Whose Rights?

In this Washington Times article by Jerry Seper, an Arizona Rancher named Roger Barnett is being sued by 12 illegal immigrants who say their civil rights were violated when he stopped them at gunpoint on his property. Unfortunately there are 12 of them and one of him so their witness testimony outweighs his, however they do have a motive to be dishonest in addition to being lawbreakers. Their actual claim against him other than detaining them by gunpoint until Immigration and Custom Enforcement came and arrested them, was that he allegedly kicked one of the women. Otherwise he made an implied threat regarding his dog being "hungry for buttocks" and what some might consider a menacing threat because he had a firearm.

Let's put aside bias and address this case from another perspective. I am a homeowner, and on the backside of my property is a 7-Eleven. One day while in my house I look in my backyard and see an individual walking in it. I grab my Sig 220 and run into the backyard and use a few expletives when questioning the individual trespassing. They state they're just going to the 7-Eleven. Well, that's a little too bad considering there is a means of getting to the 7-Eleven that doesn't involve violating my properly rights. So I call 9-1-1 and have the police come and arrest the individual for trespassing. End of story.

Unfortunately for Roger Barnett, he's in that same situation only this time the 7-Eleven is the United States, his backyard happens to be 22,000 acres of ranch land, and the proper means of getting into the United States is getting a visa first. However, the facts are that 12-20 million illegal immigrants have come to the U.S. since Reagan granted amnesty in the 1980's. Our government is either inept or unwilling to stem the flow of illegal immigration and definitely unwilling to do something about most illegal immigrants living in the U.S. The major hindrance to solving this problem is the Democrat and Republican Parties' self-interests. Democrats want the future voting bloc and Republicans want the cheap labor in order to increase profits.

As for the Civil Rights lawsuit, I fail to see how they had Civil Rights in the first place when they're not Citizens and secondly they were detained when they were trespassing on his land and he called the proper authorities which came and arrested them. It's astounding they have the audacity to then turn around and complain about how they were treated when they were trespassers. Did they ever stop to think about the fact they wouldn't be in that predicament if they weren't breaking the laws to begin with? Do laws only matter when they're not the ones breaking them? I call that hypocrisy. Lastly, doesn't he have the right to pursuit life, liberty and happiness? I wouldn't be happy if illegal immigrants were trespassing on my land, littering, depositing fecal matter, vandalizing my property, killing my cattle, and being a general nuisance. But most importantly, as a Patriot, I would not tolerate the violation of my Nation's Laws by foreign Nationals. Roger Barnett is an American Patriot in my book. He should run for office and help foment the change we actually need in this country, a return to lawfulness instead of lawlessness.