Dear HCN,
Having lived and worked
with illegal Mexican laborers for over 20 years from the Mexican
border to South Dakota, I disagree with Jack McGarvey’s essay and
description of the U.S. Border Patrol as irritating and oppressive
(HCN, 10/11/99). From this same perspective I laugh at his
reference to the “affectionate” employers who employ illegal
aliens.
On the countless ranches where I have
worked alongside them, many who performed their labors at least as
well as I, rarely have illegal aliens been treated like my equal.
One ranch owner, who at the time owned more land than any other
individual in the world, provided me with all the beef I could eat.
The illegals who rode with me killed rattlesnakes for their meat.
The irony was not lost on me years later when, before I could be
employed in my own country, I first had to prove my nationality to
the Mexican billionaire who owns one of the oldest and biggest
ranches in New Mexico. Those who now pass through my property and
the surrounding valley to pick chilies 20 miles north have been
found living in roofless shacks for which their wages are deducted
by their employers.
As with any organization that
has the power to force people to do as told, there are Border
Patrol agents who abuse their authority. My ancestors immigrated to
this country several generations before Mr. McGarvey’s, yet I, too,
have, on occasion, been treated less than respectfully by Border
Patrol agents. There was a time I knew every Border Patrol dope-dog
by name from El Paso to the Big Bend because I fit “the profile.”
But with a few exceptions, Border Patrol agents
are men and women who are civil toward others regardless of skin
color and professional in their actions – even when they have me
standing where they want me as they thoroughly search my
vehicle.
Mr. McGarvey did not mention that last
year near his interstate subdivision, a young Border Patrol rookie,
an immigrant himself from Russia, was murdered in the night, shot
in his head at point-blank range by a Mexican
dope-runner.
Also last year, of the more than
200,000 illegal aliens who were apprehended in the Douglas, Ariz.,
area alone, over 120 were found suffocating in a $29.95/day rental
truck when it was stopped by Border Patrol agents on the highway
near my home. The current coyote fare from Douglas to Phoenix is
$600, no refund. With only their bare hands the illegals had peeled
down the top of the sliding steel door for air. The driver was a
16-year-old Mexican illegal. I cannot imagine his passengers not
readily accepting the Border Patrol’s “racist” profiling. Of the
hundreds of illegals I have encountered through the years, only one
has told me how badly he was treated by La
Migra.
Mr. McGarvey failed to say that the Border
Patrol’s helicopters are also used for the frequent search and
rescue of both American and Mexican citizens. Without them there
would be many more desiccated bodies lying in the desert. He is
correct, though, about their fearful effect when used for control
and apprehension. From my porch I have watched a National Guard
helicopter stop and hold down in the brush some 20 illegals until
mounted Border Patrol agents could arrive to line them out on a
cattle trail and drive them to waiting vans.
On
the other hand, I have returned home and entered my bedroom to see
a hole rammed through the wall with a railroad tie; one of the five
times in 18 months my home was broken into and burglarized by
illegal aliens.
The vast majority of the
Arizona/Mexico border does not look like a demilitarized zone as
described by Mr. McGarvey, but is marked only by a barbed wire
fence no more secure than his Canadian fence. But the lone Border
Patrol agent who was recently shot twice in the chest from the
Mexican side near Columbus, N.M., and saved only by his bulletproof
vest, will attest that the Mexican border fence cuts from both
directions.
Life on the line is hard and deadly
for both gringos and meskins. Those who live here and do not choose
to acknowledge this may do better in the more serene environs of
Scottsdale or Santa Fe.
E.T.
Collinsworth III
San Simon Valley,
Arizona
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Another view of La Migra.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
