Border Brouhaha

The way the lawsuit tells it, Jose Rodrigo Quiroz Acosta had been walking for one day and two nights before the group he was traveling with ran out of water and food in the high desert of Cochise County, Ariz., just north of the Mexican border.

It was the winter of 2003, and Quiroz and four other Mexican nationals were trying to cross into Arizona, just as thousands of other undocumented immigrants do every year, choosing the 82-mile swath of border which spans Cochise County because it's thought to be patrolled less efficiently by the United States Border Patrol than other popular crossing spots in Texas and California.

Though Quiroz's group had made it into Arizona safely, that meant relatively little. Weather can be treacherous here — with searing heat during the summer and freezing temperatures throughout the winter. Over the past two years, the Cochise County sheriff's department has found more than 40 bodies of undocumented immigrants, most of them dead from either dehydration or hypothermia, depending on the season. And as the biting air bore down this particular January, one of Quiroz's group wandered off in search of help.

After another day, and with no sign of their comrade, Quiroz decided to set off on his own, walking through the night nearly eight hours before finally reaching a highway at daybreak, where he began trying to flag down cars for help.

Luckily, it seemed, a pick-up truck soon spotted Quiroz and pulled over along side of the road. But when Quiroz approached the truck, a man stepped out of the vehicle and opened up the back of his camper, unleashing two growling dogs. Terrified, Quiroz fled down the highway, but the dogs were too fast, knocking him to the ground and biting him, he says. Quiroz claims the man then walked towards him screaming in English, before grabbing Quiroz's hair and shaking and smacking him repeatedly on his face, head and neck. The man then walked back to his car and took out what appeared to be a two-way radio; two Border Patrol officers soon appeared and took Quiroz into custody.

Quiroz was deported back to Mexico the next day, but with the help of local immigrants' rights groups, he decided to sue local rancher Roger Barnett — the man he says attacked him — for battery, false imprisonment and intentionally inflicting emotional distress. He's not alone. Three other lawsuits are currently pending against Barnett, his wife Barbara and brother Donald who often accompany Barnett as he patrols on or near his 22,000-acre ranch, alleging a litany of charges — from impersonating Border Patrol officers to assaulting and violating the rights of undocumented immigrants or Mexican-Americans whom the Barnetts came upon.

The lawsuits have piled up largely without notice, as the national media has instead riveted its attention on the now infamous Minutemen — the vigilante border protection group who earlier this month fanned out across this expansive southern Arizona county in armed patrols, vowing to secure the border if the federal authorities couldn't. But up until now, at least, it's the Barnetts who have troubled immigrants' rights groups the most.

"[The Barnetts] like to play cowboy. They like to think of themselves as Wyatt Earp and go after Mexicans to essentially reinforce their images as macho men. It's despicable," says Jesus Romo, Quiroz's lawyer.

Aside from Quiroz's suit, filed late last year, Cochise County resident Donald Makenzie is suing over an October, 2003 incident in which Makenzie came upon Roger and Donald Barnett, armed with guns and marching approximately 30 Mexican nationals through the property on which Makenzie works. Barbara Barnett was present as well, according to the suit.

Makenzie, who is vice president of Summerland Monastery Inc, a local non-profit that gives humanitarian aid to migrant families who often traverse the monastery's 1,240 acres just after crossing the border, thought Barnett was a federal officer because he says Barnett was wearing a U.S. Border Patrol hat. Makenzie, who's also represented by Romo, is now seeking damages for trespassing and impersonating a federal officer.