Arizona Republicans want to let ranchers in southern Arizona legally shoot and kill undocumented immigrants who cross their land.

As a once-kid who used to take shortcuts across open ranch land, this bill would give land owners a license to kill:

The bill comes as an Arizona rancher awaits trial after he was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault for killing 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen-Butimea after he shot at a group of unarmed migrants walking through his 170-acre ranch outside of Nogales. Under its provisions, 73-year-old George Alan Kelly would have been justified for allegedly killing any of the migrants.

  • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
    0·
    5 months ago

    The actual bill doesn’t say anything about border crossers, it basically extends the Castle Doctrine (the notion that you do not have a duty to retreat and it is justifiable to use deadly force against trespassers in your home) to cover your land as well as the actual interior of the residence.

    So you don’t have to say they looked like border crossers because that wouldn’t matter - that they were trespassing on your land is itself sufficient.