Howard and Rosie Hunt might be the luckiest people in Arizona—and that’s saying something for an elderly couple who lived through a home invasion on Jan. 20.
Two young men from Chihuahua, Mexico, one carrying a machete, allegedly pushed their way into the Hunts’ home, bound them and searched for valuables. The Hunts live right off State Highway 80, 15 miles south of the Chiricahua Mountains town of Portal, along the notorious smuggling route known as the Chiricahua Corridor.
For some time, residents here have been fighting to keep themselves and their property safe from cross-border smugglers and illegal aliens, who—cut off from their groups, lost and desperate—often break into homes.
Life around Portal and its sister town of Rodeo, N.M., 12 miles away across the state line, has become a grim litany of cut phone lines, roof vents removed to get inside, barking dogs at night, trucks stolen, half-eaten food in the kitchen and men peering in windows.
“Thirty years ago, we had workers moving through, and they’d ask for water and a sandwich,” says Nancy Cloudt, who runs Rodeo Grocery and Cafe. “Then they started demanding water and a sandwich. Then they didn’t like peanut butter. Then they wanted to use your phone to call New York.
“Now, if you hear something at night, you don’t even go out to check. It gets worse all the time.”
On Friday, Jan. 22, Cloudt says, Border Patrol arrested 63 illegals near her store in one shift. Lousy weather brought them out of hiding places in the mountains and washes. They wanted to be captured and sent home.
But the Hunt episode has left people here really shaken.
Rosie Hunt, 74, was cooking supper at about 5 p.m. when she heard a knock at the front door. When she responded, she saw two men, one an English speaker, who asked if Rosie would drive them to town. Through his booking photo, she later identified the suspect as 21-year-old Eriberto Marquez.
She said no to the request, and so did Howard, who’d joined her at the door. Marquez kept asking, and Howard kept saying no. “I says, ‘It’s only two miles up the road. You can walk.'”
Marquez said, “We’re tired of walking, and nobody will give us a ride.”
Howard said, “Well, I’m not going to give you a ride, sir.”
When Rosie moved to return to the kitchen, Marquez pushed her into the house. Howard turned to protect his wife and felt a sharp object poking his back.
The object was an 18-inch machete held by the second suspect, identified as 19-year-old Martin Chavira-Morquecho. Howard swung his hand to swipe at the blade and got a tiny cut on his thumb—not a serious problem for most people. But Howard, 75, has had six strokes and takes the blood-thinning medicine Coumadin, which caused the cut to bleed a lot. In addition, he has emphysema and has had a knee replaced, a stent put in his heart and two shoulder surgeries.
“It went downhill from there,” says Howard of the front-door confrontation.
Marquez took Rosie down the hall into a bedroom, giving her a push. She turned and punched him on the side of the head. A stunned Marquez said, “You hit me hard!”
Rosie said, “Yeah, I’m sorry.”
Rosie says now, “That probably wasn’t very smart, because he could have beaten me up.”
Howard wound up in the same bedroom. “I told Rosie, ‘Don’t be scared, but we’re going to get it,'” he says. “I figured then and there we were dead.”
Howard’s main concern was keeping Rosie safe. He told Marquez, “You harm her, and I’ll kill your ass. If I was in Korea right now, I’d shoot you.”
That prompted an improbable conversation between Howard and Marquez.
“You were in the service, too, huh?” Marquez asked.
“Yeah, I was,” Howard said.
“Bad one, huh?”
“Yeah, it was bad.”
Marquez said, “I was in the Navy.”
Howard worked in the mailroom of the Chicago-Sun Times before retiring in 1996. The Hunts have eight children and have lived outside Portal for 13 years.
Eventually, Marquez asked Rosie for money. He first asked for $400 or $500. She said she didn’t have it. He then asked for $200 or $300, and the answer was the same.
He said, “Why don’t you have any money?”
“Because we’re retired,” she said.
Marquez sat Rosie at the kitchen table and told her to write down the pin number for her debit card. He also wanted her address, promising to send back whatever money he spent.
Rosie and Howard were taken to a back bedroom, where Marquez asked for duct tape. “Like a damn fool, I told him where it was at,” says Howard, who was then taped to a bed, and Rosie to a chair.
The Hunts say the alleged machete man, Morquecho, spoke no English and was the more threatening of the two. In fact, say Rosie and Howard, Marquez was almost gentlemanly. “You’d think nothing of having a conversation with him,” says Rosie. “This guy was so polite.”
