Thread: Insanity: Two invaders win Arizona ranch in court fight

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/19/national/19ranch.html

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.
The New York Times

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."

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."

How can the NY Slimes and these liberal news rags get away with calling illegals immigrants trying to lump them in with those immigrants that obey our laws, acting like their is nothing wrong with entering our country illegally? Also I'm flabbergasted that illegal aliens can be able to access our courts to sue our citizens when they don't have any rights at all to be here. Is this the message that our government is sending here? Try to defend your home from criminals and we'll take your home away and give it to the criminals themselves? This is outright insanity. There's no way a judge should have that authority. This judge should be put in an orange jump suit and removed from his seat. If this isn't an example of how we are losing our rights while the illegals gain more rights then I don't know what is. It's bad enough that we have to deal with a Congress, Senate and President who doesn't give a crap about us, but we also have to deal with a bunch of tyrannical judges in black robes pushing their far left agenda, America hating agenda on us.

Of course this was all orchestrated by those shysters at the SPLC. Another group that should be shutdown under RICO.

Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.

1. To: All (#0)

Regardless of what you think of Nethercott, this is simply OUTRAGEOUS!

Is there anything we can do about this?

The drug runners and smugglers just got a safe route well into the United States handed to them!

out damned spot posted on 2005-08-19 03:35:13 ET Reply Untrace Trace
Replies to Comment # 1.

9. To: out damned spot (#1)

Regardless of what you think of Nethercott, this is simply OUTRAGEOUS!

Agreed.

IMO, both Nethercott and Foote are idiots and deserve what they got, but there is not way in hell a couple of illegals deserve any land in the US.

Marine Inspector posted on 2005-08-19 04:51:38 ET Reply Untrace Trace
19. To: out damned spot (#1)

The drug runners and smugglers just got a safe route well into the United States handed to them!

I hope he appeals this !!! Hand the bastards NOTHING. Pass the hat and I'll chip in.

BrerRabbit posted on 2005-08-19 09:39:30 ET Reply Untrace Trace
21. To: out damned spot (#1)

"Is there anything we can do about this?"

About 25 years ago there was a small truckstop cafe on Rt 66 next to the Port of Entry near Tucumcari, New Mexico. One day I was driving through there and I noticed that it had burned to the ground. I asked the people at the Port of Entry what happened to it. They told me that the gov't had seized it for back taxes and a couple days later it burned down.

Big Meanie posted on 2005-08-19 10:13:48 ET Reply Untrace Trace

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."

I can think of a few unprintable adjectives! This is outrageous. The Reconquistas gained a little foothold.

I hope there is some kind of appeal being put together.

These arrogant scofflaws are ripe with schemes and lies and have U.S. organizations ready and willing to aid and abet them.

What is wrong with this picture? Or haven't I had enough coffee yet?

This is a mind-boggler! I believe those cretins lied about how they were treated - it's happened in cities before and will doubtless happen again and there will be some scum-sucking bottom-dwelling lawyer willing to take on such a FRIVILOUS case!

The Southern Poverty Law Center sued the siblings, saying the transfer was fraudulent and was meant to avoid the judgment.

THIS CASE WAS A FRAUD!!!!

illegal aliens DO NOT have the right to own property!

ALIENS are under the "law of nations" and not entitled to sue in the federal courts and/or state courts for civil violations under the "laws of the United States" --

In 1799, James Iredell, an Associate Justice for the Supreme Court, said in a charge to the grand jury that

"It is believed that it never was suggested in any other country, that aliens had a right to go into a foreign country, and stay at their will and pleasure without any leave from the government. The law of nations undoubtedly is, that when an alien goes into a foreign country, he goes under either an express or implied safe conduct . . . Besides, any alien coming to this country must, or ought to know, that this being an independent nation, it has all the rights concerning the removal of aliens which belong by the law of nations to any other; that while he remains in the country in the character of an alien, he can claim no other privilege than such as an alien is entitled to; and consequently, whatever risk he may incur in that capacity, is incurred voluntarily, with the hope that in due time, by his unexceptionable conduct, he may become a citizen of the United States. "

I contacted the Southern Poverty League at 334.956.8200 and asked if this was federal or state court -- the lady did not know and transferred me to another person where I got an answering machine.


