The ranchers say they have experienced a big influx of illegal trespassers as a result of a U.S. Border Patrol strategy. That strategy is to fortify border towns like Douglas, Ariz., which in turn has forced migrants onto surrounding land, including ranches.

It is eerily reminiscent of the pacification strategy used in Vietnam, and about as successful. The Border Patrol catches perhaps one out of three migrants on a good day.

I suppose it was only a matter of time before the questionably legal action of these new vigilantes would attract national anti-immigration groups. And, of course, when they met, they brought with them an irony. Not one among the vigilantes hasn't benefited from the valued labor of undocumented workers. Whether it's eating inexpensive produce, sleeping on a well-made bed in a clean hotel room, paying a lower price on a new house or having the car finetuned, the contributions that undocumented laborers make far outweigh the deficits.

It's even possible that the letterhead of participant Barbara Coe's California Coalition for Immigration Reform was designed by a young migrant I met. Carlos was headed to California, where he was certain he could find a better job as a computer-graphic artist. Carlos did not - as Coe said migrants do - stop along the way to slaughter a cow for a leisurely barbecue. Nor did he slit a watchdog's throat. He did, though, run from sever al dogs, and met a kind rancher who gave him sandwiches.

It is disturbing that the understandable concern of a few ranchers has attracted national groups that use such inflammatory rhetoric to advance their causes. It is even more disturbing when I reflect on my encounters with migrants, from scared 14-year-olds who'd been separated from their group to a wiry granddad of 63 who sat exhausted on a rail of the Union Pacific.

The average age of Mexican migrants I meet here in Rio Rico, Ariz., is around 25. Most are married and have children back in the impoverished, dusty Mexican villages that cough them up while daddy looks for work norte. They are amiable, determined fellow humans. I've never met a "bad" Mexican migrant, and sincerely doubt any Cochise rancher has, either.

It's unlikely that the threat of encountering an armed "vigilante" will dissuade migrants. Lately, I've asked migrants if they'd heard about the armed ranchers. Most said they had. But like all young people, they knew misfortune only happens to others. Besides, taking dangerous risks to cross the border is normal.

Last June, two limping migrants waved me down when the temperature was more than 100 degrees. Their leg cramps were the first stage of dehydration. I gave them water, a criminal offense in Arizona. Earlier this month, a 19-year-old from Morelia wasn't as lucky. He died from dehydration, less than a half mile from my home.

Lack of water is not the only risk that migrants face. More than half are robbed by south-of-the-border thugs.

More migrants will now settle in the United States, which was never their intention. That's because of the "success" of our expensive, current border policies. The more difficult the border is to cross, they say, the more likely they are to bring families here. That makes it doubly disturbing that a few ranchers have now aligned themselves with groups that, Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever suggests, "might want to take advantage of us. I have a fear that there are people with other agendas." Other agendas. indeed. Thoughtful Americans, most immigrants themselves, will reject the bigotry that runs like a brown thread through these xenophobic national groups. These groups would have no agenda if it weren't for our hypocritical and dishonest border policy. Pursuing an honest policy, one that acknowledges the "pull" that brings migrants here - all those promised jobs - would snuff out the rhetoric.

The "push" needs to be acknowledged, too. When Americans point a finger at Mexico to blame her, I think of an African proverb: "Point a finger and see those three fingers pointing back at you." Those three fingers might well be a television, a car or clothing made in Mexico at wages one-twelfth of what comparable work pays here. Before NAFTA, it was one-tenth, and the differential worsens every year because of Mexico's chronic inflation.

There's an urgent need for temporary, legal work permits. The longer we delay, the more likely it is that some nut with an automatic rifle will cut down a group of "invaders.''

Jack McGarvey is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News. He lives in Rio Rico, Ariz.

Copyright 2000 Denver Post

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