Stop feeding Big Tech and start feeding Americans again



America needs more farmers, ranchers, and private landholders — not more data centers and chatbots. Yet the federal government is now prioritizing artificial intelligence over agriculture, offering vast tracts of public land to Big Tech while family farms and ranches vanish and grocery bills soar.

Conservatives have long warned that excessive federal land ownership, especially in the West, threatens liberty and prosperity. The Trump administration shares that concern but has taken a wrong turn by fast-tracking AI infrastructure on government property.

If the nation needs a new Manhattan Project, it should be for food security, not AI slop.

Instead of devolving control to the states or private citizens, it’s empowering an industry that already consumes massive resources and delivers little tangible value to ordinary Americans. And this is on top of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s execrable plan to build 15-minute cities and “affordable housing.”

In July, President Trump signed an executive order titled Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure as part of its AI Action Plan. The order streamlines permits, grants financial incentives, and opens federal properties — from Superfund sites to military bases — to AI-related development. The Department of Energy quickly identified four initial sites: Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, Idaho National Laboratory, the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky, and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

Last month, the list expanded to include five Air Force bases — Arnold (Tennessee), Davis-Monthan (Arizona), Edwards (California), Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (New Jersey), and Robins (Georgia) — totaling over 3,000 acres for lease to private developers at fair market value.

Locating AI facilities on military property is preferable to disrupting residential or agricultural communities, but the favoritism shown to Big Tech raises an obvious question: Is this the best use of public land? And will anchoring these bubble companies on federal property make them “too big to fail,” just like the banks and mortgage lenders before the 2008 crash?

President Trump has acknowledged the shortage of affordable meat as a national crisis. If any industry deserves federal support, it’s America’s independent farmers and ranchers. Yet while Washington clears land for billion-dollar data centers, small producers are disappearing. In the past five years, the U.S. has lost roughly 141,000 family farms and 150,000 cattle operations. The national cattle herd is at its lowest level since 1951. Since 1982, America has lost more than half a million farms — nearly a quarter of its total.

Multiple pressures — rising input costs, droughts, and inflation — have crippled family farms that can’t compete with corporate conglomerates. But federal land policy also plays a role. The government’s stranglehold on Western lands limits grazing rights, water access, and expansion opportunities. If Washington suddenly wants to sell or lease public land, why not prioritize ranchers who need it for feed and forage?

The Conservation Reserve Program compounds the problem. The 2018 Farm Bill extension locked up to 30 million acres of land — five million in Wyoming and Montana alone — under the guise of conservation. Wealthy absentee owners exploit the program by briefly “farming” land to qualify it as cropland, then retiring it into CRP to collect taxpayer payments. More than half of CRP acreage is owned by non-farmers, some earning over $200 per acre while the land sits idle.

RELATED: AI isn’t feeding you

Photo by Brian Kaiser/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Those acres could support hundreds of cattle per section or produce millions of tons of hay. Instead, they create artificial shortages that drive up feed costs. During the post-COVID inflation spike, hay prices spiked 40%, hitting $250 per ton this year. Even now, inflated prices cost ranchers six figures a year in extra expenses in a business that operates on thin margins.

If the nation needs a new Manhattan Project, it should be for food security, not AI slop. Free up federal lands and idle CRP acreage for productive use. Help ranchers grow herds and lower food prices instead of subsidizing a speculative industry already bloated with venture capital and hype.

At present, every dollar of revenue at OpenAI costs roughly $7.77 to generate — a debt spiral that invites the next taxpayer bailout. By granting these firms privileged access to public land, the government risks creating another class of untouchable corporate wards, as it did with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two decades ago.

AI won’t feed Americans. It won’t fix supply chains. It won’t lower grocery bills. Until these companies can put real food on real tables, federal land should serve the purpose God intended — to sustain the people who live and work upon it.

'Farmer' George Clooney wouldn't last a minute with my family's sheep



George Clooney has it all. The villa on Lake Como, the Hollywood halo, the tequila fortune.

And now — apparently — a farm. He grows olives, you see. Presses them into artisanal oil. Talks lovingly about “the land.”

In Ireland, farmer suicide rates are among the highest in the country. In America, it’s even worse. Farming isn’t just lonely — it’s a daily battle against debt, drought, and despair.

