Thread: AZ: Butler battles border-busting banditos

Butler battles border-busting banditos
By Samantha Scoles

December 26, 2008

HEREFORD, Ariz. — Growing up in the Martinsburg and Bladensburg area in the 1940s and ’50s, Forest Butler didn’t expect to spend the vast majority of his adult life living along the United States-Mexico border where drug smugglers would use his property as a shortcut to the big cities like Tucson and Phoenix.

The Brown Ranch, owned by Butler’s wife, Alice, and her sister, sits on 2 1/2 miles of the U.S./Mexico border and their home is just one mile from the previously poorly marked border.

“We’ve had all kinds of problems here,â€

I can relate to this guy's story, I've pretty much seen it all where I live. I even had a smuggler leave a motorhome on my place with a dead body inside it.
I haven't seen any AK toten Rambo types though. It's true there are some new agents who need to settle in but by far the agents I have dealt with are good guy's and gal's. This is not the type of job you get good at with a couple of weeks OJT. Tracking alone takes years to become good at. These agents needs to know the laws for their job, first aid/CPR, be able to speak spanish and deal with the desert. Half of the time they are arresting illegals and the other half they are rescuing them from either the elements or the smugglers, and then throw in the real bad guys who are trying to shoot or stab them, it's not an easy job by any means and certainly one I would not want.
The book by Lee Morgan is a good read and goes into some detail about his years working along the border but he get's upset and calls in the SPLC on some locals, this was a few years ago and he has earned the right to think as he does and in some ways I agree with what he did, his book is outspoken so expect a lot of cussing but still a good read and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants some insight as to what it's really like along the border. You can pick up a copy at your local library which is what I did, just don't be surprized if you want to buy a copy of your own.

It would be pretty scary living on the border these days, that is for sure.

I thank the dear Lord that I do not call the border home.