http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/12471481.htm

Posted on Thu, Aug. 25, 2005



'Illegals' are not as bad as militias

By Bud Kennedy
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Finally, the news is good for the so-called "illegal" immigrant workers who get nothing but criticism for their work helping to build a stronger and richer Texas.

A Dallas restaurant worker from El Salvador has been awarded part of a 70-acre ranch after she and other immigrants were stopped, harassed and beaten in South Texas by a "volunteer border patrol" militia based in Arlington and Mansfield.

In a grand twist of irony, Fatima Leiva of Dallas is now part owner of the Arizona ranch where the play soldiers of Ranch Rescue, a forerunner of today's Minuteman Project, used to hold their silly training games.

Back before the Minutemen were slick enough to hold news conferences and avoid bigoted comments about race or culture, rancher Jack Foote of Arlington led the race-hating, immigrant-bashing Ranch Rescue, which operated from a Mansfield address and openly stirred racial fears about an "invasion" of Hispanic immigrants that might "swallow up" America.

Meaning, of course, "white" America.

Some of the Ranch Rescue volunteers came from the militia movement and from the old Republic of Texas crazies who wanted to overthrow the government. The wannabe soldiers were "guarding" a ranch near Hebbronville in 2003 when they caught Leiva and a Salvadoran man trespassing as they tried to go around a checkpoint 55 miles from the border.

One of the volunteers was an ex-con bounty hunter from California, Casey Nethercott. According to news accounts of the case, he sicced a Rottweiler on the Salvadorans. Leiva said he pistol-whipped the man.

A Texas Ranger eventually saw the injuries. He arrested Nethercott and another volunteer.

Nethercott wound up in a Jim Hogg County courtroom facing trial on an assault charge. The jury deadlocked, and the case was not set for retrial. But he was sent to prison for six years as a convicted felon illegally carrying a firearm.

Leiva, the Salvadoran man and a family from Mexico who were also harassed and threatened by the patrol sued Nethercott, Foote, the ranch owner and Ranch Rescue for assault, false imprisonment, negligence and "infliction of emotional distress."

The ranch owner, Joe Sutton, once told the Dallas Observer that he wanted the border shut down "tighter than a bull's ass in fly season" and ranted that at Houston hotels, "four out of five employees are illegals. You can drive a few blocks and see 500 of them."

Last month, he quietly paid $100,000 to settle his part of the lawsuit.

Nethercott and Foote never responded and lost a $1 million judgment. According to The New York Times, Nethercott's sister last week signed over his only asset of value: the 70-acre Arizona ranch where Ranch Rescue once trained.

The immigrants will probably sell the ranch, their lawyer told the Times. Leiva has been unavailable for comment, although she is still identified as working in Dallas pending a visa request.

The immigrants were represented by civil-rights lawyers from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has labeled paramilitary "volunteer border patrol" groups as race- and culture-based hate groups and has warned the volunteers not to terrorize, threaten or harass anyone suspected of violating immigration laws.

Let's spell it out.

We talk a lot about "illegal aliens."

But "illegal" immigration is not necessarily a crime at all. At most, a first-time offender in North Texas with no criminal record might face a rarely prosecuted federal misdemeanor charge of failure to possess a green card.

The punishment: a maximum fine of $100 and up to 30 days in jail.

Some so-called "illegal" aliens came into the country legally and overstayed a visa. They have committed no crime, only a civil immigration violation.

So Fatima Leiva was a misdemeanor suspect caught trespassing on a private ranch.

The way we punish that in America does not involve pistol-whipping or a Rottweiler.

Yet we have become obsessed with labeling misdemeanor immigration violators as "illegals" and hatefully calling them the worst threat facing American society.

I understand the concern about defending the seemingly indefensible northern and southern U.S. borders from genuine criminals. And I can see the damage and vandalism in border counties caused by the sheer number of immigrants passing through.

I agree that our laws must be obeyed.

But that includes civil-rights laws.

What other Class C misdemeanor has us this obsessed? And why are we so obsessed with blaming illegal immigrants themselves?

Could it be because of the color or language of some immigrants?

There is no law against speaking any language in America. Our First Amendment guarantees free speech in any language.

And some of our greatest Texas Revolution heroes spoke only Spanish.

From the Texas Declaration of Independence -- printed in both languages by decree of the Founders -- Texas has always been a bilingual state and nation.

Sure, uphold the rule of law in America.

Just remember that law also protects people like Fatima Leiva.