Most days, Roger Barnett commutes from his home outside Douglas to his towing and propane companies in downtown Sierra Vista, a city between Tombstone and Douglas that is home to a large community of military retirees. In his spare time, Barnett likes to graze cattle on his 22,000-acre property just outside Douglas. He owns 7,000 acres of his land but the rest is leased from the state, a spread that puts his official rancher credentials about on par with those of President Bush and Robert Redford. With a ruddy face, husky physique, Wrangler jeans and a gravelly voice, he at least looks the part.

Almost immediately after Operation Gatekeeper started in 1995, Barnett says, he began to notice an explosion of migrants crossing his land on their way up from Mexico. The migrants left piles of trash and human excrement, he says; they frightened wildlife and cut fences on his cattle pens. In 1996, he says, he became fed up and started placing them under citizen's arrest and turning them over to Border Patrol agents. On March 10, 1999, while the problem festered, Barnett and 20 fellow landowners signed a proclamation of revolt: "If the government refuses to provide security, then the only recourse is to provide it ourselves." Barnett's bold statement grabbed the media's attention. By 2000, he had been featured on ABC's World News Tonight, in the New York Times and elsewhere.

"I'm prepared to take a life if I have to," he told USA Today.

Tanton was apparently among those to take notice of Barnett's down-home appeal and his penchant for grabbing headlines. In 1999, FAIR brought Barnett to Capitol Hill for "Immigration Awareness Week" to describe his hardships to concerned members of Congress. The following year, Tanton's US Inc. hired Barnett to spearhead its "Border Defense Coalition." According to the September 2000 edition of the Oltman Report, by FAIR's Western Regional Director Rick Oltman, the project consisted of hoisting freeway billboards advocating a U.S. Army deployment along the border with messages like "If this was Scottsdale [a wealthy suburb of Phoenix], the troops would be here now." Barnett was assisted by former U.S. Border Patrol agent Bob Park, a friend of Tanton's.

Now 61, Barnett says he says that in the past two years, he has turned almost 5,000 migrants over to Border Patrol agents. "It needs to be done," he rumbles. "They [the Mexicans] are gonna take over our country ... Do you remember what the Iraqis did with our pilots in Desert Storm? They took them hostage. It's the same deal here."

Since Barnett views Mexican immigrants as an invading army, it is only natural that he seeks apprehensions away from his property. In the past three years, rumors have floated around Douglas that he was randomly pulling over drivers on Highway 80 northeast of Douglas whom he profiled as Mexican. While most witnesses to the pull-overs have disappeared into the woodwork or demanded anonymity, a recent incident confirmed by the Mexican consul general in Douglas, Miguel Escobar Valdez, suggests Barnett as a possible suspect in a brutal and unprovoked attack along the highway.

On January 19, Escobar was called in to Douglas Hospital to interview Rodrigo Quiroz Acosta, a 37-year-old Mexican national hospitalized with bruises to his head and ribs. Quiroz told Escobar that he had entered the U.S. illegally, became stranded and fatigued, and ventured out to Highway 80 to search for Border Patrol agents to pick him up. Suddenly a white pickup truck barreled off the highway, nearly hitting him. Out stepped a man described by Quiroz as close to 60 years old and accompanied by a dog. The man began shouting angrily, kicking him in the head and pummeling him with a flashlight. Eventually, Quiroz was able to escape and was later apprehended by Border Patrol agents. Quiroz said his attacker was about 6 foot 3 and in his late 50s -- a description that could fit Barnett. A Border Patrol supervisor told Escobar that Roger Barnett -- who has a dog and drives a white pickup -- had detained a group of migrants an hour beforehand in the same area where Quiroz was attacked and that he was probably the attacker.

Before Quiroz was able to press charges against Barnett, he was deported. And the rancher angrily denies the allegation by Escobar that he assaulted Quiroz. "Oh, that son of a bitch," Barnett said of the Mexican diplomat, "... he lies out of both sides of his mouth." Though Barnett has never been formally accused of any crime, many in Cochise County's human rights community allege that he never will be because he is a former sheriff's deputy and his brother, Don, is the former Cochise County sheriff. The Barnetts, they say, have forged close ties with current Sheriff Larry Dever and U.S. Border Patrol officials, giving them an air of impunity.

"These guys, the Barnetts and Larry Dever, they're part of an old-boys' network," says the Rev. Robert Carney, a Roman Catholic priest who spent eight years as pastor at St. Luke's Parish in Douglas, 30 miles east of Tombstone, before moving to a Tucson church. "They grew up together, they hang together, and they work together."

Barnett acknowledges a friendship with Dever, but says the sheriff has backed off some for political reasons. Barnett claims to work directly with Border Patrol agents to profile and arrest illegal immigrants. When a person whom Barnett suspects is an undocumented migrant comes to retrieve a towed car at his office, he stalls them and calls Border Patrol. When agents arrive, they question the suspect, enter the name in a computer, and occasionally make an arrest.

When questioned him about the legality of the arrests in his office and the traffic stops on Highway 80, Barnett became infuriated.

"You a lawyer?" he asked with a sneer. "You're full of shit. I can stop 'em out on the road if I want. Didn't you hear what Bush said? Everybody needs to be vigilant and help the homeland security. I can do whatever I want."

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