Posted on 02/09/2003 9:55:28 AM PST by Jean S
PALOMINAS, Ariz. (AP) - A red, white and blue baseball cap wedged on his head and a .45 under his jacket, Bill Bouton peers through binoculars at the vast, mesquite-studded land cut by a barbed-wire fence marking the U.S.-Mexico border.
The 47-year-old father of two says his binoculars are to spot "illegals." The gun is to protect himself in case he runs into trouble. The cap is to let everyone know that Americans like him are no longer going to watch people march into the United States as they please.
Bouton belongs to Civil Homeland Defense - one of several citizen groups that have taken up unofficial patrolling along the border in recent months.
Once only a few bold ranchers stopped migrants crossing their land, but now retirees and business owners are slipping on hiking boots, donning images of U.S. flags and bald eagles and spending weekends guarding the border in the name of national security.
While Bouton scans with his binoculars, he recounts an encounter with two Mexicans walking nearby on a recent Sunday:
"Alto, policia!" Bouton yelled in halting Spanish.
He pointed to his colorful cap emblazoned with stars and stripes.
"Yeah, policia. No enter. Boom, boom, right here," Bouton added, aiming his fingers at the ground as if they were a gun.
The men laughed. They were still in Mexico.
With the war on terrorism slowing a U.S.-Mexico effort to produce an accord on migration, the issue is being played out in this cantankerous land of cactus, cowboys, retirees and transplanted city dwellers where Arizona law allows people to carry firearms in public.
Anger has been mounting over the flood of migrants crossing into the Arizona desert since 2000, after U.S. authorities cracked down along more populated border areas in Texas and California.
That anger has been stirred by fear brought by the Sept. 11 attacks that America is under siege by terrorists, even though there are no reports of terrorists ever crossing the Mexican border and despite a record drop in Border Patrol arrests that indicates fewer migrants are crossing.
"We're not down here just for Mexicans," said Bouton, a retired Marine. "We're down here for terrorists. The government is not going to get involved until something like 9-11 happens again, and then we're going to find out the bomb went through here."
Civilian patrol groups - Civil Homeland Defense, Ranch Rescue and American Border Patrol (not to be confused with the government's U.S. Border Patrol) - all want U.S. troops sent to the border. They add that if the government won't protect the border, they will.
Although none of the groups has been linked to any violence, authorities in Mexico are worried about the patrols.
Mexican lawmakers traveled to Tucson a few weeks ago to appeal to Arizona officials to stop what they consider vigilante groups hunting Mexicans.
Legislator Efren Leyva called the groups a time bomb that could shatter U.S.-Mexico relations. He tied them to 40 incidents in which 92 people were detained, saying each "had the risk of violence."
"We are very worried about these people who want to take justice into their own hands," Leyva said. "A Mexican migrant could get seriously hurt."
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is pressuring the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the patrols.
All the groups deny detaining anyone, saying their presence is enough of a deterrence.
Frank Amarillas, spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson sector, declined to comment in detail. "As long as they don't impede our duties in the field, we really don't deal with them," he said.
Civil Homeland Defense was organized in the frontier town of Tombstone, where actors stage gunfights daily for tourists. A local bar features the "Tombstone Vigilantes Hall of Fame" and displays photos of cowboys from the 1800s to today.
Chris Simcox, who bought the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper a year ago, ran a front-page editorial in October headlined: "Enough is Enough! A Public Call to Arms! Citizens Border Patrol Militia Now Forming!"
Simcox, who carries a .45-caliber pistol on his hip, has since softened his tone and now calls his organization a watchdog group that will aid the U.S. Border Patrol by reporting suspicious activity.
He and a few volunteers, including his girlfriend, started patrolling the border in January.
It's unclear how many people support the organizations. Simcox claims to have hundreds of backers, but on a recent day only about eight volunteered to patrol. Among them were retired engineers, a hotel owner and a stay-at-home dad.
Jack Foote, the national spokesman for Ranch Rescue, claims 300 supporters for his organization, which focuses on property rights rather than immigration reform and is the most heavily armed.
The group's Web site features photos of 13 camouflaged volunteers wielding hunting rifles and military-style weapons squatting next to burlap sacks packed with 279 pounds of marijuana. Foote said smugglers dropped the bags and ran after they saw them on a ranch in October.
Asked if his volunteers point guns at migrants, Foote said: "We're as nice and civil as the trespasser wants to make it. In every case so far, they've taken one look at our volunteers and gone running and screaming off the property like school girls."
Glenn Spencer, a retired California businessman who started the American Border Patrol, moved to the Arizona border this summer to be "on the front lines." He says he no longer carries a weapon on patrols because of negative publicity.
Spencer says his group has grown in the past six months from 40 to 80 people, and he has collected more than $40,000 in donations since June. He bought two-way radios and ground sensors, which he gives to landowners. In January, Spencer started transmitting live images of border crossers on the Internet.
Migrants are scared. They already risk dying from dehydration and heat exhaustion trying to cross the border in this harsh landscape. And violence against migrants has escalated in Arizona since Sept. 11, says the Tucson-based Border Action Network, a nonprofit human rights group.
In October, two men shot into a group of 12 migrants near Red Rock, killing two. Investigators say the gunfight was between migrant smugglers competing for the lucrative business of getting people across the border. No arrests have been made.
At Mexico's most popular illegal jumping-off point - a desolate stretch abutting the Tohono O'odham Indian reservation - Adolfo Vega, 40, pulled on a backpack with a bottle of water and some tins of tuna for his night's trek.
The corn farmer from central Mexico was returning to his $6-an-hour job on a farm outside San Francisco after spending Christmas with his two children, 11 and 15. The night before at the same spot, heavily armed, masked bandits robbed 14 migrants, according to Mexico's migrant police, Grupo Beta.
"You're always scared because you hear so many things, from armed ranchers to bad smugglers," Vega said. "We know we're risking our lives, but it's worth it. We're motivated by our hunger."
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On the Net:
Civil Homeland Defense: http://www.civilhomelanddefense.us
Ranch Rescue: http://www.ranchrescue.com
American Patrol: http://www.americanpatrol.com
Border Action Network: http://www.borderaction.org
AP-ES-02-09-03 1215EST
This is why, despite the fact that he "walks like a conservative" and "talks like a conservative", that George W. Bush is no more my man than was Bill Clinton.
I'm afraid the results would not be any better than any of their previous revolutions. What they need is evolution. They still have a 16th century mercantilist outlook with a serving of early 20th century Marxism heaped on.
Say, here's an idea. Why not turn that motivation towards REFORMING YOUR OWN GOVERNMENT? Ever think of that? Instead of invading our country? Just a thought.
Not if they enter at the official border crossing location!!!!!!
I know of a certian country bordering Mexico to the north that could easily fit that description too. Maybe not at as large of a scale, but close.
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