Thread: TX: 'We have no protection...'

'We have no protection...'



BY GABE SEMENZA
October 25, 2008 - 1:21 p.m.

FALFURRIAS - The trip north on U.S. Highway 281 toward Falfurrias steers drivers alongside some of the state's and country's biggest and most beautiful ranches.

But the torn fences - ripped tauntingly less than a mile from an inland U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint - frame a much uglier, deadlier truth.

Falfurrias is a city under siege, and most of the drugs, weapons, humans and cash smuggled through this town flow straight through Victoria.

Outmanned U.S. Border Patrol agents stand guard near a laughable sign posted by the federal government just south of the three-lane checkpoint: "Smuggling illegal aliens is a federal crime."

Dr. Mike Vickers isn't laughing. The Falfurrias rancher and veterinarian founded the Texas Border Volunteers, a 300-member civilian group determined to stop the crimes flowing through the area.

His ranch begins just four miles north of the checkpoint, located 70 miles from the Mexican border and Reynosa, a Gulf Cartel stronghold.

Tired of fearing for the well-being of his wife and family, of finding murdered illegal immigrants on his 1,000 acres and of threats spewed by armed smugglers, Vickers enlisted the help of retired Army colonels, Iraq war veterans, former police officers and other ranchers facing similar fears.

Vickers' group performs background checks on new members and submits candidates to grueling interviews, he said.

"We have no protection here," Vickers said. "In the last two years, we've reported 8,000 illegal immigrants on my land."

Vickers lives inside this country's most active human and drug trafficking corridors.

To illustrate his concerns, he allowed three Advocate journalists to tour the headquarters of the Texas Border Volunteers, and he led a nighttime tour of dangerous smuggling paths across rough, roadless ranch land.

"Dr. Mike Vickers. Nice to meet you. Follow me in. We'll be taking a four-wheeler because where we're going, trucks can't go."

Vickers unlocked the gate to his ranch - which he defends with 220-volt electric wire - before climbing into his Chevy Silverado. He sped on a windy, bumpy dirt road, which turns north and opens to the headquarters of the Texas Border Volunteers.

Vickers lives a quarter-mile from these headquarters, the staging grounds for frequent night patrols of porous South Texas ranch lands.

Volunteers organize inside a large building that houses a radio room, bunks, kitchen, showers and computers that use satellites to track smugglers.

Outside, an arena corrals 13 horses and a pavilion covers a few of the group's 20 all-terrain vehicles.

Near the green car, which has a thick steel plate welded to the front grill - a battering ram in the bush - a small tiled mural depicts cowboys wrangling horses.

"Always drink upstream from the herd," one hanging sign reads. "One bucking thing after another," another reads. "Texas Border Volunteers, Inc.: Help stop illegal immigration."

In 2006, the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint at Falfurrias nabbed four times as many illegal immigrants - 20,000 - as there are residents in the town, and more than $171 million in narcotics.

Vickers holstered a pistol and grabbed a 12-gauge shotgun and eight rounds of double-ought buckshot. He tossed the shotgun onto the dash of his military-styled four-wheeler.

Just a few days before, the volunteers found four drug smugglers on his ranch with 160 kilos of cocaine and 256 illegal immigrants.

With the permission of some of this country's wealthiest ranchers, Vickers' group patrols more than 2 million acres, crossing freely with combinations and keys from one ranch to another.

More than 500 known smuggling routes twist through dense, desert badlands along a 52-mile stretch, which spans east to west through Brooks County and into Jim Hogg County.

Vickers told horror stories as he drove deeper into the countryside. The volunteers find dead, bloated and murdered illegal immigrants, trash and signs the fight they're up against is a dangerous one. The group finds Mexican military IDs, evidence high-level corruption south of the border is spilling into the heart of Texas and beyond.

Chris Simcox, president and founder of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, another group that works to stop illegal immigration, calls Vickers a patriot.

"The cartels have nearly toppled the Mexican government," Simcox said from his Arizona headquarters. "They make al-Qaida look like Boy Scouts. We have Pablo Escobar on steroids - beheadings, tortures, shootouts and bloodbaths."

Vickers stopped at a crossing - a union of two barbed-wire fences - that smugglers travel often. Not long ago, the border volunteers spotted a group of illegal immigrants and armed smugglers. Using night-vision goggles, the volunteers surrounded the group, which walked only three miles from Vickers' home.

What they found is a topic of discussion among members today: 33 Chinese immigrants who paid $40,000 each to enter the United States, as well as smugglers carrying machine guns.

"You can only take so much," Vickers said. "A lot of cartel members cross out here."

As daylight began to dim, so, too, did cell phone reception. Vickers checked his gas tank. This land, six miles into the bush, becomes active at night.