PLEASE contact your Congressman in support of "The Judicial Reformation and Reorganization Act of 2005" and get them to co-sponsor it . . . it places LIMITATIONS on the courts

Sec. 17. Limitations on Jurisdiction

The Constitution for the United States was established by "We the people of the United States" and all "persons" and "people" referred to in any article and amendment thereto are limited to the "citizens" of the states and shall not be construed to include "aliens," "Illegal aliens" or "foreign nationals" residing within the jurisdiction of the states. "Aliens," "Illegal aliens" or "foreign nationals" were not intended to be included, under the word "citizens" in the constitution and would require an amendment to this Constitution ratified "by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states" to become effective.

Amendment XIV "ratified" in 1868 incorporated as citizens of the United States and citizens of the state wherein they reside, all persons of African descent born in the states following the abolishment of slavery or involuntary servitude by Amendment XIII and all persons "naturalized" in the states subject to the jurisdiction thereof at the time of its ratification. Amendment XIV shall not be construed to include any and all persons born within the limits of the United States to "foreign nationals" or "illegal aliens" and Congress, not the judiciary, has the power to confer United States citizenship and the privileges of citizenship by an enactment of legislation.

The amendments to the Constitution referred to as the "Bill of Rights" are the rights of the citizens and the states and not rights of U.S. Territorial Citizens, nor shall the "Bill of Rights" be construed by the judiciary to confer rights upon "non-citizens," "foreign nationals" or "illegal aliens."

The jurisdiction of the courts of the United States must be in conformity with Article III of the Constitution for the United States and established on the record; jurisdiction cannot be conferred upon a "non-citizen," "foreign national" or "illegal alien" by the judge of any court.

"Illegal immigration" is a crime under federal statute and provides no privileges of citizenship and any judge that permits "illegal aliens" the privilege of filing suit in the courts of the United States or refuses to inquire into the immigration status of "illegal aliens" shall be in violation of 8 USC Sec 1324 and 18 USC Sec 371 and shall be impeached and punished as provided.

No federal judge can impose taxes on any state or local government or dictate the funds or benefits of any state.

Nice rant Dman1200. I put this article on ChronWatch along with my comments and later was referred to your post on ALIPAC.

Pure Vomit.

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.

The SPLC has deep pockets and Nethercott and Foote are idiots for choosing not to defend themselves in court. The jugement is moronic but this is what can happen.

If you don't own anything or have anything in your name, you have nothing to lose not defending yourself. They can win, but they can never collect.

Many of us vetern (or soon to be veteran) border civvies are making legal transfers of property, bank accounts and the like becasue of what happened at Garden Grove. As long as the illegal immigration engine is in full force and movements, and as long as we go out there publicly watching and protesting--I mean public education--then we are at risk of being sued and losing our shirts, even if we are found innocent teh court costs can kill you.

Originally Posted by TheWatchdog

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.

The SPLC has deep pockets and Nethercott and Foote are idiots for choosing not to defend themselves in court. The jugement is moronic but this is what can happen.

I don't know whether this was state or federal courts, but these plaintiffs -- non resident aliens -- are FICITITIOUS parties and are not permitted in federal cases under 'Federal Rules of Civil Procedure' only a citizen can sue as per the courts "There being no fictitious party practice in the courts of the United States, it is hereby ORDERED that the action be DISMISSED as to all fictitious parties. Dismissal is without prejudice to the right of any party to take advantage of the provisions of Rule 15(c), Fed.R.Civ.P." A 'person' has to be properly served with a summons and complaint for the federal court to have 'lawful' jurisdiction.

an alien has no constitutional rights -- one of which is the right to sue and a judgment of a court without 'personal jurisdiction' is void. Burnham v. Superior Court, 495 US 604, 608-09 (1990) 'Personal' or 'in personam' jurisdiction allows a court to impose 'personal liability' or loss of 'the property' between 'parties' not "ficticious parties"

it seems to me that these defaults are VOID AB INITIO because the court didn't have "personal jurisdiction" of the parties ...

the Constitution was established to protect the citizens from their federal government -- not to protect aliens