It’s the sort of thing the lifestyle press laps up. The movie star who’s “gone back to nature,” barefoot among the groves, a rake in both senses of the word. But as someone raised on an actual farm in Ireland, I can’t help but laugh. Calling Clooney a farmer is like calling yourself a surgeon because you once removed a splinter with tweezers.

Knee-deep in muck

My father’s a real farmer. He’s the kind of man who measures days in chores, not hours. He’s out there in rain, shine, or two feet of snow, wrangling 100 cattle and 300 sheep with saintly patience. Starting at age 7, I spent 10 years doing the same thing. The man’s hands could sand a doorframe just by clapping. His back has carried more than hay bales. It’s borne the heavy burden of being taken for granted. Farmers feed everyone, yet everyone forgets them. They’re the engine of every economy and the punchline of every town.

The romantic idea of farming — what I call the “Clooney complex” — is built on Instagram filters and feckless fantasy. A celebrity buys a few acres, plants some lavender, adopts a goat named Aristotle, and suddenly it’s “sustainable living.” They wear linen shirts and wax lyrical about the “spiritual rhythm” of rural life, just before jetting back to L.A. in a jet that could single-handedly melt a glacier.

Meanwhile, the real farmer down the road is up at five, knee-deep in muck, coaxing a calf into the world in sideways sleet. The rhythm of real rural life sounds less like “peaceful simplicity” and more like an industrial power washer.

We don’t name our sheep. That’s something people who’ve never farmed don’t understand. When you’ve got 300 of the woolly little delinquents, sentimentality is a luxury you can’t afford. I’ve seen enough lambs die in winter to know why farmers are wary of names. We remember numbers. The birth tags. The weight. The cost of feed. The constant arithmetic of survival. Romanticizing farming is like romanticizing trench warfare — fine for those who've never experienced it firsthand.

Debt, drought, and despair

And yet, people love the image. The noble tiller of soil, weathered but wise, standing in a sunset, surrounded by his empire. They never show the invoices, broken fences, silage bills, oppressive environmental regulations, or the bank statements.

They don’t show the nights you lie awake wondering whether the mart price will rise or fall. They don’t show the hours spent alone, the silence broken only by the rattle of a gate or the cough of an animal on the way out. Farming is isolation dressed as independence. You’re your own boss, yes — but your employees are cows, and they never take a day off.

In Ireland, farmer suicide rates are among the highest in the country. In America, it’s even worse. Farming isn’t just lonely — it’s a daily battle against debt, drought, and despair.

Each season, costs climb higher: cement for sheds, grain for feed, diesel for tractors, even medicine for the herd. Profits shrink, pressure builds, and hope thins out like soil after too many harvests. American farmers are now three and a half times more likely to die by suicide than the average worker. The farm devours what it earns. It’s less a business than a benevolent parasite — you feed it in the hope it feeds you back.

RELATED: AI isn’t feeding you

Photo by Nikada via Getty Images

Learning from the land

But to the celebrity farmer, it’s a lovely way of life. Clooney can pose with his olives, Chris Pratt with his chickens, or "Top Gear" legend Jeremy Clarkson with his camera crew and call it “a return to roots.” Fine, let them have their fun. But real farming isn’t less a return than a sentence. It’s 70-hour weeks, constant pressure, and the faint but familiar panic of wondering what happens if you get sick. No stand-in. No understudy. Just you and the land, locked in an ancient marriage of necessity.

Don’t get me wrong — I love the land. There’s a holiness to it that city life can’t touch. I understand why people are drawn to it, even why they imitate it. But farming isn’t a hobby. It’s not therapy. It’s work in its rawest form — bone-deep, back-breaking, Sisyphus-like labor. And while actors can play at being farmers, farmers can’t play at being actors. When a calf’s stuck halfway out, the only thing rolling is your sleeves. There are no retakes.

If George Clooney wants to plant crops, fine. Let him. But I’ll believe he’s a farmer when he’s up at dawn to dig a drain, when his hands smell permanently of disinfectant. I’ll believe it when his holidays depend on the lambing schedule and not the film schedule. Until then, he’s just a gardener with glorious lighting.

Farming is a philosophy in itself. It teaches humility, patience, and a genuine appreciation for the good times. You learn to solve problems with what’s at hand — wire, hope, and plenty of profanity. It’s not glamorous, but it’s brutally honest.