He kept saying, “‘We’ll be leaving soon.'” Without prompting, he went to the kitchen stove and turned off the heat under Rosie’s potatoes so they wouldn’t boil over.
The episode lasted about 70 minutes.
While tied up in the bedroom, the Hunts could hear the bandits going through the house; Marquez wearing socks on his hands, say the Hunts, presumably to avoid leaving fingerprints. When Marquez was leaving, he said to Rosie, “Do you want me to turn the air conditioning on? It’s hot in here.”
Rosie said no. Then he asked, “Do you want me to turn the fan on?”
“No,” Rosie said. “Howard’s blood is too thin, and he’ll get cold.”
Moments after they left, Rosie wriggled her wrists free, then slid off the chair and out of the jacket she was wearing, bypassing the tape around her chest.
The bandits stole the couple’s Chevy Avalanche and about $100.
Within 20 minutes, a Cochise County sheriff’s deputy responded to Rosie’s call, and an alert went out. Marquez and Chavira-Morquecho were arrested a short time later when a police officer saw them leaving a Lordsburg, N.M., McDonald’s.
They’re now in jail in Bisbee, says Alma Barth, a spokesperson for the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office. Each will face 14 criminal charges, including two counts of burglary, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of kidnapping, three counts of theft and one of armed robbery.
Howard says a Cochise County detective told him the two men had been previously deported following an armed robbery, but that could not be independently confirmed.
The important thing, says Howard, is that neither he nor Rosie was hurt. “But they did hurt us one way,” he says. “They took our trust. It’s going to make it rougher on us, because we like to travel, and how are we going to leave this house now?”
He adds: “There are a lot of dope-runners coming up this valley. But you’ve also got a lot of people who got no more intention of trying to do anything other than bettering their lives. Are you going to shoot them, too? You can’t tell the difference. I tell you, it’s a bad situation.”
On a drive up Highway 80 from Douglas eight days after the incident, more Border Patrol agents were visible than civilians. It looked like a valley at war, and in a sense, it is.
All this is happening as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano—who in April of last year told CNN that crossing the border is not a crime—is publicly suggesting the border is secure enough to push again for amnesty.
The Hunts would dispute that, as would the Cochise County deputy who advised them to keep a pistol by the front door. When a deputy knocked on neighbor Bill Meloy’s door and told him of the break-in, Meloy asked: “Is there anything we can do?”
“Keep your pistol handy,” the deputy said.
“I can’t believe my country, a county of laws, allows this to go on,” says retired Cochise County Superior Court Judge Richard Winkler, who lives outside Rodeo.
Residents of the valley are angry and organizing. The Rodeo market, about two miles from the Hunts’ home, is posting signs announcing a meeting on Friday, Feb. 5, at the community center, in an effort to try to head off a bloody tragedy.
But many feel such an event is inevitable.
“The Hunts don’t know how lucky they were those guys weren’t badder than they were,” says Cloudt. “And those two guys don’t know how lucky they were that it was the Hunts. I can think of four or five people living around the Hunts who would’ve blown them away if they’d tried coming into their houses with a machete.”
This article appears in Feb 4-10, 2010.
Driving by Rosie and Howards that evening you could not count the number of red-light vehicles surrounding the house.
Residents of this valley have known that the time would come when violence would escalate. It has been talked about for years and we have talked to law enforcement and have only received polite lip service.
We have told law enforcement for years that the illegals were using a trail between the Hunt’s and my ranch and nothing was done about it. Today, as I drove up to my ranch, there was a Border Patrol agent checking for ‘sign’ along the trail. This is a comforting sight. The only question is, “How long will it last?”
A parting thought; a knock at the door, the dogs are barking, will we answer the door with a pistol in our hand? You bet! As Howard hunt said, “. . . the trust is gone.”
