At the “Calling Washington Home to the Border” event on March 10 in Animas, New Mexico, rancher Frank Krentz told of his journey since the murder of his father Rob, at the hands of illegal aliens. The audience seemed to understand that he spoke for the all of the hard-working families along the U.S. Mexico, who have had to make sometimes dramatic adjustments in their lives in order to stay alive on the land they love.
Members of the ranching and farming families continually nodded in agreement as Krentz spoke of the changes in attitude and behavior that have occurred in residents since his father’s death, on March 27, 2010, at the age of 58.
In 2010, the New York Times described Rob as the “scion of one of the best-known and oldest ranching families in southeast Arizona.” It was clear that Rob was the patriarch of one of the most beloved ranching families.
“Almost 6 years ago one morning, my cousin, my uncle, my father, and myself sat down for breakfast and talked about what we were going to do for the day,” began Krentz. “When we finished, my cousin and I moved out, my father went to go check a motor, and my uncle went to go check the water on the ranch. That was the last time I saw my father. Rob Krentz was on his way to check the motor when he called his brother on the cell phone and said there was someone walking across the pasture and he was to going see what’s going on.”
“Friends and neighbors came to help us to look for my father that afternoon. When we couldn’t get a hold of him, after looking for him for hours, a neighbor called the Sheriff for the Search and Rescue Team and they started looking as well,” said Krentz.
“The news came in late that night that they had found my father,” said Krentz in a somber tone. “Rob was a great and caring man. Helpful to others and dedicated to the way of life that he loved. He worked to help others; volunteering his time trying to help the local school, his community, family and friends.”
“To understand where I’m coming from – you need to know the people that live in this area. Most of the people, in this part of the world, have had at least one incident that involved problems on the border with those here illegally,” explained Krentz. “When I was younger, I would see people crossing the border and I knew that they were running from problems worse than getting caught on the northern side.”
“Knowing that the Arizona desert was dangerous to cross,” said Krentz softly, “we would make sure that there was help for them along the way. I can remember a time in 1999, when I saw two different groups of people crossing the ranch that numbered larger than 100. We made sure that there were no injuries, and got the Border Patrol to help them,” stated Krentz. “We would always do this even after we had our house is broken into, our vehicle stolen, trash left in the country, and waterlines broken. There’s been many times when we would go and check storage tanks, where we had spent a weeks-worth of time to get them full, and they would be drained because the illegals would break lines and floats to get a drink of water. Often they drained thousands of gallons of water out on the land. We would still try as hard as we could to get these people help. After losing my father, all of that changed. Now we don’t go near these people; not knowing what the situation holds. We don’t put ourselves in a situation where we can get ourselves into trouble. The people that we see now are not large groups of hundreds or more, but people in small groups with bundles on their backs. You’ve seen pictures of these same groups with loaded weapons.”
“I was told once by a U.S. congressman that the people on the border have become numb to the whole border issues. They had gotten used to the idea that this is the normal; this is the new normal. That this is what we want. I would not say that we’ve become numb, but we have become resilient. We want to live in this part of the world. That many of the families here have been here for many years, and many generations, and hope to have many more in this part of the world that they carved out for themselves,” said Krentz.
“People who aren’t from here are shocked when I tell them the problems we face on a daily basis. They ask: ‘why don’t you move on way from here?’” Krentz continued, “It’s hard for some people to know what 100 years of working hard in one place can look like. I’m fifth-generation on the ranch, and have a sense of pride in what I’m doing raising livestock for our nation.”
“As our guests leave here today, I would like you to take with you the gratitude from myself and from friends and family for hearing what we have been through.” Krentz encouraged attendees to “go back and say there is a problem that needs more attention.”
“Finally,” he concluded, “we work hard to stay in this country. We want to be able to continue to work free of fear of what happened, and what might happen if we leave our house to go to work.”
In 2010, the Krentz family told the New York Times: “We hold no malice towards the Mexican people for this senseless act but do hold the political forces in this country and Mexico accountable for what has happened. Their disregard of our repeated pleas and warnings of impending violence towards our community fell on deaf ears shrouded in political correctness. As a result, we have paid the ultimate price for their negligence in credibly securing our borderlands.”
While the people living along the border have changed since that time; the politicians have not. Since the death of Rob, many have died at the hands of illegal aliens, and the politicians remain hostages of political correctness.
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