| | |  Americas & Beyond 
Tea Party Activists Rally On Arizona-Mexico Border
 Associated Press
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August 15, 2010
| | Flags hang on the Arizona-Mexico border wall on Sunday in Hereford, Ariz., at a United Border Coalition Tea Party rally. (Matt York/AP) | |
Tea Party groups converged on a remote section of the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday to show support for Arizona's controversial new immigration law.
The group was gathered about 70 miles west of Nogales on a private ranch where 15-foot steel posts are set closely together to prevent people from crossing the border.
Demonstrators attached hundreds of U.S. flags with messages about curbing illegal immigration to the posts and chanted "U-S-A," after a handful of spectators gathered on the Mexico side of the border.
One of the messages posted on the border wall read, "Mister President ... Secure This Border For America."
A federal judge has put on hold the most contentious provisions of the law, including a section that would require officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws if they had "reasonable suspicion" that the person was in the country illegally.
Among those speaking at the rally Sunday was Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, known for his tough enforcement of immigration laws in Arizona's most populous county. He said immigration enforcement goes far beyond the nation's border and the Mexican Government should welcome U.S. border patrol or military forces to go after drug cartels south of the border.
"Don't just say border enforcement, that's a cop out," he said. "Let's say lock them up in the interior."
U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Hayworth, who is challenging John McCain in the Republican primary, also was expected to speak.
Betsy Bayley, 55, a stay-at-home grandmother in Hereford, said she has felt less safe in her home during the past two or three years because she's seeing more drug smuggling.
"My government should protect me so I can feel safe on my own property," said Bayley, red white and blue beads strung around her neck as she huddled for shade against the steel fence. "That's my right as an American. I should feel safe on my own property."
Steven Nanatovich, 42, a retired Army Ranger from Sierra Vista, said illegal immigration probably doesn't affect him as much as others because migrants pass through his backyard to live in communities farther north.
Nanatovich said he supports Arizona's tough new law cracking down on illegal immigrants. He said he can barely leave Sierra Vista without being asked his citizenship at a border patrol checkpoint, so he doesn't find the law burdensome.
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