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Michael Vickers, a veterinarian and rancher in Falfurrias, Texas, says he won’t let outside militia onto his property and he doesn’t think such groups will be trusted by most area landowners. Gun-carrying civilian groups and border vigilantes have heard a call to arms in President Trump’s warnings about threats to American security posed by caravans of Central American migrants moving through Mexico. They’re packing coolers and tents, oiling rifles and tuning up aerial drones, with plans to form caravans of their own and trail American troops to the border. “We’ll observe and report, and offer aid in any way...

Locals with a vested interest in the immigration issue spoke ill of Perry's proposal. "I think it's a joke," said Kim Fromme, a Goliad resident and member of Texas Minutemen, a civilian border watch organization. "There's going to be too many false calls, false alarms. You're going to run the border patrol ragged, and they're ragged enough already." Similar sentiments were expressed by Benny Martinez, a Goliad resident and a member of the League of United Latin American Citizens for more than 50 years. "You don't know by looking at them sometime if they are illegal or not. You can't...

Ranchers in the region convened at the U.S. Border Patrol station for an informative meeting Friday. The ranch liaison program has been a cooperative effort between the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol and ranchers since the organization formed and is a vital part in protecting the southern border. The Del Rio sector covers approximately 59,500 square miles of land in 41 counties, much of which is privately owned ranch land. Friday’s meeting was informal and included a tour of the station on U.S. Highway 90 east of Del Rio, a brief overview of the agency’s day-to-day operations, and...

Contra-Minuteman group in opposition is planning to monitor the monitors About 700 Minuteman volunteers patrolling South Texas this April will be one of the more visible results of what Michael Vickers hopes to accomplish as Texas state director of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. Vickers, a veterinarian and ranch owner in Falfurrias, was appointed state director Thursday and said he'll appoint regional directors to organize the minuteman corps around Texas. His goal is to have a rotating force of volunteers monitoring 600,000 acres across South Texas for undocumented immigrants for a week or more at a time. Between 40 and...

Motivated by an important issue — but bloated by self-importance — the Minutemen patrolled the border to stem the tide of illegal immigration. President Bush called them "a vigilante group," a potentially dangerous intrusion into the realm of law enforcement officials. That was almost a year ago, and his words ring truer than ever. Already unnecessary, the Minutemen have been rendered even more superfluous, thanks to a state program dubbed Operation Linebacker, which has allocated nearly $10 million for border security since December. With much of the money going to bolster sheriff's departments from Brownsville to El Paso, the program...

The presence along the U.S. border of uninvited volunteer monitors inspires misgivings - and underlines a crisis. The Minuteman Project - the outfit that has taken it upon itself to organize impromptu border monitoring operations - has, predictably, become a flashpoint for controversy. Its critics, whose numbers include civil libertarians and Hispanic activists, among other interested parties, insist the Minuteman activists have no business shouldering their way into an extremely sensitive mission. The Minuteman volunteers reply that they do not interfere with aliens or make citizens' arrests. (More than mildly worrisome, however, is the fact that some - not all...

El Cenizo City Council members anxiously await a grant that, if approved, could mean the construction of a 10-acre park with amenities ranging from baseball fields to a bird-watching area. Mayor Raul Reyes said last week that the Texas Community Development Program will announce in January the five cities that will receive a park grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. In total, 25 cities have applied for the $500,000 grant, Reyes said, and only five will receive the funds. "Our disadvantage is the other cities' experience," he said, adding that other cities competing for the grant include the...

SAN JUAN — Nearing the end of a two-day hunger strike to protest the Minuteman Civil Defense Corp’s patrols along the Rio Grande, Laura Sutherland said, strangely, she didn’t feel hungry. "I eat a lot, more than that big guy over there probably, but when you think of what you’re doing it for you don’t really feel hungry," she said. "I’ve always been open minded, but I’m against hatred, so it’s hard for me to understand what (the Minutemen are) doing out there … they’re trying to stop families from coming here to make better lives for themselves." Sutherland, a...

FALFURRIAS- It's been a week since the Minutemen officially wrapped up a 30 day operation in South Texas. But don't think for a second they're gone from the Valley. Action 4 News reporter Ray Pedraza uncovered the group plans to stay until they get what they want from the federal government. In the past several weeks, Action 4 News spent a considerable amount of time with the Minutemen Coalition. These volunteers come from all walks of life but share one common goal, to protect our border. Since September 11th, they say our government just hasn't done enough. One of those...

Today McGauley announced that the Border Watch will be extended until April 2006. Roving patrols will begin in November and continue until April. This will help the local residents and aid local law enforcement. So far, the early data shows that the TxMinutemen have cut the border crossings by more than half in their patrol area.

