Minuteman fence rising on border ranch

Rancher pleased with protection of family, land
By Brady McCombs
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Photo by Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is backing its big talk with a big fence.

The volunteer border watch organization has financed and coordinated the construction of a 0.9-mile-long, 13-foot-high steel mesh fence east of Naco. So far, about a quarter mile is finished, with poles and holes marking the progress on the rest of the section.

Although the barrier covers only a tiny section of the 362 miles of international border in Arizona and even less of the nearly 2,000 miles of U.S.-Mexico border, the Minuteman organization insists the impact on illegal immigration will be more than just symbolic.

To area residents like Leonel Urcadez, owner of the Gay 90s bar in Naco, the fence being built on private land in an area where few people travel other than Border Patrol agents, is a harmless boondoggle that won't do anything to stop illegal border crossers.

"What can it possibly do?" said Urcadez. "They'll just go around it."

Richard Hodges, owner of the 372-acre cattle ranch where the fence is being built, agrees the fence won't do much to protect the nation.

But it is "going to do an awful lot for me personally, as far as protecting my cows, protecting me and my family," he said. "What it has done is brought so much attention, an awful lot of attention."