The stories of illegal entrants abused by Cochise County vigilantes are buried in sheriff's deputy reports - complaints of guns drawn, dog bites, shouts and humiliation - in official language, using terms such as aggravated assault and disorderly conduct.
Since 1999, the Mexican consul in Douglas, Miguel Escobar, has documented 65 cases in which illegal border crossers reported being detained by U.S. citizens in Cochise County.
In at least six reports taken by Cochise County Sheriff's Department deputies, illegal entrants have reported being kicked, shouted at, bitten by dogs and had guns pointed at them - yet there's never been a single Cochise County resident prosecuted in these cases.
Human-rights activists say it's because there's a culture of looking the other way when it comes to illegal-entrant abuse. Cochise County law enforcement officials say it's because the victims - illegal entrants - choose not to pursue charges. And without witnesses, there are no cases.
The debate has led to civil lawsuits involving millions of dollars. And it has fueled concerns by activists that lax enforcement will allow participants in the upcoming Minuteman Project to abuse illegal entrants without fear of prosecution in Cochise County.
The Minuteman Project is being touted now as a "political assembly" promising to bring 1,022 people to the banks of the San Pedro River for a monthlong protest of border enforcement, starting Friday. But activist groups point to elements within the group and cite a potential for violence.
Last year, one of its leaders, Chris Simcox, was convicted on federal weapons charges. More recently, the white supremacy group Aryan Nation has openly recruited for the Minuteman Project, promoting the monthlong protest as a "white pride event."
Organizer James Gilchrist said he didn't know the Aryan Nation was promoting the event.
"That's a concern to us. Who knows what the group is capable of?" said Jennifer Allen, director of the Border Action Network. The activist group plans this week to file an international human-rights complaint against the United States in the Organization of American States, contending it is failing to prosecute vigilantes.
Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said there's no point in pouring resources into prosecuting a case when the victims won't stay to testify.
"We were aware of the ramifications when this started," Dever said. "We wanted to make sure it was viable when it comes."
In the latest court action, a $32 million civil suit was filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Tucson against Dever and the most active armed rancher, Cochise County resident Roger Barnett, by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The suit also targets Barnett's brother and wife and 10 other unnamed individuals.
The group of illegal entrants told sheriff's deputies that Barnett kicked one woman twice in March 2004. The whole time, he shouted obscenities at the illegal entrants he'd apprehended on his property and pointed his weapon at them while they were on his land, the entrants said.
Last week, the Cochise County Attorney's Office dropped prosecution in the case because it's not illegal to point a gun at a trespasser in Arizona and because after interviewing some of the alleged victims, investigators were unable to determine whether Barnett kicked the woman or motioned to her with his foot, said Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer.
The case mirrors other complaints against Barnett, who has never been prosecuted or arrested despite his own claims of detaining thousands of migrants on his ranch east of Douglas.
In a June 2004 case, deputies arrived at the Douglas Border Patrol station in response to an aggravated-assault report. Barnett had called the Border Patrol to report seven people he had picked up. One of the men with him grabbed a women in the group of entrants by the hair, pushed a gun into her ribs, forced her onto his all-terrain vehicle and drove her to the highway, a sheriff's report stated. A man in the group complained to deputies the man's dog had bitten him on the thigh.
The case was dismissed when each of the illegal entrants declined to pursue charges and would not testify.
That won't be an issue in a civil lawsuit, because the standards for proving assault in civil court are different from those in criminal court, said Araceli Perez, a staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The organization hopes to use the lawsuit to force Cochise County to prosecute cases against vigilantes, she said.
"Our clients believe they didn't go far enough to protect citizens," she said. That may be exacerbated with the Minuteman Project, she said. "There is a concern that you will have more violations because they won't prosecute these cases. That's when you're led to potential civil-rights violations."
Barnett, the first rancher to openly acknowledge he apprehends illegal entrants while armed, has served as the model for groups such as the Minuteman Project and the American Border Patrol, activists say.
U.S. Border Patrol spokes-man Jose Garza said his agency routinely calls law enforcement when U.S. citizens are in the presence of the illegal entrants they apprehend, but the agency doesn't track the encounters itself. In the future, the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector plans to carefully track every encounter between Minuteman volunteers and illegal entrants in case of future legal repercussions, he said.
In the March 2004 case, a county prosecutor investigated and concluded that there was no physical injury to the woman and Barnett may not have kicked her but rather motioned to her with his foot because she was separated from the group, Rheinheimer said.
The illegal entrants may feel threatened and scared, but "with the people who live on the border and who have had confrontations with groups of illegal immigrants coming across their land . . . there is just no question that there is a justification in threatening to use deadly force for the purpose of calling Border Patrol," Rheinheimer said. "Threatening (force) isn't using, a delicate but important distinction," he said.
"We get heat from both sides on this," Rheinheimer added.
Regarding the Minuteman Project, the Cochise county attorney said: "I would hope that the people who do come down here know exactly where the boundaries are."
One case he won't speak about, because it's still under investigation, is an October 2004 incident in which Barnett is accused of chambering a round and pointing his AR-15 at a group of two men and three children, all U.S. citizens, who were hunting on land Barnett leases from the state.
Barnett was cited by deputies on eight felony counts of aggravated assault. The group members said Barnett screamed at them, chambered a round and ordered them off "his" land while the children cowered on the floorboard of the truck they'd rode in on, the deputy's report states.
Five months later, prosecutors are still reviewing the case.
"How long does it take them to review this?" said Ed English, the father of one of the children.
The man at the center of the controversy, Barnett, knows he walks a narrow line but says he stays comfortably within the law. When law enforcement is nowhere around, "it's the law that protects you. As far as I'm concerned, this is just a harassment tactic," Barnett said of the lawsuits. "I've got a right to do whatever I have to do."
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