Dangerous Dan

Out of the state that God blessed with His own hand comes this story of ranchers and illegal aliens. As you may know, American ranchers along the Mexican border have a difficult dilemma - they constantly have illegal aliens trespassing on their property (and often doing damage to it as well as threatening the landowners themselves in some cases), but if the ranchers try enforcing their property rights, the law punishes them for it. That's the situation in which some folks down in Texas found themselves. A group called Ranch Rescue caught and detained a couple of illegal aliens from El Salvador on a Hebronville, TX, ranch owned by Joe and Betty Sutton. The Ranch Rescue captor, Casey Nethercott, apparently pistol-whipped one of them. I don't know the conditions under which this took place, but I don't imagine there was any justification for it and the act was inexcusable (if it took place at all as Nethercott denied it and wasn't convicted for it). Oddly enough, a jury deadlocked on the assault charge but did convict him for being a felon with a firearm. So Nethercott doesn't seem to be a great guy.

The eye-popping part of this story is that the two illegals sued Nethercott, Ranch Rescue's head, and Joe and Betty Sutton for the pistol-whipping. The Sutton's settled for $100,000, and a court awarded them $850,000 from Nethercott and $500,000 from Ranch Rescue's head guy. In order to settle the judgment, ownership of Nethercott's 70 acre ranch was transferred to the illegals.

Now, before moving on, I'm sure the illegals' experience was a bit distressing for them and they certainly didn't deserve to be pistol-whipped. All the same, they don’t deserve $1.5 million for it. The two illegals say they "feared that they would be killed by the men they thought were soldiers, [and it] left them with post-traumatic stress." Yes, well, I'm sure it was terrifying considering: "The immigrants also said the group gave them cookies, water and a blanket and let them go after an hour or so." It should also be noted that by filing the suit and claiming they were victims of a crime, they were able to legally stay in the country under our immigration laws. Nice incentive. I’m sure future illegals will be paying attention to this legal maneuver.

Back on track. So let's sum up. Two aliens enter the country illegally, trespass on private property, are caught and mildly abused, if at all, but do get cookies and a blanket. In return they get $1.5 million, which includes a ranch on the border. And what will become of that ranch?

Dees said his clients plan to eventually sell the property, which Nethercott bought for $120,000, but may allow humanitarian border groups offering aid to immigrants to use it for now.

That's right, the illegals will help more illegals to enter the country.

I side with the ranchers here. The pro-illegal aliens groups try to portray everybody attempting to enter the country as star-eyed folks who just want a better life. They tend to leave out the soulless coyotes that transport them and the massive amount of drug smuggling and other criminal activities that take place. Throw in the fact that's it's a great place for potential terrorists to sneak into the U.S. and that it's all utterly unfair to the many people who wait to enter the country illegally and you just have a big mess. Why shouldn't the ranchers take action to protect their property? The federal government certainly isn't fulfilling its obligation to secure the borders. The governors of New Mexico and Arizona are thankfully waking up to the problems and have declared states of emergency along their borders, while Texas Governor Rick Perry is still sitting on his hands, likely afraid of alienating the Hispanic vote.

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