How long before someone gets killed, unfortunately, needs to be asked separately from how long before somone gets killed and we actually know about it. It's a big desert out there.

They've been out there for over a year, actually. I suspect that someone has already been killed. As Greg says, it's a big desert.

On the other hand, my sister (who lives in Las Cruces) can no longer walk her dog down the culvert next to where she lives because there was a guy living there, an illegal, who threatened her and who had raped three women. People are frightened of the people who are coming through their backyards at night. (Most of whom are just guys who want jobs.)

I wish we'd admit that cheap labor is essential to our economy and do something about this.

Actually, I don't know what's worse: The creepy vigilante, racist rednecks, or the scary, murderous drug smugglers-turned-people smugglers. These people tote around warzone-level semi-automatic and automatic weapons, and the smugglers like to take pot shots in the general of anybody they see coming close.

Honestly, the immigrants weren't really great fun either. They're actually trashing the place, dropping literally tons of junk: plastic bags, toothbrushes, shoes, water bottles, backpacks, designer jeans, fecal matter. They carry it in, then it becomes a matter of life and death to get out, and they drop it all.

But as far as "until someone gets killed" goes... about 200-300 people are dying annually in Arizona. From heat stroke while crossing in summer, from vigilante property owners (at least a dozen deaths), from gang warfare and coyote disputes, from running into drug-runners at the wrong time. We had a two-car shoot-out about 6 months ago on I-10 - the big highway between Phoenix and Tucson - when one gang "stole" a van full of immigrants, and the first gang tried to take them back. We've had several flipped vans, full of immigrants without seatbelts, fleeing the border patrol. A park ranger was killed a year ago in Organ Pipe National Park when he stumbled onto a couple drug smugglers.

This summer will be horrible. It's really coming - with all the vigilantes in eastern Arizona and California, the crossers will be driven into western Arizona. That's the real wasteland, the low, hot desert. If it's a hot summer, we'll have 200 deaths, without anybody having to fire a bullet.

My desert. It used to be my desert, too.