An Interview from the Border: It is Not Just a Game on the Border But a Place of Real Human Suffering

  This message came by e-mail this morning:

"I live on a large ranch in South Texas. Too often we find dumped illegals that have been held for ransom, used as slaves, etc. They are basically dumped here to die as it is a 38,000 acre ranch with no stores or town for 12 miles. Sometimes they make theie way to the highway. But even on the highway, people don't stop to help because they think it might be an ambush.

I really want people to understand that if they take the illegal path to the country, they have a good chance of becoming victims. The Cubans and Chinese are big targets for kidnapping because the famiies pay a lot. Please help to make people aware of the dangers.

Thanks, Elizabeth Burns"

Here is the link to a YouTube interview (entitled "kidnapped pilgrim") that was included in the e-mail.

A follow-up e-mail reads as follows:

"I live here and it is so sad. Sometimes when people are walking in groups, a few guys will stop them and take a female as payment to let them pass. Then they keep the girl for a few days and do all kinds of horrible things and then kill them. Two survived that were dumped here. They were strangled and the people thought they were dead. They were crawling down the ranch roads. The oilfield workers don't even stop to help or call them in. . . . I just want people to know how ugly it really is. People think it is just cat and mouse games with Border Patrol and illegals running back and forth. The truth is horrible when you get to the ground zero of the actual people and their suffering. I am not pro immigration or anything like that. I just want to capture the stories unedited and let people decide. I don't know the answer to the problem and I don't have any suggestions." (emphasis added).

UPDATE (June 2):    Here is another interview with one of the ranch gate guards. "There is nothing for miles on the road except these guys in trailers who open the gate for the oilfield trucks. They have a lot of encounters with pilgrims."

KJ