The border volunteers follow the law, Vickers said. They stage checkpoints and patrol corridors on private Brooks County ranch lands to monitor smuggling traffic. If they spot activity, they radio sightings to the Border Patrol, which, if able, swoops in to arrest. They don't detain or harm smugglers and immigrants, Vickers said.

"We don't officially have a view on the Texas Border Volunteers," said Daniel Doty, spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol, Rio Grande Valley Sector. "We're responsible for securing the border. At the same time, we encourage the public to call us if they see something suspicious so we can check it out."

Unofficially, border agents said the volunteers help to spot a great deal of smuggling. Here, any help is needed.

Critics, however, say the border volunteers need to leave patrolling to the experts.

McAllen's Sister, Norma Pimentel, is the Secretary of Charities for the Catholic Dioceses of Brownsville and a longtime proponent of offering sanctuary to illegal immigrants. She said border volunteers overstep their bounds.

"They are responding to their fears and they put immigrants in danger," Pimentel said. "It is the responsibility of the Border Patrol to do what they're doing."

Elizabeth Garcia agrees with Pimentel. Garcia heaved a backpack over her shoulder, grabbed a camera and hiked at a clip along the Rio Grande River south of Brownsville.

Garcia, 43, leads the Coalition of Amigos in Solidarity and she works to help illegal immigrants in the Valley. She's smuggled a number of Mexicans into the United States.

Of border volunteers, she said, "These are people with paramilitary backgrounds, very well-equipped, heavily armed. They have better equipment than the Border Patrol. They think they are doing the right thing by taking things into their own hands. For me, personally, it's just like another continuation of the Ku Klux Klan."

Garcia, who entered the United States illegally as a Mexican child and who later received U.S. amnesty, said border volunteers unjustifiably target certain illegal immigrants.

"It's very, very clear how hateful they are against immigrants from Mexico. They will do whatever it takes to protect the borders," Garcia said. "They're vicious people. They have a lot of money. It's hard to compete with them. They scream in your face: 'Wetbacks, go back to your territory.' They're horrible, just horrible."

Vickers denied allegations of mistreatment of illegal immigrants and the accusation of racism. Volunteers document the bodies found murdered on Vickers' ranch. In the four years since the group's inception, members have located illegal immigrants from 21 countries other than Mexico.

In recent years, the Border Patrol launched a push in Brownsville, Harlingen and Sarita - the crossings that dot U.S. Highway 77 South. Increased manpower and equipment forced smugglers west to U.S. Highway 281, Doty said.

Vickers is the recipient of this migration.

The rancher steered up a hill, the highest point in the area, and through thick green stalks that reached taller than the four-wheeler. "Hold on, guys," he said.

At the top, he scanned the horizon and talked about the murders, kidnappings and cartel violence in Reynosa.

"Watch it," he said, pointing to the ground. "Don't get bit by a snake. We're a long way from a hospital."

Falfurrias, in fact, lacks anti-venom. Snake-bite victims are flown to Corpus Christi. Most snake-bite victims are illegal immigrants and Brooks County taxpayers pay for their medical flights.

Brooks County Judge Raul Ramirez said taxpayers pay more than $260,000 each year for autopsies and burials for the illegal immigrants found dead.

Lavoyger Durham, the 77,000-acre El Tule Ranch manager, is also fed up with the problems increasingly funneled through this area.

Durham leaned against the cashier's counter at Ramirez's downtown Falfurrias furniture store. Durham wore a big, white cowboy hat and big sunglasses.

"Lavoyger speaks from the heart," said Ramirez, the 55-year-old county judge. "He doesn't pull any punches. He's a big guy. He's got a big voice and he's as Texan as they come."

Longtime friends, Durham and Ramirez were born on the famed King Ranch. Durham enjoys the privileges tied to having once managed the ranch.

When Durham married, his best man was former president George Herbert Walker Bush. Ramirez performed the ceremony.

"We grew up with a different animal," Durham, 64, said, describing the new, more dangerous smugglers and illegal immigrants.

He grabbed a reporter's notebook, ripped a page out and drew a map. He explained how the smugglers operate.

After crossing the Rio Grande River, smugglers are in the "Free-Nilly-Willy Zone." In Falfurrias, they are in the "Catch-Me-If-You-Can Zone." Once beyond Falfurrias, they're in the "You-Can't-Touch- Me Zone, the Sanctuary Zone."

Durham leaned in, lowered his voice, and said, "I'm right in the 'Catch-Me-If-You-Can Zone.'" He held his stare and then laughed a deep, hearty laugh. "Once you get past this checkpoint, you're home free."

As the criminals became more dangerous, influential ranchers became determined to protect their lands and families.

The Mexican cartel wars are spilling across the U.S. border, Durham said. Ranches employ 24-hour, trained and armed security.

Lee Bass, one of the wealthiest ranchers in Texas, owns land here. Sam Walton's family - relatives of Wal-Mart's late founder - also owns a ranch in Brooks County, as does Burton Lawrence, whose Brooks County home is worth an estimated $23 million.