So when I read about Clooney's olives, I smile. Until he has scraped muck from his boots with a stick, yelled at a stubborn sheepdog that won’t listen, and worked from first light to last, I’ll save my applause for the real ones: the men and women who work the land not for show, but for the soil itself. Owning a field doesn’t make you a farmer any more than starring in "The Perfect Storm" makes you a fisherman.

Our farmland is saved — China BANNED from buying US land



If owning a farm was a dream of yours, there’s finally some good news. A new action plan announced by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins will prevent foreign countries from buying up U.S. farmland, as well as protect U.S. land from being used in ways that could harm America.

“With this announcement today, we are taking this purpose and our American farmland back. American agriculture is not just about feeding our families but about protecting our nation and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research, and creating dangerous vulnerabilities in the very systems that sustain us,” Rollins said.

“Today we announced the USDA’s national farm security action plan. This plan includes seven key action items. The most important, the first of the seven, is securing and protecting American farmland ownership, actively engaging at every level of government to take swift legislative and executive action to ban the purchase of American farmland by Chinese nationals and other foreign adversaries,” she continued.



BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales thinks it's crazy that foreign adversaries were ever allowed to buy any American land in the first place.

“Farmland, houses, developments. I don’t care what it is. I think it’s kind of crazy that we allow that to begin with, but particularly with farmland,” Gonzales says, noting that in the state of Texas, the farmland Chinese nationals were buying were “peculiarly near military bases.”

“And looking at this, the geography of it was very, very scary. Apparently, that’s not just in Texas, that is across the country,” she continues, adding, “Over 227,000 acres of farmland are owned by Chinese investors.”

After several Chinese nationals were caught attempting to smuggle dangerous pathogens that could poison Americans via crops, Gonzales finds it all a little disturbing.

"This is a no-brainer to me. Like, they are owning 227,000 acres of farmland, and they have every intention of bringing in pathogens and bacteria," she says, adding, "They are always 10 steps ahead of us, and we're asleep at the wheel. And thankfully, it looks like in this instance, that won't be happening anymore under the Trump administration."

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred take to news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Agriculture secretary unveils plan to stop China’s farmland grab, bio-material smuggling threats



The Trump administration is moving to prevent foreign adversaries from owning farmland in the United States, following reports that foreign entities own nearly 45 million acres of agricultural land.

During a Tuesday morning press conference, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the National Farm Security Action Plan, a multi-agency effort to protect America's food supply by banning foreign rivals, including Chinese entities, from purchasing farmland in the U.S.

'We are working to issue regulatory action to remove over 550 entities from foreign countries of concern from our preferred catalog.'

Rollins was joined at the press briefing by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and White House trade adviser Peter Navarro.

"American agriculture is not just about feeding our families but about protecting our nation and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research, and creating dangerous vulnerabilities in the very systems that sustain us," Rollins stated.

The action plan includes "seven critical areas," as outlined on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's website. These areas focus on increasing transparency and imposing stricter penalties for foreign ownership of farmland. Additionally, it emphasizes redirecting domestic investments to strengthen supply chain resilience, combating foreign crime syndicates and biological threats, safeguarding research, and ensuring the USDA aligns with the administration's America First agenda.

The USDA aims to partner with state leaders and members of Congress to swiftly implement executive action and legislation to prevent "countries of concern or other foreign adversaries" from purchasing farmland.

RELATED: From Wuhan to Michigan: Feds nab ANOTHER Chinese scholar in alleged bio-material smuggling plot

Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

Rollins stated that the Trump administration would use presidential authorities to "claw back what has already been purchased by China and other foreign adversaries."

She noted that she signed a memo on Tuesday, canceling USDA-affiliated contracts or research arrangements with 70 citizens from countries of concern.

Rollins added, "We are working to issue regulatory action to remove over 550 entities from foreign countries of concern from our preferred catalog."

The agency will roll out an online portal for those in the agricultural industry to "report possible false or failed reporting and compliance with respect to [the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act]."

As of December 2023, nearly 45 million acres of agricultural land are owned by foreign countries, including hundreds of thousands of acres by Chinese entities, according to a report by AFIDA.

