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Editor: We are attempting to contact the
saint Isabel Garcia to ask why she is not rushing to the
defense of the poor immigrant who is being denied a better
life. Where is the justice? I guess the rules are the rules,
unless of course it involves a special interest group, or you
base justice on race.
When little Nikita Makarchuk
asks for his mother, he won’t understand the word
“deportation.” He won’t understand that
at about 7:15 a.m. Sunday, when his mother, Yana Slobodova,
disappeared behind a security checkpoint at San Francisco
International Airport, dragging two bags packed with her life
in America, she was leaving home for good — with no right
to return.
Slobodova, a Russian Jew and popular Bay
Area piano teacher, gave up her fight for asylum Sunday,
despite pleas to U.S. immigration officials from her family, a
Bay Area Jewish group and students at the Community School of
Music and Arts in Mountain View, where she taught for three
years. She was deported after seven years of hearings,
denials and appeals to immigration officials in an attempt to
overcome what she calls a mistake she made when she first
entered the United States. “They are going to send me
away from my family because I was stupid eight years
ago,” she said at the airport.
In 1996, Slobodova used false
paperwork when she arrived in the United States, but claims she
was duped by unscrupulous immigration consultants who promised
to gain her legal status based on her musical talent.
U.S. officials quickly discovered her improper paperwork
but allowed her to stay in the country while she applied for
refugee status. Although her parents were relocated as refugees
to the Bay Area, Slobodova has been denied.
The United States deported
148,619 illegal immigrants, and an additional 933,555 left
voluntarily in fiscal year 2002, the most recent year for which
figures are available from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Service.
Since Slobodova came to the
United States, she has built a nice life: She met her
husband, Alexander Makarchuk, a U.S. citizen, and together they
had a child. She started teaching piano lessons at the largest
community performing arts school in the Bay Area. But on
January 8 immigration officials denied her request for
permanent residency and jailed her for nearly three weeks until
she agreed to leave the country. While she packed her
belongings at her parents’ San Mateo home Saturday,
including the photo albums that include the glimpses of
Nikita’s first months of life, she didn’t know how
to say goodbye to her only child. She told him, “I will
see you soon,” not knowing when, or if.
Editor:
We suggest Slobodova get on a fast plane to Mexico and find
the Sonoran border with the United States. I’m sure she
could hook up with some enterprising young man who would be
more than happy to get her to Isabel Garcia’s office in
Tucson.
Next, let me assure readers
that we, volunteers of CHD, are in good health. We have
received calls recently from people concerned because I had not
printed news from the border in the past few weeks. Well the
truth is, between travel plans, personal events, meetings and
the weather, CHD has been on limited patrols. We have been
doing constant intelligence gathering and have discovered that
many local smuggling routes that have been unused in past
months are again teeming with law breakers. We have been making
plans for addressing the return of the bad guys to their old
established routes. The shell game of hide and seek continues
with full patrols beginning this weekend.
My column this week will be
used to answer questions from a law student who is writing a
paper on the rights citizens have to form citizen patrols along
the border. This is the sixth interview I have done with a
graduate type student writing a graduate type thesis on
citizens patrolling the border. I hope we have advanced their
opportunity to be educated.
Dear Mr. Simcox:
My name is Tom Raine and I am a law
student at the University of Arizona. I am currently
working on an article for the Arizona Law Review about US
immigration policy and the rights of civilian patrol groups to
monitor the border.
If you have the time, I’d
like to speak with you about your group’s activities.
However, understanding that
you are likely quite busy, I’ll just ask a few questions
over email and you can answer them at your convenience.
That’s all for now.
If you have anything you want to say about civilian
patrol groups or immigration in general, I would love to hear
it. My article thus far comes almost entirely from
newspaper stories and I feel that, without some firsthand
information, it may be inaccurate.
Thank you for your help.
Sincerely,
Tom Raine
I give the young man credit
for pursuing the truth by going beyond newspaper articles that
have been manipulated by the enemy. So many people who judge us
by what has been presented through the mainstream popular media
have been affected by the worst kind of crime perpetrated today:
inaccurate information. Inaccurate information is a nice
way to describe what the general public has been led to believe
about our operations on the border. I welcome this opportunity
to respond to questions and will gladly pay for the column
space to answer your queries in public. If only you knew the
truth about all the other interviews I have done, during which
I have shared the same information only to see it turn up on
the other end as something completely void of facts. I hope it
will put pressure on Mr. Raine to write a balanced report.
Mr. Raines questions and my responses
follow.
