Ranch supplier demands government take action on illegal immigration problem

By DAN WHEAT

Capital Press

CLE ELUM, Wash. -- The federal government needs to get serious about protecting citizens, including ranchers, on the U.S.-Mexico border, a Tucson feed store owner recently told Washington cattlemen.

Barbara Jackson, owner of Vaquero Feed & Livestock Supply, spoke of the plight of Arizona ranchers at the Washington cattlemen's and cattlewomen's associations' annual meeting Nov. 11 at Suncadia Resort near Cle Elum.

Border ranchers are her customers, directly and through mail-order sales. They live in increasing fear for their livelihoods -- and their lives, she said, because of lawless Mexican drug cartels smuggling drugs and illegal immigrants across the border.

More than 30,000 people in Mexico have been killed by the cartels in the nearly four years since Mexican President Felipe Calderon began fighting them, Jackson said.

Numerous U.S. citizens have been killed in the border states, including Arizona rancher Robert Krentz last March, she said.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said the cartels control some parts of Arizona and that more than 20 percent of illegal immigrants crossing the border come from countries other than Mexico, including Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Jordan and other countries known to harbor terrorists, Jackson said.

Scouts for smugglers hole up in the hills and 200 to 300 illegal immigrants pass daily through lands of ranchers she knows, she said.

"Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the border is more secure than ever, but it is not. People are getting shot," Jackson said. "A friend of mine in Sonoita told me of women hiding under their kitchen sinks because of men coming through their yards with AK-47s."

Ranchers continually have to repair cut fences, clean up large volumes of trash, fix watering systems for their cattle and deal with increased livestock disease, Jackson said. They also suffer countless burglaries, thefts and vandalism, she said.

An irony is U.S. Border Patrol agents have the right to enter private land within 25 miles of the border but have to get permission to enter federal parks and lands, she said.

Jackson is a member of American National CattleWomen, which is seeking federal action.

The Arizona Cattle Growers' Association has called for deployment of U.S. troops on bases every 12 miles on the border to stop illegal crossings.

"One thing my government is supposed to do is protect me and everyone else, after that parks and schools is all gravy," Jackson said. "They are supposed to protect me and they're not doing it."