APACHE — “Listen to us. Take action. Don’t turn away.”
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“These people know what they’re talking about. They deserve to be heard,” DiPeso added.
The slaying of legacy rancher Robert Krentz on Saturday affected many people in the county, the state and U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. She made a trip to the valley Wednesday night to hear from ranchers and residents who live in the no-man’s land of a primitive, vast, hostile, yet strikingly beautiful terrain of rolling hills and steep ridges.
It was evident that these people were not going to let this death be glossed over or forgotten. Instead, they want to make his tragedy a jumping off point for a better and safer border policy that protects U.S. citizens on the front lines of a war no one talks about.
Stella Brown of Elfrida came with a sign that stated: “Foreign Invasion.” She has dealt firsthand with illegal border crossers at her home. She came home to find two people on her porch. “That was frightening.” Though the men were not aggressive, she now fears for her safety. She now packs a firearm and knows how to use it.
One family was afraid to give their names. The fear of drug cartel retribution is paramount in their minds. One young woman holding her 4-month-old girl told of just such a circumstance. Her neighbor called the Border Patrol on drug runners and his horses were stolen. A local veterinarian who offers services in Mexico said he had found the stud horse that he had tended to over the years in a Sonoran pasture.
What’s the answer?
How do you serve such a vast area with limited resources? The community’s answer was: Send down National Guard members with ammo in their guns. Keep the Border Patrol on the border, not 20 miles away sitting on the side of the road. Install operating stations on the border. Put up communication towers. Add patrols by county deputies. Make the ranches and homes safe enough to raise a family.
Their suggestions mirrored those of Giffords, who on Tuesday sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and President Barack Obama. She asked for immediate deployment of the National Guard to Arizona’s border with Mexico.
Other suggestions like permitting the National Guard and Border Patrol to shoot first and ask questions later may be out of the realm of possibility, Giffords suggested.
Rancher Kelly Glenn, a Krentz family friend, told Giffords and Border Patrol representatives: “We have begged for your support. Our home lies the closest to the border. The Border Patrol needs help. They need maps of the terrain, the paths, the roads. They need the power to defend themselves and the support of our legal system. They need to be on the border with the technology to back them up. There needs to be some focus on what’s happening here.”
Third-generation rancher Bill McDonald, another lifelong friend of Krentz, said: “I have heard about the war on drugs and sealing the border for as long as I can remember. I’ve never felt more at risk in my life. “This is a bad situation.”
Giffords told the huge crowd, “You have the right to live on your property and do your work without fear.”
U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Hayworth informed the gathering, “There are fewer Border Patrol agents working the border than there are police officers in New York City. This is a clear and present danger. The military as well as the National Guard should be deployed here.”
Peggy Davis, who owns a ranch between Tombstone and Elfrida, pleaded, “Don’t let Rob’s death be in vain.”
Comments
Im a Martian-do you love me know wrote on Apr 12, 2010 9:44 PM:
Sincrely David Duke "
Jack wrote on Apr 12, 2010 6:52 PM:
FYI wrote on Apr 5, 2010 1:53 AM:
Brittanicus wrote on Apr 3, 2010 2:12 PM:
NO NAME wrote on Apr 3, 2010 12:14 AM:
earl hickey wrote on Apr 2, 2010 9:01 PM:
shoot..shovel..shut up! "
Rob wrote on Apr 1, 2010 9:34 PM: