Racist lynchings in Texas & Arizona
Vigilantes reveal real U.S. policy on immigration
By Gery Armsby
Ranchers in Texas and Arizona, armed with an array of
high-tech paramilitary equipment, have shot and killed at
least two and as many as seven unarmed workers from Mexico
since November 1999. They have illegally entrapped and
forcibly detained dozens more at gunpoint, turning them over
to "La Migra" or the Border Patrol.
The latest shootings, in May, were followed by a racist
rally in Sierra Vista, Ariz. The ranchers and other
anti-immigrant groups, like American Patrol from California
and white supremacists from an Arizona Ku Klux Klan chapter,
along with sheriffs and cops from several counties, assembled
May 20. They shared reaction ary literature and spelled out
their campaign of violence against undocumented workers.
Their proposed plans include laying mines and trip wires
and recruiting others to come to the area to "help protect
U.S. sovereignty" by hunting down immigrants.
Anti-racist and border-rights activists answered this
dangerous, lynch-mob-type rally with a militant protest held
simultaneously in Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Sonora on both
sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
A vigil and speak-out was held June 2 in Tucson. Over 300
people came out to express their concern about the racist
ranchers and mounting problems on the border.
Maritza Broce, an organizer for the Southern Arizona
Peoples Law Center in Tucson, told Workers World: "The U.S.
Border Patrol has made conditions very difficult for
undocumented workers determined to come into the U.S. Many
are dying in the terrible heat. It's awful, and people here
are very worried about them.
"Part of why we wanted to have this meeting was to
demonstrate that most people want to show support to the
undocumented workers. In fact, we know that it is the
policies of NAFTA that created the economic basis in Mexico
for the high numbers of border crossings--not drug smugglers,
like [the press] says."
Ranchers claim they "have a right to defend their land."
But it's not their land. Much of the borderland in question
is public land leased to the ranchers.
And it is really occupied Mexican soil stolen by the
United States in the 1853 Gadsden Purchase, an agreement that
the Mexican government was bullied into without an
opportunity to consult the Native people and other
inhabitants. The resulting Arizona-Mexico border slashed the
land of the Tohono O'odham people in two.
Copper mining bosses steadily increased their dominance in
the region and drove many Chicano, Mexicano and Native people
elsewhere.
So when white ranch owners assert their vigilante reign in
the border territory, it's an arrogant and racist claim. But
it's not just the ranchers.
While two ranchers are being prosecuted in Texas for
murder, not one U.S. Border Patrol agent or government
officer has been charged with wrongdoing in dozens of cases
where undocumented people have been killed by Immigration and
Naturalization Service and U.S. military personnel.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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