IN MEMORY OF ROB KRENTZ

The body of a rancher, a Rob Krentz outside of Douglas, was found yesterday morning. The last contact with him was a phone call to his brother, telling him that he was helping out some illegal aliens on Saturday afternoon.

It's not that incredibly close to my house - Apache is about 50 miles east of me, NE of Douglas - so I shouldn't be shocked.

But I am appalled - or perhaps horrified is a better term - by the outpouring of e-comments in reaction to this murder... National Guard, armed and ready to shoot, on every inch of the border. Army, ditto. Complete closure of the border (which anyone who has been down here realizes is logically impossible). Everyone armed - militia roaming the border..... geesh.

I am extremely sorry rancher was murdered. It was a horrible, tragic event.

But I am also painfully aware of how many illegal immigrants have died right around where I live during the past ten years - exposure, dehydration, robbed, killed by drug dealers, by the coyotes (human smugglers) who bring them to the border. Sometimes their bodies are found right away - many weeks after their death. Many are never identified - their families never know what happened to them.

Sorry, guys, I am fully aware that there is no easy solution down here at the border  - but please, let us acknowledge the loss of not just U.S. citizens lives, but the people so desperate for a better life that they lose the one they have.