Minutemen finish border fence on a Palominas ranch

BISBEE - Eight months after breaking ground on a 10-mile stretch of border fencing at the Palominas ranch of John and Jack Ladd, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps says it has completed the project.

Officials with the civilian border watch group report that a team of volunteers finished the final 7 1/2-mile length of five-strand barbed wire fencing on Sunday after working 20 consecutive days on the effort. Volunteers and a hired contractor completed the first 2 1/2 miles of fencing in July after beginning work in late May.

According to Minuteman Civil Defense Corps volunteer and Palominas resident Connie Foust, 36 people from states as far away as New York, Minnesota and Wisconsin donated a total of 1,400 hours of time to constructing the final segment of fence.

Aside from cold weather and some occasional heckling from the south side of the border, Foust said, construction went relatively smoothly.

Foust, who has been active on border issues for the past three years, said she joined the fence-building effort out of a concern for national security.

"People want to make it a race issue, but it's not," she said. "I believe there's a legal way to come to the United States, and anyone is welcome legally."

The range fence, however, was not the barrier the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps had initially hoped to build at the ranch. But the Ladds nixed the group's plan for a 14-foot high, double-layered security barrier, saying that while they agreed with the Minutemen's stance against illegal immigration, they preferred a smaller range fence that would keep their cattle secure.

Asked if the just-completed fence had advanced his group's goal of promoting greater border security, Al Garza, the Minuteman national executive director, said: "Not 100 percent, but at least partially."

However, he added, the Minutemen would augment the Ladds' fence if asked.

"If (John Ladd) wants to add to it, or if he wants to restructure things, obviously we'll be prepared to engage in that," Garza said.

Ladd could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Last fall, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps broke ground on a second fence project about four miles east of Naco at the border ranch of Richard Hodges. And while Hodges said he, too, was principally concerned with the safety of his cattle, he gave the group permission to build their large-scale, double-layered barrier on his land.

When completed, the barrier is expected to cost about $650,000 and cover nine-tenths of a mile of Hodges' borderfront property.

Garza said he expects the structure to be completed in March or April. Garza was not immediately certain how much money had been raised to build the Ladd's fence. Once Hodges' fence is completed, Garza said, the Minutemen will continue building border barriers on private land as long as the need - and the flow of donations - continues.

"Our project is ongoing until we are completely relieved of our duties by our federal government," he said. "And that includes a fence equivalent to what we're doing."