Thread: Arizona to get federal help fighting human smuggling

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/23/border ... index.html

PHOENIX, Arizona (AP) -- Federal authorities have outlined a plan to help Arizona crack down on human smuggling, ease overcrowding in state prisons and increase immigration training for police.

The announcement Monday by the Department of Homeland Security came a week after Gov. Janet Napolitano declared an emergency in four border counties because of problems related to illegal immigration and pledged $1.5 million in state funding to local authorities.

Napolitano's order said the federal government's failure to secure the border allowed a flood of illegal immigration that threatened public health and safety.

Napolitano has accused federal authorities of not reimbursing state and local governments for apprehending, prosecuting and imprisoning illegal immigrants who commit crimes in Arizona.

"I think this is very promising," she said of the letter from Homeland Security. "We're finally seeing some movement... It's finally nice to get something in writing."

Napolitano really concerns me regarding the citizen in Arizona who lost his ranch trying to protect it against illegals.

Last night, Michael Savage was outraged with Napolitano regarding the citizen and his ranch. I know we had news on that, but I think we need to bring it back to the forefront. I will try to post info on that case.

Title: Two Illegal Immigrants Win Arizona Ranch in Court Fight

Two Illegal Immigrants Win Arizona Ranch in Court Fight


By ANDREW POLLACK Published: August 19, 2005 DOUGLAS, Ariz., Aug. 18 - Spent shells litter the ground at what is left of the firing range, and camouflage outfits still hang in a storeroom. Just a few months ago, this ranch was known as Camp Thunderbird, the headquarters of a paramilitary group that promised to use force to keep illegal immigrants from sneaking across the border with Mexico.



A windmill tower in Douglas, Ariz., was a lookout point for members of a group that tried to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing the border.


Camp Thunderbird is two miles from the Mexican border.

Now, in a turnabout, the 70-acre property about two miles from the border is being given to two immigrants whom the group caught trying to enter the United States illegally.

The land transfer is being made to satisfy judgments in a lawsuit in which the immigrants had said that Casey Nethercott, the owner of the ranch and a former leader of the vigilante group Ranch Rescue, had harmed them.

"Certainly it's poetic justice that these undocumented workers own this land," said Morris S. Dees Jr., co-founder and chief trial counsel of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., which represented the immigrants in their lawsuit.

Mr. Dees said the loss of the ranch would "send a pretty important message to those who come to the border to use violence."

The surrender of the ranch comes as the governors of Arizona and New Mexico have declared a state of emergency because of the influx of illegal immigrants and related crime along the border.

Bill Dore, a Douglas resident briefly affiliated with Ranch Rescue who is still active in the border-patrolling Minuteman Project, called the land transfer "ridiculous."

"The illegals are coming over here," Mr. Dore said. "They are getting the American property. Hell, I'd come over, too. Get some American property, make some money from the gringos."

The immigrants getting the ranch, Edwin Alfredo MancÃÂ*a Gonzáles and Fátima del Socorro Leiva Medina, could not be reached for comment. Kelley Bruner, a lawyer at the law center, said they did not want to speak to the news media but were happy with the outcome.

Ms. Bruner said that Mr. MancÃÂ*a and Ms. Leiva, who are from El Salvador but are not related, would not live at the ranch and would probably sell it. Mr. Nethercott bought the ranch in 2003 for $120,000.

Mr. MancÃÂ*a, who lives in Los Angeles, and Ms. Leiva, who lives in the Dallas area, have applied for visas that are available to immigrants who are the victims of certain crimes and who cooperate with the authorities, Ms. Bruner said. She said that until a decision was made on their applications, they could stay and work in the United States on a year-to-year basis.

Mr. MancÃÂ*a and Ms. Leiva were caught on a ranch in Hebbronville, Tex., in March 2003 by Mr. Nethercott and other members of Ranch Rescue. The two immigrants later accused Mr. Nethercott of threatening them and of hitting Mr. MancÃÂ*a with a pistol, charges that Mr. Nethercott denied. The immigrants also said the group gave them cookies, water and a blanket and let them go after an hour or so.

