Dear CNN: Border Rancher Films Armed Illegals Tramping Thru His Property – Is That ‘News?’

One Arizona rancher that lives on the U.S.-Mexico border set up hidden cameras on his land and here is what he captured on video.

John Chilton, 79, has collected hours of video of illegal aliens trespassing on his 50,000-acre property on the southern border. He has released a 25-minute video showing a steady stream of people crossing into the United States on his land.

Chilton is a supporter of President Trump’s Big, Beautiful Wall, and has pushed for the government to replace the barbed wire fence at the border with something more substantial. He said that he set up the cameras to show the number of trespassers that cross over on his property, and the danger that they pose. Some bring large backpacks, some are in camouflage, and several carried guns and guided horses.

Chilton is concerned about the drug mules and human traffickers that cross the border.

The remote area is known for drug and migrant smuggling.

A US Border Patrol agent was wounded on Chilton’s property back in June when he was shot while canvassing the area.

Chilton said at the time the agent was struck in the leg and the hand, but several bullets also struck his protective vest.

‘Without it, he probably would not be with us today,’ Chilton told the Associated Press.

The rancher said his property is separated from Mexico by a four-strand wire fence.

‘We have drug runners coming through our ranch and this has become a very dangerous situation,’ Chilton said.

Source: Daily Mail

The video is from the Chilton Ranch and Arizona Border Recon.  Some of the footage goes back to 2016, but most of it is from 2018.

In 2014, McClatchy D.C. posted an article that seems to reference the same Mr. Chilton.

He said that thousands of illegal aliens have crossed on his land doing untold damage. A stretch of his property has become a favored spot for drug smugglers and other illegal border crossers, and confrontations are dangerous.

Chilton, who spoke by telephone while visiting the nation’s capital, said he’d offered the Border Patrol 10 acres right at the border on his 50,000-acre ranch, west of Nogales, to use as a forward operating base. So far, the agents haven’t accepted it.

U.S. senators from border states acknowledge that there are frictions with ranchers over border policy implementation and about damage to their properties.

“From time to time, there is concern about that,” said Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who’s the minority whip. “The Border Patrol tries to work with ranchers . . . to make sure they are good neighbors. But occasionally problems do arise.”

In 2013, Sen. John McCain sought to double the number of border patrol agents to 40,000 as a part of an immigration bill that didn’t pass. Sen. McCain, however, hadn’t listened to ranchers that insisted that more agents at the border was the wrong solution.

Nevertheless, he persisted.

And ultimately failed.

“It’s like in any war. You don’t just rely on the front line. We have to also have some depth,” McCain said. But he noted that many border ranchers face serious difficulties from many quarters. “Their frustration is real.”

Chilton said 4,000 migrants had crossed his ranch so far this year, and the border fence is so flimsy along the five-and-a-half-mile stretch of his property that touches the border that drug smugglers have made it a favored crossing.

“There’s a 30-mile gap of four-strand unpatrolled fence – a cattle fence – and I have to maintain it,” Chilton said.

He said he’d had encounters with heavily armed drug smugglers.

“Can you imagine what it feels like to run into people with AK-47s dressed in camo and with 30 people behind them?” Chilton asked, explaining what happens next. “We all go the other way as fast as possible.”

Another article from 2016 also cites Chilton. He says that the drug cartels and border agents play a game of ‘cat and mouse’ and struggle to keep their technology ahead of the other guy. Chilton says that his employees have found $2,500 satellite phones and $2,000 binoculars as well as other sophisticated equipment on his land left behind by scouts.

Chilton and his wife also said that 40 people have died on their land as they made their way across the border. They said that the cartels are brutal with the migrants — some women are repeatedly raped, and some men have had their fingers cut off. The Chiltons said that they once gave water to armed traffickers that came to their door looking for ‘agua.’ The elderly couple insists that they are not scared, but they now lie low in their kitchen with the lights off when they know that drug smugglers are in the area.

If only they had built that wall years ago.

Now, we have President Trump, and that wall needs to get built.