16 illegals sue Arizona rancher

[Sweater Cows!]

Originally found here

Story dated February 9 2009
Source:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/09/16-illegals-sue-ari...

16 illegals sue Arizona rancher

Claim violation of rights as they crossed his land

By Jerry Seper

An Arizona man who has waged a 10-year campaign to stop a flood of illegal immigrants from crossing his property is being sued by 16
Mexican nationals who accuse him of conspiring to violate their civil
rights when he stopped them at gunpoint on his ranch on the U.S.-Mexico
border.

Roger Barnett, 64, began rounding up illegal immigrants in 1998 and turning them over to the U.S. Border Patrol, he said, after they
destroyed his property, killed his calves and broke into his home.

His Cross Rail Ranch near Douglas, Ariz., is known by federal and county law enforcement authorities as "the avenue of choice" for immigrants
seeking to enter the United States illegally.

Trial continues Monday in the federal lawsuit, which seeks $32 million in actual and punitive damages for civil rights violations, the
infliction of emotional distress and other crimes. Also named are Mr.
Barnett's wife, Barbara, his brother, Donald, and Larry Dever, sheriff
in Cochise County, Ariz., where the Barnetts live. The civil trial is
expected to continue until Friday.

The lawsuit is based on a March 7, 2004, incident in a dry wash on the 22,000-acre ranch, when he approached a group of illegal immigrants
while carrying a gun and accompanied by a large dog.

Attorneys for the immigrants - five women and 11 men who were trying to cross illegally into the United States - have accused Mr. Barnett of
holding the group captive at gunpoint, threatening to turn his dog loose
on them and saying he would shoot anyone who tried to escape.

The immigrants are represented at trial by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), which also charged that Sheriff
Dever did nothing to prevent Mr. Barnett from holding their clients at
"gunpoint, yelling obscenities at them and kicking one of the women."

In the lawsuit, MALDEF said Mr. Barnett approached the group as the immigrants moved through his property, and that he was carrying a pistol
and threatening them in English and Spanish. At one point, it said, Mr.
Barnett's dog barked at several of the women and he yelled at them in
Spanish, "My dog is hungry and he's hungry for buttocks."

The lawsuit said he then called his wife and two Border Patrol agents arrived at the site. It also said Mr. Barnett acknowledged that he had
turned over 12,000 illegal immigrants to the Border Patrol since 1998.

In March, U.S. District Judge John Roll rejected a motion by Mr. Barnett to have the charges dropped, ruling there was sufficient evidence to
allow the matter to be presented to a jury. Mr. Barnett's attorney,
David Hardy, had argued that illegal immigrants did not have the same
rights as U.S. citizens.

Mr. Barnett told The Washington Times in a 2002 interview that he began rounding up illegal immigrants after they started to vandalize his
property, northeast of Douglas along Arizona Highway 80. He said the
immigrants tore up water pumps, killed calves, destroyed fences and
gates, stole trucks and broke into his home.

Some of his cattle died from ingesting the plastic bottles left behind by the immigrants, he said, adding that he installed a faucet on an
8,000-gallon water tank so the immigrants would stop damaging the tank
to get water.

Mr. Barnett said some of the ranch´s established immigrant trails were littered with trash 10 inches deep, including human waste, used toilet
paper, soiled diapers, cigarette packs, clothes, backpacks, empty
1-gallon water bottles, chewing-gum wrappers and aluminum foil - which
supposedly is used to pack the drugs the immigrant smugglers give their
"clients" to keep them running.

He said he carried a pistol during his searches for the immigrants and had a rifle in his truck "for protection" against immigrant and drug
smugglers, who often are armed.

A former Cochise County sheriff´s deputy who later was successful in the towing and propane business, Mr. Barnett spent $30,000 on electronic
sensors, which he has hidden along established trails on his ranch. He
searches the ranch for illegal immigrants in a pickup truck, dressed in a
green shirt and camouflage hat, with his handgun and rifle,
high-powered binoculars and a walkie-talkie.

His sprawling ranch became an illegal-immigration highway when the Border Patrol diverted its attention to several border towns in an
effort to take control of the established ports of entry. That effort
moved the illegal immigrants to the remote areas of the border,
including the Cross Rail Ranch.

"This is my land. I´m the victim here," Mr. Barnett said. "When someone´s home and loved ones are in jeopardy and the government
seemingly can´t do anything about it, I feel justified in taking matters
into my own hands. And I always watch my back."

[Willy]

XLFD
It is a form of advertisement for restaurants and I have never seen a chinese restaurant displaying a Chinese flag. I would never go to mexico or any other country and display an American flag outside of the place I was residing. That would be a slap in the face of the country that I am visiting.

