La Voz de Aztlan
Los Angeles, California
May 19, 2000

Vigilantism at the US/Mexico Border May Spread Northward

"Society's had their chance. I'm going hunting. Hunting humans."
-- James Oliver Huberty, San Ysidro, California, 1984 --

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When Richard Scott Baumhammers went on a killing spree of immigrants recently, he did not ask them for a "green card." Neither did James Oliver Huberty when he targeted Mexicans and massacred 22 at a McDonald's Restaurant at the border in San Ysidro, California in 1984.

What the anti-Mexican immigrant vigilantes in Arizona, and now in Texas, are doing poses great dangers also to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. We are now in imminent danger of another massacre of innocent Mexican children such as the one that occurred in San Ysidro on July 18, 1984.

The tragic incident in San Ysidro says a lot of what is presently developing along the border with Mexico. James Huberty was an unemployed security guard that blamed Mexicans for his inability to get a job. On the day of the massacre, Huberty's wife stated the he put on military style camouflage clothes, readied his assault weapon, and said "Society's had their chance. I'm going hunting. Hunting humans."

The vigilante ranchers in Arizona recently sent out an invitation to white supremacist groups around the country to come on down to the border to "hunt" for undocumented Mexican workers. These ranchers are feeling the effects of a long and devastating draught. Water is getting very scarce in their region. They are very frustrated and are now lashing out at Mexican migrants that pass through their land. They are blaming their economic problems on Mexican immigration.

The kind of sickness that affected Huberty and Baumhammers is not different from that affecting the frustrated border vigilantes. It is no wonder that the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) wants some of the vigilante groups investigated as a "hate groups." There are now many U.S. citizens of Mexican descent living in Douglas, Arizona afraid to come out of their homes in fear that they will be mistaken for undocumented Mexican immigrants.

Glenn Spencer's organization called American Patrol should be investigated as a "hate group." Spencer has a long history in California of being anti-Mexican. He is dangerous in that he holds paranoid delusions that Mexicans are trying to takeover the United States. That is his constant theme disseminated through propaganda on the Internet, radio and through a "video" he paddles off to other white supremacist groups. He is a failed engineer as Baumhammers is a failed attorney and they both are blaming immigrants for their own personal failures.

Whether anti-Mexican leaders will personally lash out violently against U.S. citizens of Mexican descent is not the point because there are plenty of white supremacist nuts in this country who would. It only takes a little encouragement to set off a deranged racist on another killing spree. At their vigilante meeting in Sierra Vista, Arizona recently, the KKK proposed that anti-personnel land mines be placed at strategic points along the US/Mexico border. Are these not sufficient grounds to arrest these characters for conspiracy to commit murder?

As U.S citizens of Mexican descent, we must unite as never before and respond vigorously against this threat to our very lives. Whether we are Chicano, Latino, Hispanic or a documented Mexican, we must rise to the challenge and collectively "enforce" our human right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

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When Law Enforcement Becomes Criminal

Hector Carreon is the founder and editor of La Voz de Aztlan and resides in Whittier, California. He was born in the Mexican state of Chihuahua and moved to Aztlan at the age of 5 years. Hector is a graduate in Civil Engineering from California State University at Long Beach where he was a founding member of the Society of Mexican-American Engineers and Scientists (MAES). He served honorably for two year as a Vietnam-era soldier in the U.S Army's 2nd Armored Division and is a graduate of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund's Advanced Leadership Program. Hector Carreon can be contacted at La Voz de Aztlan