http://www.house.gov/judiciary/barn0611.htm
Thank you Mr. Chairman, and ladies and gentlemen of the committee. My name is Roger Barnett and I live in Sierra Vista, Arizona, in Cochise County, in the southeast corner of Arizona that borders Mexico.
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Roger Barnett |
I have recently been the subject of many news reports, both local and national, because I, and my brothers, have had to take extraordinary measures to protect my property. I have a 22,000 acre ranch just east of Douglas, Arizona. My ranch is mostly desert, but I do have employees who tend to the horses and the couple hundred head of cattle that are there. It isn't located right on the border. It is, at various places, two to five miles from the Mexican border.
In the past year the foot traffic by illegal aliens has increased tremendously. Thousands of aliens have crossed my property, after entering our country illegally, in an attempt to get to a local highway and then be smuggled into the interior of the country. I have seen these people, and I have picked up literally tons of garbage that they have left behind. Every thing from cigarette packages, to water jugs, to dirty diapers, to toilet paper.
There are so many crossing my property that I can tell you that at times it looks like a slow motion invasion. And they all aren't illegal aliens.
Drug traffickers will frequently use my property to smuggle drugs across the border.
I am sure that the number of aliens and drug runners is quite high, because in the past year, my brothers and I have turned over to the Border Patrol, more than 1,000 aliens.
And I don't blame the Border Patrol agents for not catching them all, either. These fellows work hard, and they catch who they can.
But there just aren't enough of them to do the job, faced with the numbers of illegal aliens that are coming across the border now. So, my family and I have begun to patrol the property, to do what we can to stop the influx. Some news accounts have questioned whether or not we are "vigilantes" because we carry guns. And to that I answer that we are not because vigilantes act like the law, take the law into their own hands and then mete out whatever type of justice they want right on the spot.
We're just ranchers trying to protect our property, livestock, water and employees the only way we know how, since the Border Patrol doesn't have the resources to do the job.
We do carry our guns because it can be dangerous depending on who you meet up with out in the desert. My ranch is 22,000 acres. There are no phones out there. We carry cell phones and radios. But still, law enforcement is hours away if we get into trouble with armed drug runners who don't want to lose their drugs. We don't worry too much about the aliens, they are usually just interested in getting across. But the drug traffickers are another story. They are very dangerous, well armed, and there have been several reports where they have shot at people in the past.
So we do what we do to protect our property and ourselves while we are on it.
Now, what we ranchers and citizens of Southern Arizona want to know is when is the federal government going to fulfill its responsibility and protect our property and our country and staunch the flow of illegal aliens and drugs that is flooding into our country?
Drugs especially need to be stopped, and the current effort to do that isn't working. Many parts of Arizona have just been designated High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas. About a month ago the Phoenix Police Department found, by accident, a half billion dollars worth of cocaine, 2,300 pounds. That's over a ton in just one place, and by accident. We all know what a scourge drugs are on our children and our communities and our country. This drug flow has to stop, and that means we need reinforcements on the border, to act as a deterrent to these drug smugglers.
Let me tell you what the response has been to all the news coverage we have all been getting in the Douglas area. I have gotten many phone calls from all over the country from people who, mostly, tell me to keep up the good job. I have also learned that it is possible that Attorney General Janet Reno and the Justice Department is going to investigate me to see if I violated any civil rights of the illegal aliens and drug runners that I have turned over to the authorities.
They want to investigate to see if any civil rights were violated? Ladies and gentlemen, my property rights were violated, and still are on a daily basis. My employees are threatened. My water tanks have been drained, threatening my livestock. The desert looks like a garbage dump where they come through. And then again there are the drug dealers. I want to ask you congressmen today, "Whose rights are being violated here?" Why is the Justice Department, the very same agency who has failed in its responsibility it is to protect our borders, now investigating those who have to take personal responsibility to protect themselves?
I have been out of the country for the past several weeks, we haven't even been home yet. But I understand there has recently been some small activity going on in Douglas. 47 new Border Patrol agents have been assigned there? Well, that is a start. But I can tell you now, it is not enough. We need a real commitment from the federal government to fulfill its responsibility to protect our borders. We need a visible, serious deterrent down there.
I personally favor putting the National Guard or the Army on the border, to deter the illegals and drug runners. I know that both Senators from Arizona have sent a letter to Attorney General Reno saying they don't favor that. Well it makes sense to me. We are currently spending billions of dollars protecting other nation's borders. For the past 50 years, from Korea, to Kuwait to Kosovo, we have spent trillions of dollars and put hundreds of thousands of American troops in harms way protect other nation's borders. I say it is time to use our national defense, just a little bit of our national defense, to protect our borders and our citizens from illegal immigration and the drug traffickers, who threaten the future of our country and the lives of our children.
Thank you very much for inviting me here to speak to you today. And if any of you wish to come to Arizona to see first hand what is happening, I will be happy show you around. Thank you.
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