On September 11, The Epoch Times published a report by Charlotte Cuthbertson detailing the plight of border ranchers in Kinney and Maverick Counties, Texas, caused by the ongoing invasion by illegal migrants. She writes:
Ranchers along the south Texas border are having their livelihoods crushed by the volume of illegal aliens trampling through their properties, assaulting and threatening them, beating their dogs, cutting fences, destroying water lines, and breaking into their homes.
In the article, Cuthbertson describes the challenges faced by a number of ranchers along the border, including Ben Binnion, who manages 150,000 acres of ranchland that is primarily used for recreational hunting. Along with other ranchers, Binnion testified on August 10 before the Texas Senate Committee on Border Security, saying that this year alone he has found 17 bodies of deceased migrants on his property.
Through cameras he has installed, Binnion sees an average of 200 migrants crossing his ranch every night. The migrants continually destroy fences, keeping one employee busy full time simply doing repairs and collecting trash. Houses on the property are broken into regularly, and the crime has increased to the point that Binnion has moved his family away to keep them safe. The damage to property he figures will cost $300,000 this year alone.
Another rancher, Christopher Roswell, also told the committee that personal safety has become a major concern, forcing him and his employees to go armed around the ranch at all times. Roswell said:
We have been cussed at, threatened, had rocks and sticks thrown at us. Our dogs have been beaten on multiple occasions by illegals. . . . Every hunting camp I have has been vandalized. Our headquarters have been broken into. Over half of our highway gates have been run through. We’ve had three electric gates destroyed. Most of my hunting blinds have been vandalized, windows and doors broken, one set on fire, several used as bathrooms.
Roswell, too, has moved his family off the ranch for their safety. “All of the illegal aliens carry knives and travel in groups,” he said.
Other ranchers repeated the same stories of property destroyed and trashed by aggressive and armed migrants. The Border Patrol, they say, is of little help, being preoccupied with processing those migrants they happen to arrest. Many of the migrants passing through the area, however, are intent on evading arrest, “because they are either criminals, previously deported, or they know they won’t gain legal entry.” The county experiences an estimated 10,000 such “got-aways” every month.
The situation is dire and has been since early 2021, the ranchers say. Yet federal officials show little concern for Americans whose lives and livelihoods are being destroyed by the open-borders ideology shared by our country’s elites.
For more, see The Epoch Times.