdered on their own property that they have operated for generations. It must be very difficult not to try and put together some neighbors and route the filthy bastards out and hang their bodies on the barb wire fence as a warning to all would be interlopers.

Probably gonna end up being that way anyway ... the government wants all of them in here to vote illegally as well as be here illegally .... pretty much sucks!!

Anonymous said...

Somehow an idea keeps nagging me, which is to plant some 'claymore' type devices at/near the mountain-top lookout spots (when/if nobody is around) and remotely detonate them from time to time. I don't think the mountain top sites move around on their own so a .50 cal might be able to reach them. If these ideas aren't practical, there must be some way of booby trapping the lookout sites so they won't be used.

Anonymous said...

Mexico largely views our southern states as THEIRS anyway, so they have no problem doing as they please there.

Our ranchers are invaders...

Chef said...

Border enforcment = No North American Union.
They want their NAU.

Sean said...

I think we need to use the San Jacinto method.

Anonymous said...

Mark Matis: Real LEOS have been killed by illegal aliens for many years. It was happening in SoCal when I was a peace officer there. This does not take into account the innocent citizens murdered by them and killed due to their inability to operate a motor vehicle, drunk or sober. Follow the money. The Hispanic majority will cover for these criminals because they are part of their culture and ethnicity. The politicians will sacrifice LEOS and innocent citizens because they look at the voting demographics. Oh, and did I mention the support these lawbreakers get from the Roman Catholic churches throughout SoCal and the Southwest? Read CIVIL WAR TWO by Thomas Chittum. We are in a great deal of trouble.

Anonymous said...

The sad thing is that while the feds won't do anything to protect our citizens, if some group were to step up and put a stop to it, they'll be all over them.

Are there any Americans left in the American government?


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