Bill Wilbur, rancher
There is a group called Arizonans For Immigration Control, who have a new president Claudia White. Claudia was born in Magdalena, Sonora Mexico, legally immigrated with her family in 1954 and became a naturalized citizen in 1986. All those interested in actually doing something to combat Open Border Policy and Illegal Immigration are encouraged to attend the next meeting on 2-27-2010. It will be held at the Martha Cooper Library, located 1377 N. Catalina Ave, Tucson Arizona, time 1:30pm. If unable to attend you can email Claudia at, info@arizonansforimmigrationcontrol.com
Last night, Feb 5th the Community meeting about local area security concerns was very well attended. About 20 Border Patrol agents from all 3 offices Wilcox, Douglas & Lordsburg. As well as Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever and 2 of his deputies, 4 Hidalgo county deputies, 1 New Mexico State highway Patrol Officer. Also 4 representives from both AZ & NM attended. Every chair the community center has (about 180) were used and still about 30+ people had to stand. A number of people did not attend for fear of leaving their homes unattended in the evening or the fear of arriving home well after dark. Many left a spouse home to “hold down the fort”. The meeting lasted about 3 hours. All agencies took a turn at the mic to try to explain what they were doing to stop the problem and offer suggestions to the locals as to how they may help law enforcement do their job and stay safe. Many citizens had some excellent questions. There were a few heated discussions. Over all I think the meeting went very well. Everyone gained some important information. Hopefully those representitives sent by our elected representitives will get the critical information passed up the chain of comand. The people are angry, scarred and will not tolerate many more dope loads hauled thru their yards or home invasions. Sooner or later someone is bound to get hurt.
I think all the agents and local law enforcement are doing a great job. However for some unknown reason Washington DC has not been able to keep this country safe.
If they can haul over a million pounds of drugs across the border in the Tucson sector alone last year…what about a terrorist threat?
If the border is not sealed…all 2,200 miles not simply 600 miles of fence since 9-11-01 we are all doomed. Jeff Gee, Portal resident for 20 years.
We have an open border because the Mexican and American governments want it that way. A good neighbor policy with dope dealers and possible terrorists running through each others yard with impunity, just a larger yard than one finds in many drug infested communities on both sides of the border.
Familiarity breeds contempt so we have become apathetic to the supposed drug war and illegal immigration problems at all levels of society from the retired couples living a peaceful life in the countryside to the crackhead killers of the dark metropolis streets. The bobble headed politicians grin and nod their thick plastic noggins, promising to make it all better. The law enforcement agencies wait until after the fact to earn their paycheck. The ” Border ” Patrol spends huge amounts of resources well north of the border trying to find, chase, catch, then transport the undocumented hoard back to the starting line to begin the game all over again.
With a tad over 2000 miles of Mexican border and over twice that many Border Patrol vehicles with agents in use in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, all we really need is a gravel road graded the length of that border with a tightly stretched barbed wire fence on the south side of that road and a B.P. vehicle with agent parked every half mile along said road. Then they can live up to their name and………..PATROL the freakin BORDER ! A pack rat couldn’t sneak through, let alone trucks full of dope, or a coyote with 300 poyos in tow.
What a concept ! Actually use the Border Patrol to patrol the border. All of it. NOT waste time and resources in games of hide and seek everywhere but the border, with the same offenders every day of every year. Napolitano could truthfully claim that we have the border under control, the “system” works. But you see, then someone would have a lot of explaining to do if the drugs and illegals still keep coming, and people in high political places don’t want to have to explain those kind of things.
We could have done it but we didn’t and we won’t because big government politics do not want it done on either side of said border.
The end result for American border communities will be the same as in those dark metropolis streets. People are going to get shot. Soooooooo……… get ready for the back alley battles coming soon to a neighborhood near you.
Timothy M. Barrett
Living in this part of New Mexico as a third generation rancher we have seen changes and the decline of the quality of people for a number of years who have crossed the border illegally. Toils from the labor force coming across the border have built a part of this country and also rewarded the illegal aliens with monetary gain for them and their families in Mexico. Nearly all of the workers of this era were kind and honest. Many area residents did not lock dwellings or have fear safety. This scenario has changed dramatically in the past decade.
We have faced rough times with the crossing of people on the U.S. Mexico Border. Illegal aliens murdered two Rodeo, New Mexico area residents in there home in the early 1980; these illegal were never caught much less prosecuted. Thieves, murderers, child molesters, drug smugglers, and the human traffickers are now the norm for today and will be worse in the future. This trend of criminal human traffic is not getting better with time. The apprehension of these border crossers has increased dramatically. More and more people from other foreign lands are being apprehended. People from many countries including China others from the Middle East as well as from way far south of our U.S. borders are included in the apprehensions. The guides or coyotes have learned the way to cross this border undetected by using the vast open space and the two large mountain ranges as cover and routes. The coyotes extort large amounts of money from the people seeking a better life in the United States time just abandoning them in the United States if travel becomes hard due to dehydration, sickness or if Border Patrol is closing in.
