AFTER THE ACCIDENT

Crash forced couple out of their home for 2 months

It’s been more than two months since an SUV full of illegal border crossers crashed through the home of Green Valley residents Mike and Claire Amato, nearly hitting Claire, who in the early morning hours was asleep in her bed.

The Amatos have been living in a rental home since the accident but expect to move back into their house this month.

“We’re doing OK,” said Mike Amato. “Every day, we’re thankful that no one was hurt.”

On the morning of April 8, the SUV, fleeing from the Border Patrol, sped through the Amatos’ quiet neighborhood near Calle Tres and the frontage road, missed a curve in the road and barreled through their front yard before hitting the east side of the house, then smashing through a wall.

A broken natural gas line led to the temporary evacuation of neighboring homes while fire officials worked to shut off the gas.

Five of the eight illegal immigrants in the vehicle escaped, including the driver — the only one who could have been held legally and financially responsible for the crash.

Since that day, the Amatos, retirees from Wisconsin who have lived in Green Valley 12 years, have been staying in a rental house while builders worked to reconstruct the east side of their home, which was severely damaged and deemed structurally unsound.

Construction will be completed sometime next week, they said, and the couple is looking forward to being back in their own home.

They’ve even added a few improvements, such as the “truck-stopping boulders” now dotting their front yard, Mike Amato said.

But while the couple is ready to move on, a few questions are still left unanswered.

U.S. Border Patrol officials have admitted no responsibility in the incident, saying agents were following the SUV, not pursuing it through the neighborhood, which is against Border Patrol policy.

The Amatos say reports released by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the Border Patrol fail to mention the speed at which the agents vehicles were traveling that morning.

“We find that at a little suspicious,” Mike said.

Attempts by the Green Valley News to attain copies of the Border Patrol’s reports have been unsuccessful, even though it made a Freedom of Information Act request for the documents in April and re-filed the letter last week.

“At least our insurance will be covering most of the costs, and we’re thankful for that,” he said.

Yet overall actions taken by the Border Patrol to increase their presence in Green Valley have impressed the Amatos. At a public meeting held two weeks after the crash that brought out the Border Patrol, U.S. Rep Gabrielle Giffords and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, Tucson Border Patrol Station Chief Roger San Martin said he would increase the number of agents in the area from two to six.

“We’ve seen the difference,” Claire Amato said. “We see the Border Patrol in our neighborhood almost daily.”

She says friends and neighbors have been more diligent about calling the Border Patrol when they see suspicious activity.

“At least something good has come out of this,” said Mike. “It’s certainly made the community much more aware of this problem.”

And with the Santa Cruz Valley known as the Border Patrol’s busiest area in the country for border crossers, the complex problem of illegal immigration is something the Amatos and other Southern Arizona residents are being forced to deal with more and more frequently.

Just last week, two illegal immigrants knocked on the Amatos front door and asked to use their telephone.

“I wanted to say to them, ‘Look what people like you did to my house,’” Mike said.

“They were a young couple, and they looked completely worn out.”

“I felt genuinely sorry for them. But they are legal ways to come across the border.”

jrichardson@gvnews.com | 547-9726