The Salvadorans testified against Mr. Nethercott when he was tried by Texas prosecutors. The jury deadlocked on a charge of pistol-whipping but convicted Mr. Nethercott, who had previously served time in California for assault, of gun possession, which is illegal for a felon. He is now serving a five-year sentence in a Texas prison.

Mr. MancÃÂ*a and Ms. Leiva also filed a lawsuit against Mr. Nethercott; Jack Foote, the founder of Ranch Rescue; and the owner of the Hebbronville ranch, Joe Sutton. The immigrants said the ordeal, in which they feared that they would be killed by the men they thought were soldiers, had left them with post-traumatic stress.

Mr. Sutton settled for $100,000. Mr. Nethercott and Mr. Foote did not defend themselves, so the judge issued default judgments of $850,000 against Mr. Nethercott and $500,000 against Mr. Foote.

Mr. Dees said Mr. Foote appeared to have no substantial assets, but Mr. Nethercott had the ranch. Shortly after the judgment, Mr. Nethercott gave the land to his sister, Robin Albitz, of Prescott, Ariz. The Southern Poverty Law Center sued the siblings, saying the transfer was fraudulent and was meant to avoid the judgment.

Ms. Albitz, a nursing assistant, signed over the land to the two immigrants last week.

"It scared the hell out of her," Margaret Pauline Nethercott, the mother of Mr. Nethercott and Ms. Albitz, said of the lawsuit. "She didn't know she had done anything illegal. We didn't know they had a judgment against my son."

Fátima Leiva and Edwin MancÃÂ*a have been awarded an Arizona ranch.

This was not the first time the law center had taken property from a group on behalf of a client. In 1987, the headquarters of a Ku Klux Klan group in Alabama was given to the mother of a boy whose murder was tied to Klansmen. Property has also been taken from the Aryan Nations and the White Aryan Resistance, Mr. Dees said.

Joseph Jacobson, a lawyer in Austin who represented Mr. Nethercott in the criminal case, said the award was "a vast sum of money for a very small indignity." Mr. Jacobson said the two immigrants were trespassing on Mr. Sutton's ranch and would have been deported had the criminal charges not been filed against Mr. Nethercott.

He criticized the law center for trying to get $60,000 in bail money transferred to the immigrants. While the center said the money was Mr. Nethercott's, Mr. Jacobson said it was actually Ms. Nethercott's, who mortgaged her home to post bail for her son.

Mr. Nethercott and Mr. Foote had a falling out in 2004, and Mr. Foote left Camp Thunderbird, taking Ranch Rescue with him. Mr. Nethercott then formed the Arizona Guard, also based on his ranch.

In April, Mr. Nethercott told an Arizona television station, "We're going to come out here and close the border with machine guns." But by the end of the month, he had started his prison sentence.

Now, only remnants of Camp Thunderbird remain on his ranch, a vast expanse of hard red soil, mesquite and tumbleweed with a house and two bunkhouses. One bunkhouse has a storeroom containing some camouflage suits, sleeping bags, tarps, emergency rations, empty ammunition crates, gun parts and a chemical warfare protection suit.

In one part of the ranch, dirt is piled up to form the backdrop of a firing range. An old water tank, riddled with bullet holes, is on its side. A platform was built as an observation post on the tower that once held the water tank.

Charles Jones, who was hired as a ranch hand about a month before Mr. Nethercott went to prison, put up fences and brought in cattle to graze. He has continued to live on the property with some family members.

But now the cattle are gone, and Mr. Jones has been told that he should prepare to leave. "It makes me sick I did all this work," he said.

Ms. Nethercott said she was not sure whether her son knew that his ranch was being turned over to the immigrants, but that he would be crushed if he did.

"That's his whole life," she said of the ranch. "He'd be heartbroken if he lost it in any way, but this is the worst way."

(3 images)

http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/read ... 63&Disp=42

What I have to say would get me banned on this forum.

Napolitano's order said the federal government's failure to secure the border allowed a flood of illegal immigration that threatened public health and safety.

I hope Governor Mexicano is finally seeing the light. I still don't trust her.

"I think this is very promising," she said of the letter from Homeland Security. "We're finally seeing some movement... It's finally nice to get something in writing."

