American Thinker received a phone call from an irate Arizona rancher, Kelly, who emphatically stated that she is direct proof that Harry Reid is wrong: the border is not secure. Her story is heartwrenching, scary, and eye opening. Americans need to understand that the statements of the Democrats and the Obama administration regarding the border are completely false. It is bad enough that, because of the president’s direct comments and executive actions, thousands of Central American children have been sent to this country, traveling through a porous border. But after reading Kelly’s harrowing encounter below, Americans should be aware that dangerous elements also travel those routes to enter America.

Kelly considers herself one of the lucky ones. Driving from her ranch into Douglas, Arizona along the U.S.-Mexican border, she encountered thirteen men who stopped her truck. Her choices were to drive through them or stop her truck since they formed a barricade on the road. She thought they might be drug runners since she was on the Mexican border. As they jumped on her truck, rummaged through her toolbox, and banged on her windows, she took her gun in hand, cracked the window open slightly and tried to reason with them in Spanish. “I thought if they try to break my glass I will have to shoot.” It turns out the leader of the group spoke English and asked her to drive them to the police. She found out they were from India and desperately needed water. They were not worried about being arrested because they knew that the U.S. could not deport them with the new deal on ‘other than Mexicans.’ After convincing them to get off her truck she called the Border Patrol.

This incident brings to the forefront a number of border issues. Assume they were thirteen terrorists from Pakistan and did not stop but continued on into the U.S. How many terrorist cells have entered that way, undetected, because the Border Patrol is stretched so thin? American Thinker was told that the Border Patrol must rescue these people and bring them in, many times releasing them and having them not show up for their court date. That is, if they are discovered at all. Kelly noted that there were two Border Patrol towers on either side of where the incident took place, and neither saw what was happening because of the blind spots.

In retrospect, Kelly thought about what would have happened to her if she had injured or killed one of the supposed “innocent” people. “I am afraid that my government would have come down on me because I killed or injured someone. I don’t think self-defense would have stood up in court. I was put in the awkward situation of my life versus one of their lives. I was lucky that they were not armed or violent.”

She also wants Americans to understand that she is afraid for her child, an eighteen-year-old daughter who drives that road.  “What should I tell her to do? How do I not sound hypocritical with her about obeying the laws of the land? I thought about the possibility of a group stopping my daughter Mackenzie and it not turning out so well. She is now armed a little better, and has the permission of BP to run over the people trying to stop her and to get the hell out of there. She also has my permission to shoot if they attempt to break a window. It is really frustrating that I teach my child to be moralistic while our own government keeps breaking and bending the laws. Mexicans come here and drop all their trash but if my daughter litters it’s a $1000 fine.  This administration is putting me in a position that as a parent I have to tell my child to run over someone because it is her life or theirs.”

Kelly informed her two senators, her Congressman Ron Barber, and Martha McSally, the Republican candidate opposing Barber. The only one who responded was McSally. She actually has gone to the border numerous times, and after her most recent visit a few weeks ago wrote an op-ed. She described how she “stood at the edge of the San Pedro River, which is currently dry, and could have simply walked into Mexico, or vice versa, because the area lacks any barriers or fences. I drove almost 20 miles along the border to the east, while my escorts -- border resident and former Marine Bill Odle and rancher John Ladd -- pointed out several areas where the fence or vehicle barriers were breached since our last visit. We inspected a whole stretch of border where, during the monsoon, floodgates (large enough to drive a truck through) are open 24/7 to accommodate the potential flow of water and debris. We came across a likely scout on the Mexican side, a man with a horse and a dog who was loading and unloading items, including a TV, from a large deep hole less than 10 feet from the border.”  

President Obama’s rhetoric does not support the facts. Kelly and Martha McSally wonder when Americans are going to say "enough is enough" to the Democrats and the Obama administration? This porous border is a threat to the residents of Arizona, America’s national security, and puts U.S. citizens in precarious situations. Senator Reid, as the incident with Kelly attests, the border is not secure, no many how many times you say it. 

The author writes for American Thinker.  She has done book reviews, author interviews, and has written a number of national security, political, and foreign policy articles.