Raine: You seem to know a lot about
the law, did your group seek the advice of lawyers or was it
self-study? What legal training—in what they can and
can’t do—do you give your volunteers?
Interesting
these questions are coming up now and I appreciate your asking
them. Let me begin with this quote, “One of the tests
of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it
becomes an emergency.” -Arnold Glasgow
Knowing about the law is a
daunting task even in the everyday world of the common citizen
of this country; putting together a citizen border patrol group
was not done lightly and took months of research and training.
We learned that the government responds more readily and
sympathetically to the law breaking special interests zealots
who have the boot of “tolerance and diversity” on
our necks. Now, we don’t proclaim that the government is
the enemy; we want to work as the government, and with the government.
What we have learned about
the law is self-taught and self-evident in its most palpable
reality. We have had the law thrown in our faces
–constantly and with a vengeance. We have discovered that
when we, as citizens, stand up to protest about injustice and
attempt to actually do something about it, then we had first
better get ourselves a good attorney or two or three. In our
case, there have been many talented experts involved in
creating a mission statement and standard operating procedure
that has led to our exemplary behavior in the field.
With all the attention given to the issue,
you must know that if we had ever crossed the line into
illegality we would have been put out of business long ago.
Knowing the law has showed us
what we had to exemplify to have a chance to even begin to do
this job. Is the American way knowing the law? We have done
nothing short of displaying the kind of character we knew we
must, even to have a chance of withstanding the vile name
calling and vicious lies that the media helped to perpetuate.
It took months for anyone
even to listen to our message, and many people still
can’t get over the fact that we are not “breaking
any laws.” They still can’t accept that,
because of our careful training and humane intentions, we
provided life-saving water and assistance to 94 men, women and
children in the past 14 months of work on the border.
Know the law? We must even know the risks
and the laws involved in providing first-aid or water to help
give lifesaving aid, let alone know how to deal with
confronting a group of people entering our country illegally,
often in pitch black night and during a time when we are at
war, according to our government.
Many people experienced in law
enforcement and many with law backgrounds and military
experience have helped to insure that this mission is made of
people who believe in a creed. These are all responsible,
law-abiding citizens who by now have proven credibility beyond
any doubt
We have required that
everyone involved in patrols and wishing to carry a weapon for
self defense, must have gone through at least some type of
advanced gun safety course, specifically, a concealed weapons
training and permitting program. We know in great detail just
how serious a situation must be before you can use a weapon to
defend yourself or someone else. You could consider us the most
responsible gun owners in America.
Since November of 2002 we
have peacefully assisted Border Patrol and Cochise County
Sheriffs with apprehending 2,578 people. We work within the
rules; we have never intimidated, detained or even thought
about violating any person’s civil or human rights. We
can’t detain people if we are not on private property.
Landowners know the risk of civil lawsuits—the demon
private property owners fear most. When so-called human rights
groups like Humane Borders, or Attorney Isabel Garcia beg
people to come forward to file complaints against anyone who
would stand in the way of the invasion; now that just plain
opposes provision for the common defense and does not make
sense.
This has nothing to do with
Mexicans as a group of people. I have said that over and over
and over. This is about insisting that our government
(President Bush) uphold the rule of law and protect our borders
with our troops, our technology, and the full might of the
U.S.A.
We have never discriminated
against anyone. Don’t care what color your skin is, what
color your eyes are or what language you speak: if you’re
breaking into my country through the backdoor, you will be
turned over to the proper authorities. We have used the same
approach for all of the people from 26 different countries whom
we have encountered entering our country illegally. We have
never forcefully detained anyone-–we can’t. It is
against the law for citizens to do such a horrible thing. We
have never made a citizen’s arrest—we can’t,
because the people entering illegally do so on public lands.
Only federal law enforcement has the ability and
authority to stop them.
In fact, only one complaint
has ever been filed against our group and we were fully
exonerated of any wrongdoing in that incident. It seems a group
of five young machismo men took exception to our finding them
and ensuring they were caught by Border Patrol. Five of the
group of 29 said we held them at gunpoint. They described a gun
that no one in the group even carries. The other 24 people in
the group told authorities they never saw a gun and in fact
stated to government officials that we were nice and treated
them fairly – no complaints. That’s the American
way. The complaint was dropped and not another word has ever
been said against us by any person we have dealt with on the
border.
Do we know the law? Yes!
