Property Rights in Jeopardy in Border Lawsuit

Is a man's home his castle or not?

Are property rights just one more thing that Americans will need to surrender in order to be part of the "more perfect union" that progressives envision?

You have to read this article, "16 Illegals Sue Arizona Rancher", before you answer that. Roger Barnett has been waging a one-man holding action on his Cross Rail Ranch on the U.S.-Mexico border for the last 10 years, in the process detaining over 12,000 illegals for the U.S. Border Patrol!

Now a handful of them, backed by Big Lawyer (the Mexican-American Legal Defense & Educational Fund) are pushing a $32 million civil suit against the rancher, his family, and the Cochise County sheriff.

for civil rights violations, the infliction of emotional distress and other crimes. ...

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.

Now the bleeding hearts among our readers would probably argue that he should have just let them pass through his 22,000 acre ranch and let the authorities handle it. But consider Barnett's side of the story:

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.

At one point, he said, illegals even broke into his home.

Since when do Americans just sit back, play the victim, and let the authorities take care of it? I guess sometime during the last 30 or 40 years as our progressive media and education establishments have tried to convince us that any individual action of self defense was really just vigilantism in disguise. You are much safer, they have tried to convince us, by letting lawbreakers have their way. Let government "protect" you after the fact.

Whether we are talking about home invasions in Tulsa, carjackings on the streets of Detroit, or Rancher Barnett on the Mexican border, this logic is nuts! Surely no court would give this lawsuit a second thought.

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.

So the lawsuit proceeds, and if the illegals are successful they could finish the destruction of the life of one American rancher, and accelerate the destruction of life along the border. And property rights for all Americans, one of the freedoms enshrined in the Constitution, becoming meaningless.

"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."

Maybe we should watch each other's backs.