www.nytimes.com/2005/08/19/national/19ranch.html?hp
Just a few months ago, this ranch was known as Camp Thunderbird, the headquarters of a paramilitary group that promised to use force to keep illegal immigrants from sneaking across the border with Mexico.
The New York Times Camp Thunderbird is two miles from the Mexican border. Now, in a turnabout, the 70-acre property about two miles from the border is being given to two immigrants whom the group caught trying to enter the United States illegally. The land transfer is being made to satisfy judgments in a lawsuit in which the immigrants had said that Casey Nethercott, the owner of the ranch and a former leader of the vigilante group Ranch Rescue, had harmed them. Mr Dees said the loss of the ranch would "send a pretty important message to those who come to the border to use violence." The surrender of the ranch comes as the governors of Arizona and New Mexico have declared a state of emergency because of the influx of illegal immigrants and related crime along the border. Bill Dore, a Douglas resident briefly affiliated with Ranch Rescue who is still active in the border-patrolling Minuteman Project, called the land transfer "ridiculous." Get some American property, make some money from the gringos." The immigrants getting the ranch, Edwin Alfredo Manca Gonzles and Ftima del Socorro Leiva Medina, could not be reached for comment. Kelley Bruner, a lawyer at the law center, said they did not want to speak to the news media but were happy with the outcome. Ms Bruner said that Mr Manca and Ms Leiva, who are from El Salvador but are not related, would not live at the ranch and would probably sell it. Mr Manca, who lives in Los Angeles, and Ms Leiva, who lives in the Dallas area, have applied for visas that are available to immigrants who are the victims of certain crimes and who cooperate with the authorities, Ms Bruner said. She said that until a decision was made on their applications, they could stay and work in the United States on a year-to-year basis. The two immigrants later accused Mr Nethercott of threatening them and of hitting Mr Manca with a pistol, charges that Mr Nethercott denied. The immigrants also said the group gave them cookies, water and a blanket and let them go after an hour or so. The Salvadorans testified against Mr Nethercott when he was tried by Texas prosecutors. The jury deadlocked on a charge of pistol-whipping but convicted Mr Nethercott, who had previously served time in California for assault, of gun possession, which is illegal for a felon. He is now serving a five-year sentence in a Texas prison. Mr Manca and Ms Leiva also filed a lawsuit against Mr Nethercott; The immigrants said the ordeal, in which they feared that they would be killed by the men they thought were soldiers, had left them with post-traumatic stress. Mr Nethercott and Mr Foote did not defend themselves, so the judge issued default judgments of $850,000 against Mr Nethercott and $500,000 against Mr Foote. Mr Dees said Mr Foote appeared to have no substantial assets, but Mr Nethercott had the ranch. Shortly after the judgment, Mr Nethercott gave the land to his sister, Robin Albitz, of Prescott, Ariz. The Southern Poverty Law Center sued the siblings, saying the transfer was fraudulent and was meant to avoid the judgment. Ms Albitz, a nursing assistant, signed over the land to the two immigrants last week.
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