RELATED: Trump admin to intervene on behalf of New Jersey family trying to stop government seizure of 175-year-old farm

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Another top goal of the administration's action plan is to address biological material threats. This follows reports in June that federal authorities arrested multiple Chinese nationals who allegedly attempted to smuggle biological material into the United States.

During Tuesday's press conference, Bondi stated that two of the individuals allegedly involved in the schemes had ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

"It's going to stop. FBI has opened over 100 bio-smuggling investigations in recent years," Bondi said.

She also stated that the administration is cracking down on pesticide trafficking across the southern border, noting that "illegal and highly toxic chemicals from Mexico were smuggled into the U.S."

"The Department of Justice is prioritizing the arrest of those illegal aliens doing it," Bondi added.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Want to defend America? Start by watching who buys the land



We’ve all seen the headlines: More and more U.S. land is being bought up by foreign nationals. It’s an alarming trend — one that should concern every American.

Foreign adversaries, often with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, are purchasing U.S. farms and land. While Chinese-owned agricultural land remains a small piece of the pie of the country’s total agricultural land, the amount has increased significantly in recent years.

Foreign actors like China are acquiring tracts rich in natural resources like water and fertile farmland.

Chinese ownership of agricultural acreage in the U.S. has increased more than fivefold between 2011 and 2021. That alone should be enough to send a chill up the spine of every American.

You don’t have to be a policy expert to understand the danger this trend poses to U.S. sovereignty and national security. Even the average American citizen can recognize the threat. Some of the land in question is close to secure U.S. facilities, such as military bases. In other cases, foreign actors are acquiring tracts rich in natural resources like water and fertile farmland. America’s food security and resource independence are not luxuries but vital to our national interest. We cannot afford to allow that power to slip away.

The national security threats from Chinese purchases of U.S. land and real estate are growing. Nearly half of U.S. states have introduced or passed legislation to combat foreign land acquisitions, particularly from China. Many have tightened laws or proposed state constitutional amendments to block foreign nationals from owning agricultural or sensitive real estate.

The good news is that Texas is joining the fray to combat real estate sales to foreign figures, and a bill is currently moving through the state legislature to tackle the issue. This is a necessary step to protect all Texans and Americans.

But state and federal action alone aren't enough.

Local leaders need to rise to the challenge by supporting state actions against these foreign threats. Many of these foreign purchases need some form of local approval. County commissioners can be a robust line of defense by monitoring applications for changes in the use of large tracts of land.

Consider the case of Grand Forks, North Dakota. In 2021, the Chinese agribusiness giant Fufeng Group purchased 370 acres to build a corn processing plant valued at $700 million. The industrial facility would have been just 12 miles from Grand Forks Air Force Base. The deal sparked immediate concern from the Air Force, members of Congress, and local officials. It appeared the project might slip through the cracks and get approved, but ultimately, the Grand Forks City Council voted unanimously to strike it down.

Local government plays a vital role. Your city or county commissioners don’t just manage roads and zoning — they sit on the front lines of national security. These local officials must step up and support federal and state efforts to confront the threats we face.

Working together, we can defend the nation’s natural resources, safeguard military assets, and put the interests of American citizens first.

National Park Service Sued For Choosing Wealthy Environmentalists Over Small Farmers

Congress has opened an investigation into a settlement between NPS and environmental groups that booted ranchers from California land.

20 Million Americans Want To Move. Here’s How They Could Change The Country.

Many conservative Americans want to reconnect with, and transmit to the next generation, a genuine American way of life.

Blaze News investigates: Illegal immigration impacts farmers and ranchers along the border — crop contamination, property damage



The increase in illegal crossings has had a profound impact in recent years on American farmers and ranchers who own land near the southern border.

Illegal immigrants crossing into the United States have trespassed through agricultural land, often contaminating crops or causing property damage. Law enforcement has reported incidents of human smugglers performing "bailouts," a term used to describe when traffickers transporting illegal aliens attempt to make a high-speed car escape to evade capture. In these situations, the smugglers intentionally crash their vehicles, and the unlawful occupants flee on foot in different directions.

Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow in the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation, told Blaze News, "The damage to federal and private land, agriculture, and wildlife caused by mass illegal border crossings by foot is one of the many types of preventable collateral damage caused by the Biden administration's opening of U.S. borders and neglect of law enforcement. Those who claim to care about the natural landscape seem to keep quiet on this issue."

