PHOENIX – Cattle rancher Rob Krentz often helped illegal immigrants he found stranded on his sprawling Arizona ranch.
Then two weeks ago, he and his dog were gunned down shortly after he reported spotting someone who appeared to be in trouble. Foot tracks were followed from the shooting scene about 20 miles south, to the Mexican border, and authorities suspect an illegal immigrant.
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The killing of the third-generation rancher has become a flash point in the immigration debate as politicians cite the episode as further proof that the United States must do more to secure the violent U.S.-Mexican border.
The governors of New Mexico and Arizona took a public tour of the border this week in support of more security. The subject has been politicized in the Senate Republican brawl between J.D. Hayworth and incumbent John McCain.
Hayworth has accused McCain of not doing enough to protect U.S. citizens from growing border violence. McCain, for his part, has called for increased security in response to the killing.
“The federal government must do all it can within its power to curb this violence and protect its citizens from criminals coming across the border from Mexico,” McCain wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, a former Arizona governor.
Krentz was remembered at a funeral Saturday in Douglas, about 35 miles southwest of his 35,000-acre ranch and the home where he raised three children with his wife of 33 years, Sue.
Investigators have not definitively tied the killing to the drug trade, but the slaying comes at a time when well-armed cartel factions have battled each other and federal authorities in several Mexican border cities, resulting in thousands of brutal killings.
Wendy Glenn, who has a ranch south of the Krentz property and is a good family friend, said she believes she heard some of Krentz’s last words when he used a radio to talk to his brother the day he was killed.
“He says, ‘I see an immigrant out here, and he appears to need help. Call the Border Patrol,’ ” Glenn, 69, said she heard Krentz say at about 10:30 a.m. on March 27. “He was not frantic. He was not calling for help.”
His body was found just before midnight in a remote area of his land.
After he was shot, the 58-year-old Krentz managed to drive away in his all-terrain vehicle before losing consciousness and dying from his wounds. Nothing had been stolen from him, and his gun was still in its holster. His dog was killed, too.
Krentz’s family said in a statement they hold no malice toward the Mexican people and blame the U.S. and Mexican governments for the killing.
“Their disregard of our repeated pleas and warnings of impending violence toward our community fell on deaf ears shrouded in political correctness,” according to the statement. “As a result, we have paid the ultimate price for their negligence in credibly securing our borderlands.”
