Posted on 04/01/2007 12:23:10 PM PDT by SandRat
THREE POINTS — Armed with lawn chairs, binoculars and, in some cases, sidearms, dozens of volunteers from the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps gathered Saturday at a private ranch in the Altar Valley to kick off a monthlong border watch campaign in Arizona.
The volunteers plan to set up 24-hour observation posts in the desert north of Sasabe to spot illegal immigration and drug smuggling and report it to the U.S. Border Patrol. “It’s our civic duty,” Minuteman Civil Defense Corps president Chris Simcox told the approximately 60 Minutemen gathered at Saturday’s rally. “And we are making a difference.”
Simcox said that since he formed the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps in Cochise County in 2002 under the name Civil Homeland Defense, the group has helped the Border Patrol to apprehend 13,631 illegal border-crossers nationwide.
He said the group would continue its efforts until officials in Washington prove they can secure the nation’s borders on their own.
“We are showing the federal government that we are still here because the problem still remains,” Simcox said. “They have not done their job.”
Following a high-profile campaign in Cochise County in April 2005, Minuteman leaders predicted that as many as 10,000 volunteers would pour into the Altar Valley for a similar outing in April 2006. Immigrant rights groups that monitor the Minutemen, however, estimated the actual number of participants in 2006 was, at most, in the hundreds.
This year, Minuteman Civil Defense Corps organizers said they hoped to attract up to 800 volunteers to Arizona.
Simcox said Saturday that the number of Minutemen in the field does not adequately represent the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps’ level of influence or activity. Volunteers continue working in the political arena to push stricter immigration enforcement at the local and national levels, he said.
“For those who can’t make it to the border, trust me, they’re busy in other areas,” Simcox said, adding it was his goal to establish at least one chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps in every U.S. Congressional district.
Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Don Goldwater, who followed Simcox to the podium, praised Minuteman volunteers in Arizona for promoting two state ballot initiatives that, if approved in 2008, would punish employers who knowingly hire illegal workers and allow local police to arrest illegal immigrants for trespassing.
Goldwater also criticized leaders such as President George W. Bush who favor immigration reform that would provide a path to citizenship for those already in the country illegally.
“George Washington did not cross the Delaware so that George Bush could give up the country,” Goldwater said.
Richard Beck, 72, and his wife Barbara, 64, came from Phoenix to participate in perhaps two or three weeks of border-watching with the Minutemen. The Becks say they support immigration to the U.S. as long as it is done legally.
“(Illegal immigrants) are breaking the law, plain and simple, and the politicians have their heads in the sand about it,” Richard Beck said.
Linda Bedore, 76, is participating in her first Minuteman campaign. She said the changes she has seen in her hometown of Phoenix prompted her to take action.
“Parts of the community are turning into Mexico,” she said. “The people who are coming don’t want to be Americans. They are just using us.”
Bedore, who plans to participate in a week of border vigilance before returning home, brought her poodle, Jimmy, to keep her company in the desert. She also brought a pistol for self-defense.
“Hopefully, I won’t have to use it,” she said. “But if worse comes to worse, I will.”
Minuteman volunteers in the border states of Texas, California, New Mexico and Washington also kicked off month-long campaigns on Saturday. Minuteman Civil Defense Corps chapters in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire will be holding events “”off and on” throughout the month, Simcox said.
Simcox founded Civil Homeland Defense while living in Tombstone and publishing the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper. In late 2004 he joined forces with Jim Gilchrist’s California-based Minuteman Project, and Civil Homeland Defense became the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.
The union was short-lived, however, as Simcox and Gilchrist feuded and split in December 2005.
Gilchrist was fired from the Minuteman Project in February after the group’s board of directors accused him of mismanagement and fraud.
HERALD/REVIEW reporter Jonathan Clark can be reached at 515-4693 or by e-mail at jonathan.clark@bisbeereview.net.
BORDER WATCH!
Gotta make sure that, "these nuts have guns!!!" gets into the first paragraph ...
The more formidable the better. Word has it that the fear of these "cowboys" is reducing numbers of illegal entrants.
Ping!
We were on the border Friday night, not much happening where we were. There was another operation, a few miles from the border on Saturday, I haven't heard if anything happened there.
"“George Washington did not cross the Delaware so that George Bush could give up the country,” Goldwater said"
Yeah, no kidding, Mr. Goldwater!
B U M P
Bttt!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.