Several years ago, Jim Chilton was a guest on Freedom Forum Radio. Jim Chilton and his wife Sue are 5th Generation Arizona ranchers. In 1888, the Chilton family ancestors arrived in Arizona driving several hundred head of cattle. Over a century later, Jim and Sue Chilton continue to manage the family’s cattle business. Their 50,000 acre ranch is adjacent to the town of Arivaca, Arizona, and continues south to the international border with Mexico. The ranch includes private property, state school trust lands, and two federal grazing permits on national forest lands.
Two years ago, Jim’s primary concern were onerous bureaucratic regulations that prevented the efficient use of his own land to prosper in the family cattle business. Out of necessity, Jim Chilton has spent most of his recent life as an activist for property rights. He is at war against flawed and illogical environmental regulations. In fact, Jim Chilton has testified before Congress multiple times about issues with the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Acts.
Now the property rights and physical safety of citizens like Jim Chilton and his family, who live on our international border with Mexico, are being threatened by yet another failure of our federal government.
Jim’s ranch extends to the southern border with Mexico and includes five miles of actual border which is marked by a regular cattle fence consisting of five strands of barbed wire. Their ranch house has been burglarized twice by drug packers and neighbors have also been robbed and even killed by drug packer and the cartels. The Chiltons live with weapons near their bed, at the doors, in their vehicles, and attached to their saddles when they are out tending to their cattle (Rancher Jim Chilton has to Police the Border Himself) .
For decades, Congress was unwilling to enact strong protection of our international border with Mexico. That changed dramatically during the Trump Administration with programs to keep illegals in Mexico, ending catch and release, and, most importantly, with the construction of a border wall to prevent illegal aliens, drugs, terrorists, and felons from entering our nation. Trump’s border wall now protects 4.7 miles of Jim Chilton’s 5-mile international border. That remaining short break is part of a 5 mile gap between the east and west portions of the wall. Naturally, illegals, smugglers, and felons continue to pour through, continuing to put the lives and livelihoods of American citizens in grave danger.
All the steel components necessary to finish the wall and close that gap are sitting on the ground ready to be put in place. Unfortunately, these programs have been eliminated by the Biden Administration with resulting chaos on our southern border.
Jim Chilton is not sitting on the couch. He is urging our federal government to use the wall sections already on site to finish the five mile gap so that the citizens in his neighborhood can enjoy the personal safety, property, and security guaranteed by the Constitution.
Dr. Dan’s guest on Freedom Forum Radio this weekend is Jim Chilton, owner of the Chilton Ranch & Cattle Co. on the international border in Arizona. Chilton will share his battle with drug smugglers, human traffickers, illegals, and felons, trying to protect his family and business in a hostile environment.
Part one of this three-part interview begins this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, May 8-9, on WJRB 95.1 FM and streamed live over the Internet. Part two airs Saturday and Sunday, May 15-16, and part three airs Saturday and Sunday, May 22-23. All programs are available by podcast following airtime here.