Law enforcement is at best after the fact if the illegal border crossers are not apprehended at the border. Many miles from the border our homes are invaded, vehicles are stolen and property is destroyed on a daily occurrence. These crimes are reported, every effort is made to apprehend the criminal, but in many cases the criminal(s) are not apprehended. In most, if not all cases, no evidence is gathered, the crime is documented by statement from the victim with no physical evidence as fingerprints or possible DNA recorded from the crime scene. With no recorded evidence from the scene the criminal is free to commit more crimes and is never linked back to any of the previous crimes. Unless some sort of investigative team is created that can secure a crime scene gather the available evidence, place it in record in the national data base many of these criminal will have the opportunity to become hardened into the system and go on for years although apprehended will have no evidence against them and not prosecuted for the crimes that have been committed. These teams will have to be able to work with all law enforcement and have the ability to work in Arizona and New Mexico.
With two circuit courts in close proximity, both that are overloaded with cases, one circuit court prosecuting most of the cases and incarcerating, the other not prosecuting criminals, and deporting. The prisons are filled almost to capacity budgets are strained it is difficult to manage all of these cases. Without prosecution a criminal they do not feel the hardship that should be imposed for committing a felony crime much less a misdemeanor.
Dear Mr. Banks,
Thank you once again for presenting such a well written documentation of facts about our unsecured border. I would like to know if Howard and Rosie Hunt need any help in any way.
Thank the good lord they survived.
I have lived in the rural border area for 11 years, this is a full disgrace. The shame for this mess lies on our politicians, local and federal. All the PC talk about the “poor migrants” and bla-bla-bla we are talked at in town hall meetings then the say nothing Congresscritters letters mailed to us say nothing more.
Our so called, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitanohas will do nothing, not one thing to change the invasion.
“All this is happening as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano—who in April of last year told CNN that crossing the border is not a crime—is publicly suggesting the border is secure enough to push again for amnesty.”
At this same time Napolitano spewed her PC Lies, a few volunteers disclosed film from hidden cameras they had placed in the human and drug smuggling trails. The film can be viewed at http://borderinvasionpics.com/
I pray everyone will e-mail this web address our far and wide, bring it to meetings, sit at your congresscritters desk and ask them to view the film.
Every border county is suffering, residents have to be on alert at all times. One might think that grandparents living in the country would be safe, healthy and happy. We can not let our children out to play in the rural areas for fear of a large group of illegal aliens hiding in the bushes, as we all know the illegals are layed up often right near the school bus stops.
Cindy Kolb
http://www.desertvisions.us
The Hunts are heroes and should become activists in the fight to stop the Invasion from Mexico. Their lives are in danger every day. The Minuteman Project is one way to go–forming your own little Minuteman group. When the authorities are out-gunned and out-manned, the People have to protect themselves and that’s what should be happening in Portal, Rodeo and Lordsburg.
Jeff, it’s good to read from your post that people are angry and that the situation on the Border with anarchy and lawlessness being the order of the day instead of American citizens being able to come and go from their homes whenever they want without fear of home invasion and bodily injury. And you and others posting here are quite right that “Sooner or later, someone is bound to get hurt” or killed. If it’s one of you and your neighbors, there will be reprisals. People can only take so much. If it’s the illegals who are injured or killed, La Raza and other groups–as well as the Mexican Govt–will be calling for legal action against those who defended their families and property. Look what happened to Randy Barnett. He lost his ranch and the illegal alien trespassers on his land got the money and a free ticket into the U.S. All it takes is a Johnny Cochrane D.A. and a liberal judge and there are certainly plenty of them in AZ and NM!
E-Verify will not expedite the removal of illegal foreign labor across America? Nor will the local police 287 (G) federal training program to capture illegal immigrants around the country. Even the–TRUE–international fence that waits to be built correctly? Or any of the series of immigration enforcement laws designed for the SAVE ACT. But together, including the rescinding instant birthright laws to an illegal alien parent, can and will make a difference to our financial economy, that has been wrecked by unwelcome illegal labor and family members. Our government tells us their is a reduction in the unauthorized population that has settled here. But if the Tucson US Border Patrol agents express that for every–10–people who slip into America, only–ONE–gets apprehended. Or that there is no figure for illegal immigrants who have crept into our nation from Canada. Or having no true accounting of knowing who is departing by plane, ship, how many have ignored the expiration date on their entry visa?