Hankinson provided testimony before the House Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Federal Lands, in October, where he addressed the environmental costs caused by illegal aliens unlawfully traveling through Yuma, Arizona.

"Because of strict food safety regulations, each human trace requires farmers to destroy all the crops in a given radius from any perceived human contamination, from mere footprints to feces and menstrual pads, causing millions of dollars in uninsured losses," he told lawmakers. "The human waste and trash produced by the endless foot traffic not only pollutes crops but also harms wildlife, taints water, and damages delicate desert environments."

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality previously estimated that each person crossing the border leaves behind roughly six to eight pounds of trash.

'None of these crops are insurable.'

Gary Joiner, Texas Farm Bureau spokesperson, told Blaze News that the increase in illegal crossings has adversely affected the state's local and regional agricultural communities.

"Those impacts, particularly on an individual basis, can be devastating financially after a complete loss of the property's usability," Joiner explained. "Fences are cut, damaged, or destroyed by people and/or vehicles. Livestock escape from damaged or destroyed fences and gates onto roadways and highways. Water sources on private property are damaged or destroyed. Clothes and trash are littered on property. Many ranchers have discovered deceased illegal migrants on their property."

Larry Reagan, president of the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau, told Blaze News, "Our farmers and ranchers in our border communities and beyond need Congress to work together to develop solutions to the challenges they face. Together, we must ensure that foreign labor programs are usable and accessible for farmers and ranchers who rely heavily on foreign labor to fill the domestic worker shortage in food production while ensuring that our border communities are not left to deal with the increased pressures of immigration alone."

Yuma County battles illegal immigration

Yuma County, Arizona, is known as the nation's "winter salad bowl." From November through April, it produces more than 91% of North America's leafy greens, an industry worth over $4 billion. According to Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines (R), the county began noticing a "significant increase" in unlawful crossings around January 2022.

The increase in illegal immigration under President Joe Biden has ignited concerns among the agricultural community, particularly regarding crop preservation.

Lines told Blaze News that the Biden administration had agreed to fill the gaps left in the border wall near crop production. The federal government purchased "new material, despite the fact that all of the material purchased under [former President Donald] Trump was sitting adjacent to where these walls needed to be completed," he stated.

"They had the Corps of Engineers design a new type of wall that could easily be removed, and they plugged those gaps," Lines explained.

Before the Biden administration closed the gaps in the border wall near the farmland in Yuma County, farmers were forced to take other preventive measures to protect their crops from illegal aliens, including "inspect[ing] their fields on a daily basis and look for unauthorized entry," according to Lines.

"If they found any type of unauthorized entry into their fields, they then had to conduct tests. But for the most part, they would immediately rope it off, or destroy the crop, or make a decision to allow the entire field to go to seed," he continued. "The problem with this narrative is that none of these crops are insurable."

Lines explained that farmers could not get tractors through the fields if they constructed walls or fences around their own land.

"Their easements and their ownership of those properties would have to be extended another 20 or 30 feet in order to put a barricade. So what they did do is hired additional people to observe the crops and basically stay there 24/7 in and around those growing areas," Lines told Blaze News. "It was expensive."

Last year, the county stationed roughly a dozen portable toilets near agricultural land along the border after farmers discovered human waste in their fields, which presented serious food safety concerns.

Some of the portable toilets were placed on the U.S. side of the border near Los Algodones, Mexico, he said.

"That's where we had everybody coming across. That's where we placed toilets. Six miles down the road, we still have an open border. And that is where the Trump wall ends and the reservation begins. That's where we placed the additional portalets to keep people out of those fields, and they have served their purpose," Lines told Blaze News.

He added that Border Patrol agents are in the area to pick up illegal aliens as they come across the southern border.

"It's kind of intriguing because they [the illegal immigrants] all know what to do. They all just walk across and get lined up. So they have not ventured out into any of the fields," Lines noted.

Regarding illegal aliens entering farmland and contaminating crops, Lines told Blaze News that the county has been able to "solve the majority of the issues around that." However, he noted that the open border wall on the nearby Native American reservation land is still an ongoing problem.

'Our youngest victim, a 10-year-old male.'

According to reports, the Federal Emergency Management Agency previously stated that it would reimburse Yuma County for the expense of placing and maintaining the portable toilets.