[XLFD]

RJE, that is my impression too, that if I were in a foreign land I would not unduly flaunt that I was an American-- but there are some Americans who would, and have.
Many urban areas still have segregated districts housing immigrants (Chicago's Poles, Detroit's Arabs, San Fran's Chinese, etc.) from one country, and can get by, in America, without learning English, or learning the "American way". As one who prefers the "melting pot" model, this is unhealthy for our system, IMHO.

[Sweater Cows!]

When we had an exchange student from germany we had a german flag up along with the US flag.

[AQUAMAN]

I hope the US flag was flown or posted higher than the German flag. I saw a sailboat last year flying the British flag up on the top of the mast. When I passed him in the channel I pointed at the flag and stated "you're not in Britain, this is America"! I had to say it several times before I got the finger back in return. They were cocktailing and looney though, so go figure/finger!

[Mary A.]

Reading these posts is making me really really angry. I think of my son-in-law, who for at least the last 8-10 years has struggled to find work in the Detroit area. He's in construction (union). Even the legitimate union companies hire illegals and pay them under the table while laying off the trained journeymen. My son-in-law, who is a talented carpenter, has to leave his family and travel outside of Michigan to find temporary work. Many (most?) of the Mexicans hired to work on these crews can't speak or read English and are not skilled.

[masonco]

Here is something if you are interested in taking action. I got this email from numbersusa. They provide links to a site where you can see if someone is using everify to hire or if they are not using it so they leave the door open to hire illegals. To get to the links, you will probably have to go to their web site. www.numbersusa.com and sign up. When you sign up, you choose which causes you are interested in. Also they have a video of Roy being attacked and the cops going after him not the illegals
------------------------------------
From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA
Date: Thursday 1APR10 3 p.m. EDT

USE OUR UNIQUE E-VERIFY DATABASE TO FIND OUT WHO STOPPED HIRING ILLEGAL ALIENS

DEAR OPPONENTS OF GIVING JOBS TO ILLEGAL ALIENS,

You don't have to wait for Congress, or your Governor, or your County Board to do something to push more illegal aliens out of the workforce and put more Americans back into jobs.

Find out here if any particular local employer is committed to hiring only legal U.S. workers.

If a local employer is NOT using E-Verify, you can express your disappointment and begin a pressure campaign until the employer signs up.

Keep in mind that any employer who is not using E-Verify is at the least keeping the option open to be able to hire illegal foreign workers in the future -- and quite possibly is doing so now.

Only if the employer is using E-Verify can you know that there is a good faith effort to reserve scarce jobs for U.S. workers. The employers on this list are the patriot businesses.

We have the entire E-Verify database on our website. You can look up any business, non-profit or government to see if it is using E-Verify to ensure that jobs go to U.S. citizens and legal immigrants.

ACTION: Look up any employer here:
http://www.numbersusa.com/content/enforcement/workplace-verificatio...

More than 200,000 employers are now using E-Verify. And you can find them in our database.

Just remember that most of the illegal aliens in your community are there because somebody not using E-Verify is giving them jobs.

You can make it socially unacceptable in your community to hire illegal aliens. You don't have to prove that the hiring takes place. You just have to prove that an employer isn't using E-Verify. We provide the proof. Then make the refusal to use E-Verify a sign of willingness to hire illegal aliens.

When employers don't respond to your civil inquiries, public shame is the next step. You can figure out how you want to do it, but we will be providing you methods along the way.

ACTION: If you are an employer and are not yet signed up for E-Verify, please do so immediately so you can avoid the embarrassment of having your fellow NumbersUSA members targeting you.

NumbersUSA has been using the system for years. It takes about a minute to run a new hire through the system. But either you or one of your employees will have to spend 3 or 4 hours at the beginning to get you registered. It is so worth it. Plus, don't you want to set an example?

HERE'S HOW TO USE OUR SEARCH ENGINE:

Enter the name of the business and probably the state and city.

If nothing comes up, it may because the business is listed under a slightly different name. You can be more sure if a business isn't listed if you look at all the businesses of an area.

For example, if you live in a small city or town, you may just want to enter the city and state in the search engine and take a look at all employers in your area who are being responsible and using E-Verify. Everybody not listed is keeping options open to hire illegal workers.

If you are in a bigger city, you may want to just enter a zip code that helps you narrow down the search. You can use a zip code if you are in a rural area, too.

