Thread: Rancher in border case backs MMP(Wm. Gheen Comments)

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Rancher in border case backs Minutemen

But he expects legal entanglements in trying to stop migrants

Topics: Americans for Legal Immigration, Minuteman Project, Border Patrol, President, Congress, Senate.


08:44 PM CST on Saturday, April 2, 2005

By TRACEY EATON / The Dallas Morning News


HEBBRONVILLE, Texas – A South Texas man who was sued two years ago after immigrants claimed they'd been chased and assaulted on his ranch said he's "100 percent" behind the Minuteman Project, launched Friday in Arizona to protest security gaps along the U.S.-Mexico border.

But Joe Sutton said he isn't convinced the effort will slow illegal immigration and worries that citizen enforcers "are going to be tangled up in a court of law. Just like I was."

Hundreds of Minuteman volunteers this weekend are converging on the Arizona-Mexico border for a monthlong protest of what they describe as the federal government's "decades-long careless disregard" of immigration laws.

By the numbers

Foreign-born immigrants and their children accounted for 40 percent of the North Texas population in 2004.

The Hispanic population in Dallas is projected to be 43 percent by 2025 and 54 percent by 2040.

46 percent of the foreign-born in North Texas are undocumented, and 60 to 70 percent of those are thought to be of Mexican origin.

SOURCE: Dallas Fort Worth International.
President Bush calls them "vigilantes," but supporters say they're trying to protect America from "an invasion."


Impossible task

Mr. Sutton said he backs the spirit of the protest, saying it's a natural evolution "of what I was trying to do." But he now believes that stopping illegal migrants is next to impossible.

In 2003, his own efforts drew national attention after he invited members of a group called Ranch Rescue to help him patrol his property, about six miles from Hebbronville off State Highway 16. A Salvadoran man and his wife claimed that the volunteers detained them unlawfully, threatened them and accosted them. Immigrant advocates sued Ranch Rescue, along with Mr. Sutton and his wife, Betty.

The parties settled the lawsuit, which Mr. Sutton saw as a vindication, but he said the experience left him less willing to take matters into his own hands.

So these days, when he sees suspected illegal migrants wandering near his 5,000-acre ranch, he said he rarely bothers hitting the speed dial for the Border Patrol.

"If my government doesn't care, why should I?" asked the rancher, sounding both frustrated and resigned.

He quickly points out that he's not "anti-government." In fact, he's a Bush supporter. But he said he was "really ticked off" when the president called the Minutemen "vigilantes."

People are only trying to protect what's theirs, he said.

"Whether you rent an apartment or live in a foxhole or on a million-dollar ranch, you have certain rights," he said. "How would you like it if you woke up and found a bunch of illegal aliens taking a bath in your children's swimming pool?"

Immigrant advocates say they oppose civilian efforts to keep undocumented workers out of the country.

"It leads to actions of hate, and we cannot condone that in this country," said Marisol Perez, a spokeswoman for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in San Antonio. "It's obvious there's a very anti-immigrant climate right now."

Nearly 40 percent of the population of North Texas is made up of foreign-born immigrants and their children, census figures show.

"Perhaps one half of our immigrant population is undocumented, while a great majority lives in poverty, does not speak English, has no legal status and is socially marginalized," according to a study by Dallas-Fort Worth International (DFWI), a nonprofit organization bringing together more than 1,600 civic, community and educational groups.

"You have workers who are going to accept the lowest pay and no benefits. And that's why they keep coming," said Anne Marie Weiss-Armush, DFWI's director. "Blocking the border isn't going to do anything. We'd better learn Spanish."


'End of America'

That kind of talk has William Gheen calling it "the end of America as we know it."

At least 10 million illegal immigrants are in the U.S. now, "and that'll double in five years," said Mr. Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration, a private group in Raleigh, N.C. "We're in real trouble."

"It's not just Texas, California and Arizona anymore," said Rick Oltman, western U.S. field director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. "Everybody is being impacted by immigration. That's why the Minuteman Project has drawn so much attention."

Some immigration reform advocates would like to see a similar effort in Texas.

"There definitely should be complimentary efforts in Texas and in all the other border states," said Jack Wright, a spokesman for Ranch Rescue. "What we are witnessing in our border counties is not immigration, it is a crime wave of biblical proportions."

Back in Hebbronville, Mr. Sutton was preparing for another deluge of travelers from the south.

"We've had thousands of illegal aliens come over the border and go through this ranch. We were broken into less than a month ago for the umpteenth time," he said.

"Some people say we're losing the state. I'm pretty convinced we've already lost it."

Yea! Great work William!



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A South Texas man who was sued two years ago after immigrants claimed they'd been chased and assaulted on his ranch said he's "100 percent" behind the Minuteman Project, launched Friday in Arizona to protest security gaps along the U.S.-Mexico border.

I guess that it is ok to tresspass.

"It leads to actions of hate, and we cannot condone that in this country," said Marisol Perez, a spokeswoman for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in San Antonio. "It's obvious there's a very anti-immigrant climate right now."

No Ms. Perez. Anti-ILLEGAL immigrant climate. Understand the difference.

I've taught my children that there's a great difference between the terms Latino or Hispanic and the term Mexican. I agree 100% we're vehemently anti-illegal alien, not anti-immigration. But Marisol Perez, a spokeswoman for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, rapidly is turning this into a radical anti-Mexican attitude. If that's what they want, that's what they're gonna get. If millions of militia are needed to protect our Mexican border, that's what will turn out, whether or not our politicians like it.