"The feds haven't reimbursed us for anything," Lines told Blaze News.

FEMA did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

Since Biden took office, Lines estimated that Yuma County's crop damage loss was roughly $2.5-$3 million.

Lines told Blaze News, "The farmers have had to implement their own rules and regulations in order to preserve and protect that commodity. And they've done an amazing job stepping up and making sure their food safety procedures are robust and complete. Being out there almost on a daily basis, I am very much appreciative of their efforts to keep our food supply and our food chain safe and secure. We have not had any incidents arising out of the illegals coming across because of the steps that they've taken to make sure that none of that product reaches the supply chain. They simply destroy it."

He noted that Biden's border executive order, which the administration claimed would crack down on illegal crossings, coincided with the increase in summer temperatures. The White House has boasted that within the first three weeks of the executive action's implementation, southern border encounters dropped more than 40%.

"We always see a little bit of a downturn when summer starts," Lines remarked. "However, because of the rise of the crossing in the San Diego and Jacumba [Hot Springs] area, San Diego and Tucson actually transport people from those two areas to Yuma to be processed because of the massive processing center that Homeland Security set up in Yuma."

Lines detailed other issues impacting the Yuma County community as a result of the increase in unlawful crossings.

He noted that the county is only being reimbursed roughly 10 cents on the dollar for incarcerated illegal aliens who have committed state crimes.

"As a county supervisor, that's frustrating for me that we're still shouldering that burden," Lines stated.

Additionally, he outlined the effect the open-border crisis has had on the county's food bank and women and children's center.

Due to its seasonal agricultural industry, Yuma County has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. Approximately 20%-25% of residents utilize the county's food bank.

"I was the chairman for the past three years of the food bank," Lines said. "The [nongovernmental organizations] that we distribute to, they saw an increased demand in need. And so we were taking product that was designed and designated for Yuma residents and distributing that to anybody that showed up to the NGOs looking for assistance."

"Our women's and children's center was impacted," he continued. "Our youngest victim, a 10-year-old male who had been raped somewhere on his journey to the United States. And we have jurisdictional issues. Of course, they attended to him, and they were able to collect the DNA, but you have a jurisdictional issue. What do you do with it? Where do you send it?"

Gaps in the border wall

Jim Chilton, a fifth-generation rancher, operates a 50,000-acre ranch in Arizona with five and a half miles of land along the southern border.

Chilton told Blaze News that former President Trump's border wall replaced five miles of what used to be a four-strand barbed-wire fence along his property. The last half-mile of the wall was halted when Biden took office and left incomplete.

"The traffic coming through is twofold, very distinct," Chilton explained, adding that his ranch has motion-activate cameras for every 10,000 acres of land.

"So the probability of catching an image of people coming through is very low. However, since Biden took office, I've gotten 3,500 images of people dressed totally in camouflage and wearing carpet shoes and similar backpacks coming through my ranch going north," he said.

'We had an agent shot five times on our ranch.'

Carpet shoes are typically sneakers with flooring material and fabric fixed to the bottom to cover the tread and reduce the appearance of footprints.

Chilton said some of the individuals crossing unlawfully into the U.S. and onto his ranch are those who know they do not qualify for asylum and, therefore, do not want to be processed by law enforcement officers at the border.

"Some of them — I'm told by the Border Patrol — are packing drugs. They estimate the others are people trying to get back into the United States after being deported. People who are criminals from around the world," Chilton told Blaze News. "These are really bad guys, and they're mostly all gotaways."

"The other type of people coming around the end of the wall are dressed in street clothes from all over the world. They come around the end of the wall, and they essentially say, 'Here we are, Border Patrol. Please take us to Tucson, process us, and release us into the United States,'" he continued. "They claim asylum, but they're mostly all economic-oriented asylum-seekers."

Chilton stated that he has not seen a Border Patrol agent on his ranch in months.

"Because of the policy of the president, they are exhausted processing people. I talked to one Border Patrol agent that told me he signed up to secure the border. Now all he is is a glorified taxi driver," he remarked.

Chilton told Blaze News that there have been numerous "serious incidents" on his ranch due to the increase in illegal crossings.