Our website editor, Chris Chmielenski, notes that you should not make immediate assumptions if you don't at first find an employer:

"Our search engine is very particular, so if you don't find a company, it doesn't necessarily mean they're not using E-Verify. For instance, food distributor FreshPoint is all one word, so they won't come up if you insert a space between the two words.

"Another common error could come up when searching for franchises. Your local McDonalds is likely owned and operated by a business group that is not located in your city, and they may not have the word 'McDonalds' in their title."

So what do you do?

You first phone, write or personally visit a business and note that you don't find them listed with DHS as using E-Verify to screen out illegal aliens. Ask them if they are listed under another name or is it true that they don't use E-Verify.

That is very civil and is a great way to open up the issue.

Focus on businesses you suspect of hiring illegal aliens.

These are the ones that are really angering you, aren't they? Look up all of those and start contacting them. It won't take much for you to be sure they aren't using E-Verify. At that point, do all you can to publicize the apparent willingness of the business to employ illegal foreign workers instead of U.S. workers.

This is just the start of a long campaign. We will be giving you more tips along the way. And we will be sharing your various battle and success stories as you send them to us.

You can put unemployed Americans back to work if you start using our database to pressure employers in your local area to use E-Verify.

[Mary A.]

If my son-in-law became a whistle blower, he would never find work again in the area.

[AQUAMAN]

It's too bad, as always, the few spoil it for the majority. I believe that alot of Hispanics are seeking legal entry via visas and green cards. Another minority, way too many, are not going thru the legal process. Why? Because it's too costly, time consuming, and smuggling is very profitable. Many are sending money to family members, stating the jobs are for the taking, and the border is easy to cross, why wouldn't droves of them come in that way. We are way understaffed, and have few deterents at too many border crossings. Such as the farmer mentioned above. Add this to the fact our own US Govt. policy on sanctuary cities, empathy from the public, and lax INS personnel, the problem is only going to get worse. And the worst part is the crime wave and poisoning of kids by the new Hispanic gangs growing up everywhere we look.

[Sweater Cows!]

Since my kid was born I have been asking people if they knew of anyone who could teach her Spanish. I have found no one. I have also asked people if they would teach her Chinese.

I think in this world, becoming a global economy, we need to learn multiple languages. Those who choose Arabic languages a few years back are now working for the government as translators in the middle east and elsewhere.

If my daughter wants to be a counselor at CMH, or work at DHS(go figure right!) or sell cars in Texas or Chicago , well then she needs to speak Spanish. If she wanted to do those jobs in a big city (LA,NYC), it would be in her best interest to learn Chinese or Arabic languages.

I don't see it as giving in to a different culture(although it may feel that way), we have already been taken over anyway. By not learning the language we are making it so our kids cannot compete on the global scale that will be way more necessary in twenty years than it is now. If they learn to speak the languages of India then we could run call centers for their companies.

By only speaking English I think we are holding our kids back from having the ability to compete on a global scale economically.

[Mary A.]

I came across the FAIR web site through an advertisement here. It's a little unnerving that forums keep such close scrutiny on people's discussions. Anyway, I found the reading quite interesting, although very biased in favor of my feelings on illegal immigration. Especially interesting was a point-by-point analysis of Janet Napolitano's comments about immigration reform. We'd better dig in for a long fight on this one, maybe longer than the health care debate. This issue is a very emotionally charged one, at least for me. Have at it.

http://www.fairus.org/site/PageNavigator/about/

[AQUAMAN]

Sheila, if you, like I, even as far back in LHS in the 60's, were college prep. classing, it was required to have 2 full years of a foreign language. I took Spanish, while others took Latin, French, and whatever else was available. Thing of it is, there are far too many Hispanics in this country that can't speak a word of English, unless the word is money. Now, if I was going to France, I better take a French translation book to function because it is only fair and courteous for me to speak in their language. The same should also apply here in the US. Trouble is, our own gov't. and institutions and even TV/cable are all making spanish messages and content readily available by pushing a button or number. That simply encourages the same behavior of not trying to converse in English. It's rude and condescending for HIspanics to expect US citizens to bow to them and talk to them in Spanish, while they are here in the US taking advantage of our way of life. Thanks for the FAIR link Mary, I saved that for future research.

[Willy]

AQUAMAN
What really grinds me is that illegals are breaking the law by entering our country. Then they are demanding to be made citizens. These people are taking advantage of the freedom and privilages that millions of Americans died and suffered for while other folks are trying to enter the U.S. in a legal manner and are made to wait. I personally think that immigration should be halted until an independent [non governmental] study can be conducted to determine what the affects are of over populating our country. I also took 2 years of Spanish.