SOUTH TEXAS Rancher MICHAEL VICKERS owns a property located 70 miles north of the U.S.-MEXICO Border in
BROOKS COUNTY, TX!!!
His ranch is near a
UNITED STATES CUSTOMS And BORDER PROTECTION (USCBP) (U.S. BORDER PATROL) checkpoint.
Undocumented migrants trek through harsh brushland onto his property to avoid capture. A 220-volt electric fence encloses the nearly 1,000 acres.
MICHAEL VICKERS says;
“it won’t kill them, but it will make them wet their pants.”
Before taking a reporter on a tour of his ranch, he pulls out a dozen blown-up photographs of migrants who died or have been apprehended on his property. In one, the body of a shirtless man sits slumped against a tree, his head lying limply on one shoulder. The man’s eyes are gone, trickles of blood running down from the sockets.
Leafing through a bird identification book, he stops at a page showing the crested caracara.
M. VICKERS says;
“This is the bird that ate his eyes, probably while he was still alive,” he says, staring at the illustration of the yellow-faced, sharp-beaked bird.
In 2006, Mr. and Mrs. MICHAEL and LINDA VICKERS founded the
TEXAS BORDER VOLUNTEERS (TBV).
The TBV now has some 300 recruits who dress in fatigues and patrol private ranches in South Texas. They often use night-vision goggles and thermal imaging to track people in the dark. When they spot migrants, they say, they alert Border Patrol. Written instructions for volunteers instruct them not to get closer than 30 feet of a suspected migrant except in cases of “extreme” emergency.
TBV Chief of Staff LINDA VICKERS spends most of her time at home and says she frequently sees undocumented migrants near the house. Her dogs, whom she speaks to lovingly in basic German, alert her to them, she says. But she is not afraid.
LINDA VICKERS says;
“You gotta put your big girl panties on.”
She is always armed with a
.45 LONG COLT—the kind of gun used to shoot ducks, her husband says. Her job brings her enormous satisfaction.
L. VICKERS says;
“It makes you feel good when Border Patrol loads up a group that you’ve reported,”
53-year-old B.J. manages several large ranches in BROOKS COUNTY.
B.J. says;
"I will do everything in my power to send them back.”
B.J. keeps pair of handcuffs hung next to a fireplace near a wooden table next to the main house. Behind her were two dozen half-empty bottles of alcohol and a sign.
The sign reads;
“When life gives you lemons…break out the Tequila and salt.”
Ranchers like B.J. see themselves as the first line of defense against migrants. Before calling “the boys,” as she refers to the Border Patrol agents who make up the vast majority of her social circle, B.J. says she likes to on a “manhunt.”
B.J. says;
“It’s a cat-and-mouse game.”
As B.J. drives through ranch trails,
HECKLER & KOCH P2000 pistol rests in the cup holder next to her right knee. She starts by looking for footprints—they are most noticeable on the sand tracks she has set up next to the trails that she smooths by dragging tires. When she sees a fresh set, she speeds through the trails, finds the migrants, chases after them until they tire out, corners them and then yells, “
Pa’bajo!”—Spanish for down.
B.J says;
“You can’t tell me this isn’t fun. More fun than shopping and looking at sights.”
NEWSWEEK Journalist KARLA ZABLUDOVSKY put on her big girl panties and went down to SOUTH TEXAS for a first-hand experience with the BORDER CRISIS to report on
HUNTING HUMANS: The AMERICANS TAKING IMMIGRATION Into THEIR OWN HANDS.
-CCG
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