"We had an agent shot five times on our ranch, and he just barely survived. We have seen groups with what appears to be the leader with an AK-47 as they go through the country. One of the outrageous things is the cartel has scouts on our mountains, and they're really in control of everything. Their duty is to know where the Border Patrol is at all times and to give directions on how the drug cartel people come through the ranch. They have really expensive phones — satellite. Of course, encryption, and it has a radio function. In today's dollars they're probably around $3,000 phones," Chilton stated.

He noted that it seems as though the scouts are guiding the illegal immigrants through more remote areas of the ranch and avoiding the houses and barns.

"President Biden made a horrible mistake by stopping the construction of the border wall. We need a wall," Chilton told Blaze News. "We need the Border Patrol at the wall, and we need to apprehend anybody trying to climb over, or cut, or dig under the wall. We need to secure the border at the border. No one in this world has the right to come into our country except legally."

Texas moves to protect landowners

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) announced the online application process for the state's new Landowner Compensation Program in May. The program aims to protect the state's agricultural community from the consequences of illegal immigration.

The initiative provides monetary compensation for damages to farm and ranch land caused by illegal aliens. Landowners can be reimbursed up to $75,000 for repair costs.

The Texas Farm Bureau backed Senate Bill 1133 to create the program, which appropriated $18 million in state money for the 2024 and 2025 fund.

Joiner, a TFB spokesperson, told Blaze News, "Landowners of agricultural property along the Texas-Mexico border facing land and property damage from border-related crimes now have a compensation program available to them — the Landowner Compensation Program."

"Landowners have 90 days after an incident to file a claim and provide a written police report that documents the damage caused by migrants, smugglers, or drug traffickers. Landowners are also encouraged to maintain all documentation of proof that property damage was sustained and the proof and cost of repairs, if made," Joiner continued.

He added, "Property damage caused by migrants illegally crossing the border through private property has been an ongoing problem for decades, but the traffic and damage has only increased in recent years. This program allows farmers and ranchers in border and rural counties to receive relief from the damages caused by trafficking, smuggling, and bailouts that occur on their personal property."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Chinese entities own farmland next to 19 US military bases across the country: Report



Chinese entities own farmland near 19 United States military bases across the nation, according to a recent report from the New York Post.

The news outlet released a map showing the locations of the China-owned land in the U.S. and their proximity to some of the nation's most strategically important bases. The Post noted that some of the sites include Fort Liberty in Fayetteville, North Carolina; Fort Cavazos in Killeen, Texas; Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California; and MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.

'The Chinese are, or will, use this farmland to learn more about US military capabilities, movements, and technology.'

Robert S. Spalding III, a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general, told the Post that the lands' "proximity to strategic locations" is "concerning."

He warned that the Chinese Communist Party could use the farmland to conduct intelligence collection. Spalding noted that the property owners could also be "influential in local politics."

"It is alarming we do not have laws on the books that would prevent the Chinese from buying property in the US," he told the Post.

Sources told the news outlet that the properties could be used to create reconnaissance sights or install tracking and other surveillance technology.

Morgan Lerette, a former contractor for Blackwater, told the Post, "The Chinese are, or will, use this farmland to learn more about US military capabilities, movements, and technology."

"This will allow them to better understand how to transition their military from a defensive strategy to an expeditionary one," Lerette added.

"It would allow the Chinese to research what is moving and how to combat it. It's easy to identify mobilization if you know what to look for," he continued. "Listening to GIs at a bar talking … Local storage units being rented out near a base is an indicator troops are leaving… A train carrying tanks, Strykers [armored fighting vehicles], and [Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles], followed by an increased number of cargo planes landing and leaving a joint base like Lewis-McChord in Washington state, would indicate when US forces are moving."

Chen Tianqiao, a billionaire and CCP member, according to the Post, is the second-largest foreign owner of farmland in the country.

Jonathan D.T. Ward, senior fellow with the Hudson Institute and the founder of Atlas Organization, told Fox Business that the U.S. needs to "force a divestiture of assets in the U.S. by communist party members or affiliates and they shouldn't earn any money on it."

In March, Kansas lawmakers passed a bill prohibiting foreign adversary-tied entities, which includes China, from purchasing land near its military installations.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Farmland WARS: The Global TAKEOVER of America’s Land | Glenn TV | Ep 244
play icon

Farmland WARS: The Global TAKEOVER of America’s Land | Glenn TV | Ep 244