There have been many people who attempted to volunteer with us
and were turned away for various reasons. We have even dumped a
few moles who were planted to stir up trouble and not play by
the rules-–they were excused. The good citizens who have
had the courage to go out into a dark night and face unknown
peril have all exhibited the kind of character we expect from
each other as Americans. We hold each other accountable and
everyone involved in this mission has the restraint and resolve
to involve themselves in this in- your-face political protest
in this country without overreacting. Go by the rules: enough
is enough!
I knew early on that knowing the
law would be the natural first step to take. Our country and
specifically Arizona is a patchwork of blended lands that work
together to protect, preserve and as we now see, work to
control our use of public lands. The land control infringes on
our rights to private property through something called
sustainable development committees. Knowing that our mission
would be attacked as it has been, by so called human rights
groups, we knew we had to protect ourselves from the morass of
laws and most importantly the interpretations of laws. Even following the law can be
used against you; these days you can be damned if you do and
damned if you don’t. We have had to be explicitly careful
of any interpretation that could be used against the mission of
documenting the real crimes being committed: the break down in
rule of law along our borders. There are people who want this
to continue and they have already weaseled their way into
positions of power by duping the voters to provide them public
power.
Raine: What are your views on some of the
recent civil suits against Ranch Rescue?
We have no formal affiliation
with Ranch Rescue. I have met Jack Foote face to face a couple
of times and we have shared time during radio interviews. Aside
from one convoluted and suspicious incident in Texas, they have
never been even accused of anything, other than being a little
aggressive in their rhetoric about defending themselves. And
what’s wrong with that? The President of the United
States goes around all the time talking about how big and bad
we are, and how we will defend American interests around the
world.
It seems only Casey
Nethercott has had any problems and he has only been accused of
possibly assaulting one illegal out of—how many actually
detained? Is he guilty until proven innocent?
With all of the advertising
done in Mexico, there are posters displayed in bars,
restaurants and grocery stores, encouraging people to join
together to file lawsuits against any of the citizen border
groups. How many have ever been filed? Only one. Where are all
the victims of the abuse that people like Robin Hoover and
Jennifer Allen have accused us of? The only crimes committed
are the slander and libelous statements of the so-called humane
groups-–they have spread absolute lies and should be the
ones served with civil lawsuits for defamation of character and
sewing the seeds of racial strife and social dissent. They are
the ones who have created a false sense of fear and hate
towards something they know nothing about.
Interesting, is it not, when
you discover that I have made repeated invitations to Humane
Borders, Isabel, the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern
Poverty Law Center, and basically every one of these hatemonger
groups. Anyone is invited, even challenged, to join us on
a patrol and see up close how the good citizens involved in CHD
are exactly what the enemy fears the most. These are
well-intentioned, real humanitarians, people who are not afraid
to get their shoes dirty, to sweat in the heat or freeze in the
cold possibly to save the lives of the people they say we hate!
I continue to invite the “humane” groups to join
us, and if they find that we are abusing anyone or breaking the
law, I would surrender myself to them as a citizen arrest and
allow them to turn me over to the proper authorities. Have they
ever come out? Not one of them. They are afraid of the truth:
it would invalidate everything they say they stand for. After
all, every law enforcement agency that could arrest us has seen
what we do, and they all agree that our methods work within
even the “color” of the law, let alone the letter
of the law. They tell us, “Don’t break the law and
we won’t have any problems.” Well, is that not the
American way?
Raine: Have you encountered armed
undocumented aliens? Are the coyotes the real danger?
Actually we feel that anyone who attempts
to enter our country illegally is a real danger. Even the
migrants who come to work have the responsibility to follow our
rules and should not complain about a system that should be
working to protect the safety of all who are within the
soveirgn borders of this country.
Yes, we have been shot at on three
different occasions. We have had knives pulled on us and we
have been pelted with stones from a few groups. We have never
felt we were in a position lawfully to pull a gun, nor ever to
fire a shot in defense. Of course the coyotes are the real
danger. You never know exactly who they are in a group of
people. If they were to shoot at us, they would be surrounded
by a group of innocent bystanders. We can’t shoot back
because we might hit an unarmed person. We’d be guilty
until proven innocent and have our life ruined and tied up in
court for years. I would estimate that only in the past 3 to 5
years has the business begun to change. It was then that the
drug dealers started double-dipping and became involved in the
slave trade business. Yes, many of these people are traded as
slaves. The drug dealers are not nice people and they have no
regard for human rights. They are vicious capitalists: only the
profit matters to them.
Every single incident of abuses
towards migrants has been traced back to the smugglers, not to
any citizen taking the law into their own hands. more...
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