Its all guesswork of how many of the population are here without “THE PEOPLE’S” permission. The government and open border cronies say numbers have dwindled to 10.5 million? But how can they agree on this exact number, when 1200 were detained from a clothing factory in California? Then we have 300 at a meat packing plant in Iowa? Now we have Koch food knowing hiring 161 foreign laborers and have been fined. Bear Stearns the now extinct financial house, estimated a number between 20 and 30 million. But whatever the number they still need to be removed? They broke our laws and therefore deserve not to be rewarded, Those politicians on either side who have pandered or taken money from open border lobbyists, should starting at mid-term election be ejected from office. We need to find fair lawmakers who believe in the working man and women first, not attributing to the businesses who buy their loyalty? Years have passed since true immigration enforcement and that was President Eisenhower in 1954, empowered the Immigration And Naturalization (INS) now remade as ICE to remove about one million illegal immigrants from the southwestern states.
Thousands left by their own accord, so as not to take the risk of being arrested and buses, trains and vehicles, hassled thousands back across the border. This proves it can be done? Then with a permanent, super-refined operation of E-VERIFY mandated throughout America–BY ATTRITION–can influence businesses to use it, or face serious consequences. Don’t let open border pundits influence you that its full of errors. Visit the local Social Security office for work clearance. Opponents never explain in their diatribe, that this is a very easy solution. WE CAN WITH THE WILL OF THE MAJORITY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, OPEN UP JOBS FOR AMERICANS TAKEN BY ILLEGAL LABOR. WE CANNOT AFFORD ANOTHER AMNESTY OR THE CONSEQUENCES OF MILLIONS OF MORE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ACCESSING GOVERNMENT ENTITLEMENTS. Learn what you can do at NUMBERSUSA & JUDICIALWATCH or call your federal representative at 202-224-3121. A good example of state politicians ignoring their commitment to their legal residents, is the near bankrupt state of California.
I don’t understand why anyone in a known trafficking area wouldn’t keep a firearm near the door. They shouldn’t have to be told to by a deputy! I’ve lived in Hereford, in Cochise County, and even though I wasn’t right on top of a trail, I had illegals passing through periodically. Most of the time I didn’t see them; I only found what they left behind. Anyone living in a rural area needs to keep protection handy at all times. If times get hard in the cities and the economy falls apart, people will stream out of the cities and head for the country. Either way, it’s best to be prepared.
Mexico is sending the poorest and the most dangerous of their citizens here.
And our worthless politicians could care less as it yet has not harmed their families.
I just pray that what we American citizens go though with these illegals hits the politicians and Judges
in the face someday.
Why haven’t the Hunts taken legal action against our Federal Government?
According to our Constitution….the President or government is supposed to protect us citizens against invasion.
But of course they are not doing there job.
Arizoans for Immigration Control will hold its monthly meeting Saturday March 27 1:30 PM at the east side location Kirk Bear Canyon Public Library 8959 East Tanque Verde Rd. 594-5275. The Public is invited. President Claudia White presiding. info@arizonansforimmigrationcontrol.com
We heard about the incident on Fox News about the rancher near Douglas being murdered. We saw the Governor going on TV and talking about asking the Federal Govt. for help. Since she’s a Republican and Nepolitano and other federal govt. officials are saying the border isn’t a problem, I bet she won’t get it. The Governor mentioned that the AZ citizens will have to pay.
I been visiting AZ for many years. I always thought I wanted to retire there, and because AZ was so unique in so many ways I couldn’t pin down exactly where I wanted to live. The last ten years I started focusing on birding in southeast AZ and thought that area would be great to live in.
We spent several weeks last September traveling around AZ and started to look seriously for a property on the Internet. While we were traveling around southeast AZ we noticed and went through a lot of Border Patrol checkpoints. We were very impressed at the Border Patrol and how well they were doing their job. We didn’t realize how serious the problem really was because the real estate agents and locals we talked to, never said anything that would give us pause about relocating here.
We are retiring with government pensions and will pay cash for our next house. We feel we would be an asset to any community we choose to live in. We are environmentalists and work regularly to preserve the environment from invasive plants where we live in MD. We are organic gardeners and beekeepers. We are heartbroken that our beloved AZ that we have visited for decades and dreamed of retiring to, is not safe to live in. We have decided to look in Utah instead, even though the tax on pensions is higher than AZ.
Good Luck,
Sharon Lin