Outgoing President George W. Bush hunts each year on the Brown Ranch.

When conditions worsened, Ramirez and Durham climbed into a Lear jet and flew to Austin to meet with Gov. Rick Perry.

"They don't have an idea," Ramirez said. "National stories focus on Chicago. They don't talk about Falfurrias."

After the May 14, 2003, tragedy - the trip that ended with 19 illegal immigrants dead inside a tractor-trailer in Victoria County - eyes opened nationwide.

"It's unfortunate, those 19 who died in Victoria County," said Falfurrias Police Chief Eden Garcia. "But what about all the people who die in the brush here? Victoria was a drop in the bucket, man."

Garcia drove in his black SUV down a dirt road south of Falfurrias and parallel to the ranches Ramirez talked about. Garcia pointed to the sandy soil between the road and fence, a groomed tracking tool border agents use to spot footprints each day.

Ranch hands are often threatened by backpackers who smuggle drugs and weapons. The police chief slowed.

"A group of illegals walked in this part," he said, scanning the roadside sand. "The tracks may be new."

Footprints led from the fence to a nearby brushy area. A white shirt dangled from a strand of barbed-wire.

"This group will be picked up later tonight," Garcia said. "They're probably 100 to 200 yards away. They came here within the last 24 hours. The coyotes will be back later."

The shirt dangled less than a mile from a rural school bus stop.

Near a power line easement on Hyland Road, water bottles, white toothbrushes and food cans were scattered in the dirt.

"They go through here every day," said Evelyn Solomon, a 66-year-old ranch owner. "This is their main line."

Smugglers often drop illegal immigrants off south of the checkpoint - near those fences that are torn - and coyotes lead the groups across the ranches to places such as this.

"I don't even like to go to the door anymore when I hear the dog bark," Solomon said. "On the road, sometimes they show you a wad of money. They want a ride somewhere or to use the phones."

Illegal immigrants burglarize homes, the police chief said. Recently, immigrants bound and tied a woman outside her home and stole her car.

"The biggest problem we face in the city is stolen cars. On any given day, we impound six or seven stolen cars," Garcia said. "It's even worse out in the county. A lot of people here are afraid. The crime, the drugs, it all leads back to the cartels."

In a city where more than half live below the poverty level, Garcia said residents are increasingly recruited as U.S. branches of the cartel.

"Everybody wants a piece of the pie," he said. "Locals are smuggling. It's too profitable for them. Highway 281 has become a goldmine."

Darkness fell. Vickers said the four-wheeler's whirring engine and headlights, which poked only feet into the black ranch land ahead, protected against startling a group of smugglers this night.

After driving seven miles into the bush, he returned to his headquarters. Inside, more than 200 photos of dead, murdered and maimed immigrants are posted inside the radio room.

One photo shows a murdered woman; another, a man dead and bound to a tree. Some bodies have flesh torn from legs and arms chewed to the bone.

The border volunteers conduct weeklong missions monthly, and when they do, it's estimated they help spot 80 percent of smuggling here, Vickers said.

"We've given up on the feds. This is organized crime at its maximum potential: Human, guns and drug smuggling all coming right through here. This is the line in the sand."

Victoria County Sheriff T. Michael O'Connor toured Vickers' land. O'Connor offered an unofficial endorsement of Vickers by saying the volunteers are not a vigilante group. The sheriff verified Vickers' group with state and federal agencies, he said.

"He's highly respected. He's there to help ranchers," O'Connor said. "Down there, it's gotten to the point it's overwhelming."

O'Connor helped to create a sheriff's alliance that unifies in the fight against smugglers.

"This alliance works to stop the cartel from using areas lacking in law enforcement. When they take on this alliance, they're taking on all of us," O'Connor said.

To combat the country's most dangerous and active drug and human smuggling routes, the federal government assigned only 200 Border Patrol agents to Falfurrias. Police Chief Garcia has only 11 officers.

"If the border volunteers can help to do something there, it's going to payoff for us," O'Connor said. "It's going to cut it off at the pass. The cartels are making their way to Victoria. This is their way of commerce. If you think it's only at the border, you're gravely mistaken. It's already upon and beyond us. What we don't want here is what's happened in Laredo, but I'd say Falfurrias is the new base of the Fatal Funnel."

www.victoriaadvocate.com

Garcia, 43, leads the Coalition of Amigos in Solidarity and she works to help illegal immigrants in the Valley. She's smuggled a number of Mexicans into the United States.

Elizabeth Garcia, you should be in jail.

Dixie

It's very, very clear how hateful they are against immigrants from Mexico.

That would be ILLEGAL immigrants from Mexico.

They will do whatever it takes to protect the borders," Garcia said.

Because our government won't.

" They're horrible, just horrible."

No, the rapists, murderers and thieves sneaking in from Mexico are horrible, just horrible.