Tri-State Feels The Effects Of The Battle On The Border


Last Update: 11/09 5:35 pm

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Just a few weeks ago, Butler County Sheriff Rick Jones and State Representative Courtney Combs, went to the Arizona, Mexico border on a fact finding trip. They were looking for answers to the problems of illegal immigration in our area. Local 12's Rich Jaffe and photographer Dan Cavins joined them for an exclusive look at the issues.

While we've only begun to feel the impact of the situation here in the Tri-State, our crew found tat civilians along the border have been paying the price and fighting the battle for years.


Larry Vance has lived on his Arizona ranch for 37 years. Starting in 1998, a flood of illegals turned his little piece of heaven into havoc. "It was a living hell," Larry says. "I can tell you for a fact that I understand completely why sleep deprivation is used as a means of torture, we had so many people coming through our place, my little piece of property is 1,053 feet east to west and the border patrol was catching 1,000 people a night right on or just adjacent to that property."

Vance picked up his guns and a camera to defend his home. He went into the mountains and documented the flow of illegals crossing the border. "We had so many people coming through there all night long, the dogs would bark so much they couldn't even bark any more, they'd just squeak. They were tearing my fences down, my horses, I couldn't keep horses in there, couldn't keep livestock, they poisoned my dogs three times, we had a shoot out right next to my house one night."

Vance captured the daily parade with a video camera. He also documented the tons of trash the illegals left behind.

Ranchers, state, and border patrol officials say since the U.S. began building the huge fence along the border, the flow of illegals has slowed. The 1,000 people a day still coming across into Cochise County are now being forced out into the desert and mountains where border patrol has more time to catch them. But not everyone believes the wall is the answer.


Jesse Garcia is a Douglas Arizona resident. "What Mexico's gotta do is solve their own problems over there, you know so they could... For their people to stop coming this way, it's a Mexican issue that they should take care of their people."


David Morgan distributes newspapers on both sides of the border. He says legal passage through ports of entry like the one in Douglas, Arizona, are essential to the local economy. "You have 200,000 plus people living across the border in Agua Prieta about a hundred yards from us here and only 15,000 or so living in Douglas and a 120,000 or so living in the entire county, so yeah it's a pretty significant impact if those people can come across here easily."


Ohio State Representative Courtney Combs and Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones went to Arizona to understand the issues more clearly. "The influx is increasing into our community," says Sheriff Jones. "We're seeing more marijuana more cocaine, more people, more crime... And to come here and to see what we've seen today is just unbelievable." "I'm not sure there's a front line any more it's everywhere, every neighborhood, every school district, every hospital district" says Bob Right, a member of the Patriot Border Alliance.

In 2005, nearly 500 volunteers, called Minutemen, began patrolling the Arizona border. Their goal is to assist border patrol with locating and identifying illegals coming across the mountains and through the desert.


"I think from the start," says Right, "the Minutemen recognized that the nation was facing what in effect is an invasion, an absolute change in our economic and demographic status and they recognized the government is doing nothing about it... Our purpose has always been to mostly embarrass the government and shame them into doing their job."

Minutemen patrols recently turned up backpacks in the mountains.


Joe Adams is also part of the Patriot Border Alliance. "This is their last stop before they blend in to the community be it here, Chicago, New York whatever, somebody's picking them up and they're gone."


Phone numbers, ID's and ticket information found in the packs is turned over to border patrol for investigation.


Patrolling the passes of the Huachuca Mountains, the Minutemen are drawing new members from across the country. And they are not just Minute men, they are Minute women too.


Patriot Border Alliance member, Gayle Nyberg: "It's a patriotic feeling like no other, people come from all over the United States to come down here and protect this border because they know it's the right thing to do."


But even with volunteers, thousands of border patrol agents, sheriff's deputies and vigilant land owners, the flood of illegals continues to flow across the border and into Heartland America, bringing the issue from the backyards of the order into the front yards of millions of citizens in other states.


"I'm very optimistic about what we're doing down here," says U.S. Border Patrolman, Eric Odden. "I think we will get operational control of the border through our technology, infrastructure and man power down here but the people up in those states again just need to make their people aware of what's going on and their elected officials of what they can do to help us down here stem the flow."


Ohio Representative, Courtney Combs: "What I'm saying is if you're an immigrant and you go through things right, I'm all for you, but if you're an illegal alien coming into this country, you've got to be stopped."


Sheriff Jones and Representative Combs are the first local officials to tour the Arizona border and see the problems themselves. Combs currently has an immigration bill under discussion in the Ohio legislature. If you click on "Watch this video" you'll see this piece and another from Reporter Rich Jaffe on a visit that Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones and State Representative Courtney Combs recently made to the Mexican-Airzona border and you'll find more interviews from Arizona. And there is a link at the top of this page to a discussion forum to give us your thoughts on this subject





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