Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.
Emma Lazarus, The New Colussus
Opportunities in Roswell, N.M., last week led me to ask what folks within a 100 miles of the U.S.-Mexican border thought about Trumps wall campaign.
There to visit daughter Brenda and family, I stopped one morning for a cup of coffee and found a trio of ranchers. We talked a bit and then I popped the question: What do you think about a wall?
Something needs to be done, said the older of the three, but something, I gathered, didnt necessarily mean spending billions on a wall.
All agreed that coyotes intruders who slip across the shallow Rio Grande for nefarious purposes were more a problem than immigrants. Calves and other things disappear now and again, and occasionally drug runners are stopped on their ranches.
They understand the plight of people genuinely wanting asylum.
Ive an interest in Billy the Kid. Steve Halverson, a retired Roswell police detective and local expert on the young gun, filled me in with his theories, before I broached the wall. Im probably in favor, he said, or at least some means to stop illegal crossings.
Halverson, too, mentioned, coyotes. His bigger concern was the dangers of crossing the expansive desert, especially to women and children. All too often, Halverson has discovered their bodies.
Charmaine Martin and husband Charles own M&M Coins, a favorite haunt of mine in Roswell. She had the most definite opinion of all: A wall is ridiculous, costing too much and would have little, if any, effect.
A young barber, who made me presentable for Easter services, just rolled his eyes at the mention of a border wall.
Nancy Egeler, manager of an antiques mall, was examining quilts with two friends when I ambled in.
She was ambivalent. I think too many people are coming in illegally. Id be happy to have them if they came in the right way, Nancy said. A full 60 percent of Roswells 50,000 residents are Hispanic.
Mostly, Egeler said she was disgusted by the contentiousness of those in Washington, Trump on the one side and Congress on the other.
Grandson Hudson, who told me on Election Day, I voted for Trump, but I didnt think hed win, said he wasnt for putting Trumps proposed $5 billion toward a wall. A better approach would be to spend more on border patrol and other security measures.
WE ARE a nation of immigrants, having made their way for political, religious and personal freedoms. To deny people who desperately seek a better life is just plain wrong.
