This has got to take the cake in the eminent domain discussion-. From the New York Times:
DOUGLAS, Ariz., Aug. 18 – Spent shells litter the ground at what is left of the firing range, and camouflage outfits still hang in a storeroom. Just a few months ago, this ranch was known as Camp Thunderbird, the headquarters of a paramilitary group that promised to use force to keep illegal immigrants from sneaking across the border with Mexico.
Now, in a turnabout, the 70-acre property about two miles from the border is being given to two immigrants whom the group caught trying to enter the United States illegally.
The land transfer is being made to satisfy judgments in a lawsuit in which the immigrants had said that Casey Nethercott, the owner of the ranch and a former leader of the vigilante group Ranch Rescue, had harmed them.
“Certainly it’s poetic justice that these undocumented workers own this land,” said Morris S. Dees Jr., co-founder and chief trial counsel of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., which represented the immigrants in their lawsuit.
Mr. Dees said the loss of the ranch would “send a pretty important message to those who come to the border to use violence.”
The surrender of the ranch comes as the governors of Arizona and New Mexico have declared a state of emergency because of the influx of illegal immigrants and related crime along the border.
Bill Dore, a Douglas resident briefly affiliated with Ranch Rescue who is still active in the border-patrolling Minuteman Project, called the land transfer “ridiculous.”
Poetic justice? Excuse me, but I don’t think illegals should be allowed to own land-nevermind have it taken from a citizen and given to them by any court. Yeah, Bill, this SURE IS RIDICULOUS!
This is sending a serious message to the Minutemen, isn’t it? That the courts are not going to back US citizens defending our borders (filling the gap because the Government sure as hell isn’t)!
Tip o’ me tam to SSGT Yatahey
Judge, tar, feathers: some assembly required.
heh
We’re hoping the family has the balls to stand up and file appeals to reverse this ignorant decision — if they don’t, every American property owner, from California to Louisiana is in serious jeopardy of having their land and homes literally taken away from them and given to any Mexican illegal.
It completely baffles me, Cao, that the courts don’t seem to comprehend that – here in America – the citizen’s rights take precedence over the rights of “undocumented workers.”
Bloody idiotic euphemism, isn’t it?
Feh. Liberal Loonies want everything so “equal” to the point that we all have equally nothing!
– R’cat
CatHouse Chat
That’s the way WE think it should be, R’cat, but that’s not reality. Euthanasia, eminent domain, defining conservatives as terrorists…a very frightening picture is emerging.
You said it, friend!
Hey, I just posted my own view, but the TB I put in doesn’t seem to want to work. Of course, that may be my browser. Opera has been driving me nuts the past couple of days by bringing up cached pages instead of the updates.
*sigh*
I really don’t want to work with IE exclusively…
– R’cat
CatHouse Chat
What many of us can’t comprehend is, how did an ALABAMA Attorney get involved with a case in ARIZONA?
{ Banging head on keyboard trying to grasp that }
Last night, on WMAL radio, one of the hosts covered this story for an hour. It’s a jaw-dropper, all right!
Whatever law the owner of Camp Thunderbird may have broken, the ranch shouldn’t have been given to illegals!
A completely ignorant decision that I would think is illegal in itself. How in the hell can an illegal alien own land? Outrageous judicial tyranny here…writing illegal laws in my opinion.
Thanks for putting the fundraiser in the sidebar Cao.
r’Cat: “Feh. Liberal Loonies want everything so “equal” to the point that we all have equally nothing!”
heh. Reminded me of
“Harrison Bergeron”
by Kurt Vonnegut (1961)
http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html
No child left behind…
Well, this dovetails nice with Sean Hannity doing his show from the border last week and witnessing the arrest of a bunch of Honduras illegals being caught.
Hopefully between this, the Border Agent arrested for running a migrant smuggling operation (while he was an illegal himself), and the national exposure from Hannity, the Repubs and the Dems will have to start facing this instead of giving it the old blind eye.
Hasn’t the Arizona and New Mexico Governors both declared “State of Emergency” on their borders, with California to follow soon?
Its coming, hopefully.
You mean martial law? God, I hope not.
I hope its more of a activating the national guard to the borders… would be nice.
I really would like to see another run of the Minute Man project. It worked, and sent a solid message.
I’ve got to caution y’all on one thing. If this was ordered by a judge, I’d be livid, but as I researched the case I learned that the defendant (the rancher) agreed to settle the case under these terms. Now, I know it offends sensibilities that the suit was ever brought, but the fact is that the rancher made his own decision on how to resolve it, so that paints a different picture.
“Hasn’t the Arizona and New Mexico Governors both declared “State of Emergency” on their borders, with California to follow soon?”
Yes, they have — but, our Governor declared it a few days late, which is highly unusual for her.
ArrMatey, that’s just peculiar, isn’t it? That a rancher would willingly turn over his property to illegals? Is there some kind of legal precedent for this? I’ve never heard of such a thing.
[...] ore ominous than you think. When you add it to insane decisions like the one I saw over at Cao’s Blog, it really signals the destruction of our most basic property rights. The New York Ti [...]
Back in my day If I was driving my car on the road without insurance and someone hit me. Regardless if it was the other guys fault or not I got the ticket because I should not have been on the road in the first place. If you get your face busted in with the butt of a rifle from a mad land owner because your sneaking into this country illegally. That was your own fault.
I like simple straight forward rules.