I'd love to see that letter. It's not surprising that she doesn't give any details.

It's all B.S.

She'd like people to think she was working on something but it's all hot gas.

Originally Posted by BobC

What I have to say would get me banned on this forum.

However you're free to think whatever you want. :P

Found another article with a few more details.

www.azcentral.com

U.S. to aid border fight

Homeland Security heeds governor's plea to help combat smuggling

Chip Scutari
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 23, 2005 12:00 AM

Just days after being criticized by Gov. Janet Napolitano for their resistance, federal authorities on Monday promised to help Arizona's fight against human trafficking and other problems caused by the influx of undocumented immigrants.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Monday sent Napolitano a letter outlining a multipronged plan to crack down on human smuggling, ease overcrowding in Arizona prisons and beef up immigration training given to Highway Patrol officers.

"We are moving forward quickly and aggressively to fashion a comprehensive plan with real solutions," Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff wrote. "We . . . intend to build a partnership with Arizona."

After years of mistrust and miscommunication, the letter could mark a new era of cooperation between Arizona and federal authorities.

Last week, Napolitano sent a scathing letter to Chertoff complaining aggressively about a lack of government cooperation on crucial border issues. On Monday night, she praised their efforts.

"I think this is very promising," Napolitano said from Washington, D.C. "We're finally seeing some movement. I look forward to speaking with Secretary Chertoff. It's finally nice to get something in writing."

In his two-page letter, Chertoff reminded Napolitano that Arizona was the first state he visited when he took his job earlier this year. He also said that federal authorities intend to enhance coordination with the state and have an increased presence in Arizona. He pledged to target the violent human smuggling trade, "especially within the area of Phoenix." Although the federal plans still have to be fleshed out, some of the details include:


• Arizona-based officials of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, would team four Arizona Department of Public Safety officers with federal agents to crack down on human trafficking and smuggling of drugs in the Phoenix area.


• Homeland Security officials said they will start periodic patrols of the Phoenix bus station.


• The letter says that the Border Patrol wants to work with the DPS on a variety of immigration efforts in the Casa Grande and Gila Bend areas.


• The federal government also offered to help deport foreign nationals that are currently housed in Arizona prisons. Those details will have to be ironed out.


• The Border Patrol would like the DPS to have a full-time person in ICE's Phoenix office and the Border Patrol office in Tucson.

Napolitano never heard back from Justice Department officials after telling them in February that they owe Arizona $217 million for incarcerating undocumented immigrants who commit crimes. The latest move could signal that border security is becoming such a massive problem in Arizona that it's pushing beyond partisan politics.

Once considered the bailiwick of the federal government, the letters between Napolitano and Chertoff are the latest reminder of how illegal immigration is a critical concern of frustrated taxpayers. There is no question that illegal immigration has emerged as the dominant issue in Arizona politics and will probably help frame Napolitano's re-election bid in 2006.

Chertoff invited all 50 state Homeland Security directors back to Washington to talk about a reorganization plan for department. Napolitano is in the nation's capital today, but she doesn't have any plans to meet with Chertoff.

Originally, Napolitano had hoped to assign 12 Highway Patrol officers to team up with federal agents to crack down on the smuggling of drugs and undocumented workers in the Phoenix area. But ICE declined the offer. She is now changing her strategy to attack state crimes involving drugs and stolen cars that fuel illegal immigration. She will shift the 12 officers to an auto-theft task force.

Napolitano also has started a campaign to curb the widespread use of fake identification. Since her election in 2003, the rift between the Democrat governor and the federal government has continued to widen as both sides struggle to stem the growing tide of illegal immigration. The majority of the 1.1 million arrests of undocumented immigrant along the Southwestern border last year were reported in Arizona, which shares 389 miles of border with Mexico.

Just what I thought.

They're going to train 4 Department of Public Saftey Officers with ICE. Walk through the bus station every now and then and maybe even hire a full time DPS officer to push paper around at the ICE office.

And Napolitano is running around saying "Look, see I'm getting things done!"

Homeland Security is going to give additional training to FOUR people that work in another worthless department.


AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!