Posted on 06/11/2005 11:00:02 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
Anna Macias Aguayo | The Associated Press
June 11, 2005
ALBUQUERQUE -- Two feuding leaders of organizations that monitor illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexican border are fielding citizen patrols that plan to keep an eye on New Mexico's southern border, one of them beginning this weekend.
The groups' leaders accused each other during interviews Friday of being aggressive and extreme in their desire to stop illegal immigration.
Clifford Alford, leader of a group called the New Mexico Minutemen, claims that members of the Minuteman Project -- a group that drew international attention in April when volunteers showed up in Arizona to patrol the border -- like to run around in paramilitary uniforms and carry assault weapons.
"They really don't give a rip about anyone's civil rights," he said. "We want our effort to be more humanitarian."
Mike Gaddy, who is leading the Minuteman Project in New Mexico, said Alford wasn't part of the group's monitoring project in Arizona.
"Alford hasn't been a Minuteman for a minute," Gaddy said. "He is part of a renegade organization that has absolutely nothing to do with the Minutemen whatsoever."
Alford was appointed to his new post last week by James Chase, a California man and a member of the Minuteman Project who was ousted from the group because leaders accused him of behaving like Rambo.
Chase, on the other hand, said he's a Minuteman in good standing who helped the group plan patrol tactics in Arizona. He said the schism started because he and a leader in Arizona disagreed on the firing of certain volunteers and the group's use of fundraising to pay salaries.
"I don't get paid for what I do," Chase said. "I'm in it for the cause."
The Minuteman Project, Gaddy's group, announced plans this week to recruit hundreds of volunteers from across the country to be stationed along the New Mexico border in October. "This is about protecting our national security," Gaddy said. "How can we be fighting a war half a planet away when we leave our southern border unprotected? We're letting people just walk across."
Meanwhile, the New Mexico Minutemen claim their 40 volunteers will be starting an ongoing patrol on the border this weekend. Their members will distinguish themselves by offering food, water and medical aid to illegal immigrants but at the same time report them to the U.S. Border Patrol, Alford said.
"If someone breaks down on the border, we can help them," he said. "We're not wearing uniforms, and we don't carry assault weapons."
Alford, who lives in Organ, N.M., said he met Thursday with state police and border-patrol officials to tell them his group wants to help secure the border while showing compassion.
Gaddy said he's scheduled to meet Monday with ranchers and farmers to identify "trouble spots" along the border.
"One actually has to be on the border to realize what it's like," said Gaddy, who spent April volunteering with the Minutemen in Arizona. "The property owners on the border feel a physical threat. In Arizona, I saw broken fences, huge piles of clothing, trash and litter left on people's property. I met people who would not go to the mailbox without a gun."
The announcement of Minutemen in New Mexico has created unease among some Southern New Mexico residents who are concerned their presence could result in more danger along the border.
Critics, including U.S. Border Patrol officials, have said the Minutemen are little more than a nuisance and distraction that attracted attention from the media and from civil-rights groups watching for possible rights violations.
"The Minutemen should not feel that they need to come to New Mexico. We've got the Border Patrol. We've got New Mexico law enforcement," Gov. Bill Richardson said Friday. "We can enforce our laws." Monitoring the international border, the governor said, is not a job for citizens.
Leaders of both groups insist their volunteers are instructed not to take aggressive action against immigrants or smugglers. They are simply supposed to observe and call authorities when they spot a lawbreaker.
But if members of the groups spot each other, can they get along?
"We can coexist if they stop acting like they own everything," Alford said. "We can get along if they don't run around the border acting like a bunch of idiots waving guns all over the place."
But New Mexico ACLU leaders said Alford soon may be dropped as a member of the Minutemen. Peter Simonson, the ACLU's state executive director, said he was surprised to learn that Alford was part of the Minutemen and was encouraging ACLU members to join the effort as undercover watchdogs.
"We denounce both Minutemen efforts, and we denounce Clifford Alford," Simonson said. "The ACLU believes that both of the Minutemen projects are absolutely antithetical to the principles of civil liberties."
(Lies and disinformation.)
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Clifford Alford, leader of a group called the New Mexico Minutemen, claims that members of the Minuteman Project -- a group that drew international attention in April when volunteers showed up in Arizona to patrol the border -- like to run around in paramilitary uniforms and carry assault weapons.
"They really don't give a rip about anyone's civil rights," he said. "We want our effort to be more humanitarian."
Mike Gaddy, who is leading the Minuteman Project in New Mexico, said Alford wasn't part of the group's monitoring project in Arizona.
I'm still waiting for the Patrols by people who can't take the hardships of Border Watch, to start. Namely, going from business to business in their community, finding out WHO is hiring these illegals, and making the names public.
They ought to start at the NC border.
EDUCTATE - EDUCTATE - EDUCTATE -
I hope they start talking up my pet peeve. Employers. It makes me so mad to see houses being built and then see what are obviously day laborers(illegals?) doing jobs that should go to our young men with fams.
Whenever someone says "It's not about the money", you can safely bet that it's about the money.
What an insult to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This idiot doesn't even know that the real enemy is state supported Muslim fundamentalist terrorists, not Hispanic laborers.
Our troops "half a planet away" from their families have killed thousands of Muslim terrorists, ended state support of international terrorism by numerous nations, ended the effectiveness of the organization that brought down the twin towers, and prevented any more attacks upon our soil since 9/11.
On the other hand, not one single Muslim terrorist has been caught trying to jump the southern border. Of 200 criminal cases related to terrorist activities not a single one involves a border jumper.
If this man is an example of what the anti-illegals call a "Patriot", they have a strange definition of patriotism.
Not even close. But reactions like yours are par for the course for those who like to put on an air of offendedness as a way of avoiding the argument.
But I'm sure it's "not about the money".
Avoid which argument? Buchanan's argument that our troops should not have been sent to Afghanistan and Iraq?
First thing, Governor, the task of policing the borders is a federal, not a state mandate, as I understand it. The Feds are shirking, hence citizens are taking over. Thank you for your concern, but it's not your job.
Oh. You again. The small-minded pro-illegal activist who thinks the US has but one enemy.
It's not "either" terrorists "or" illegal invaders. It is "both" terrorists "and" illegal invaders. And others.
You're not changing any minds, bayourod, with your deceptive and shallow arguments.
Clifford Alford, leader of a group called the New Mexico Minutemen, claims that members of the Minuteman Project -- a group that drew international attention in April when volunteers showed up in Arizona to patrol the border -- like to run around in paramilitary uniforms and carry assault weapons.
Bill Richardson, former Clinton Pimp-Jobber, NKorea-Confidant, China-NukeEnabler, claims US birth--but raised in Mexico. Banned from Federal Government service by US Senator Robert Byrd (D)WV. circa 1999.
Most recent action re Illegal Immigration: Issued unpublicized Executive Order instructing New Mexico Police to ignore illegal status. If Gov Richardson can smuggle in another 30-50 million Illegal Mexicans by 2008, he could become Vice-President/President ????????? Scary stuff.
EDUCTATE-EDUCTATE-EDUCTATE...........Perhaps they could start with you.
You wouldn't be trying to avoid the argument by bringing him up, would you? That'd just totally shatter my image of you.
You'll be in fine company with Ted Kennedy, Al Sharpton, Barney Frank, and Sheila Jackson Lee.
Until then, these folks are perfectly within their rights to watch the borders and call the BP when they see someone breaking our laws.
L
I'd bet he works for the aclu.
They can't stand it! Finally, a job the American people want to do!
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