Citizen patrols try to shed vigilante image •Hundreds of volunteers from across the country wrapped up a monthlong patrol along the U.S.-Mexico border this week, hoping to show that adding agents there would solve the problem of illegal immigration. In the last six months, about 40 citizen border watch groups have sprung up in more than a dozen states, watchdog groups say. The Texas Minutemen, based in the Dallas-Arlington area, was among those formed after an April vigil on the Arizona border drew international attention. •Border states have requested federal funds to fight illegal immigration. A bill on Capitol Hill...

Operation Nueces Strip is wrapping up along the Texas-Mexico border. It was a month-long drill by The Minutemen Group to patrol for illegal immigrants and report them to the feds. Hundreds of volunteers came from all over the country to take part. Only on KXAN NBC Austin, Rich Parsons takes you along on a mission. The old cowboy songs Dave Summers sings in camp on a ranch just outside Falfurrias are a midday break from his midnight missions searching for illegal aliens pouring into south Texas by the thousands. "We're responding to the government's call for citizens to be vigilant,"...

EL PASO, Texas -- Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff said Tuesday following an evening tour of the Mexico-U.S. border that solutions to illegal immigration problems won't come easily. "It's not going to be solved in a day, or a week, or a month," Chertoff said at an El Paso park overlooking the city and neighboring Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. "It's been building for a long time." Following his first nighttime tour of the border in El Paso, the Homeland Security secretary said a host of solutions, including temporary work programs, should and will be looked at in trying to solve a...

Minutemen quietly set up in Valley with help of landowners PHARR — Hundreds of Minutemen volunteers have kept a watchful eye along parts of the Rio Grande Valley and say they won’t give up until it is secure. Earlier this month in Falfurrias, members of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps kicked off the Secure Our Borders Campaign, which continues through the end of the month. While patrols in Falfurrias drew heavy media coverage, the group quietly began reconnaissance missions in the Valley in August and beefed up patrols Labor Day weekend. "The only people that knew were the landowners and...

Group says it has reported 300-800 illegal immigrants The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps will wrap up its first month of watching the Texas border this week, and the group says the month was a success and it has no plans to quit now. "We are determined that we are not going to leave until (the government) relieves us of our duties," said Al Garza, the director of operations for the Minuteman group in Texas. "It will be with limited personnel, but we know where the hotspots are, and we're going to deploy there." Garza said there were about 600 volunteers...

The Minutemen are on the move. They've been on the ground, in the air and along the river patrolling our border, even here in the Valley. On Thursday, Action 4 News reporter Ray Pedraza was granted exclusive access inside their operation and joins us with more on the Minuteman movement. For the past several weeks, the Minutemen say they've played a significant role in helping U.S. Border Patrol agents catch undocumented immigrants in Brooks County. And they say part of their success comes from air patrols assisting border watchers on the ground. Grant Lannon is part of what's called the...

KINGSVILLE - For weeks, the arrival of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps in South Texas fueled fiery debate among students at Texas A&M University at Kingsville. "The issues of immigration and frontier ... justice affect everyone," said Aaron Cuevas, 22, a graduate student in political science here. "We wanted the information to come right from the source so it would go unfiltered, so students and residents could make educated opinions." Tuesday night, Cuevas and other students helped the university sponsor a forum that pitted two Minutemen against the leader of an opposition group and two attorneys for a Mexican-American civil...

From anti-immigration and civilian militia bills being introduced in Congress to some of my colleagues welcoming the Minutemen to Texas, I have watched as the all-too-familiar political posturing about undocumented immigrants has become increasingly negative. I am troubled by the hostility and hateful rhetoric aimed at undocumented immigrants, but I am even more disturbed that these anti-immigrant groups appear to be more interested in gaining a political advantage than doing anything to stem illegal immigration. I am not advocating open borders or special treatment for those who enter this country illegally. Everyone who wants to immigrate should follow the rules...

KINGSVILLE - Representatives from the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, the Contra Minutemen Coalition and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund exchanged heated words Tuesday night at a forum on border issues at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Accusations of racism, false rhetoric and illegal activity dominated the forum. Mike Chavez, chair of the Contra Minutemen Coalition, said the Minuteman group feeds on racist fears. "They are racist and vigilante groups because their own leaders have said they are," Chavez said. Some of their rhetoric, he said, includes a warning against a "brown invasion." "It's not a racist issue," said Al...

FALFURRIAS, Texas, Oct. 25, 2005 (CBS) They've been called everything from visionaries to vigilantes. Whatever you think of these self-described night watchmen of the border, the Minutemen seem to be right about one thing: "It's going to grow, and it's going to surprise a lot of people who were hoping we would go away," one Minuteman says. They're not going away, CBS News correspondent Lee Cowan reports. The Minutemen have been trying to expand beyond Arizona, to California, New Mexico and Texas. To prove their increased numbers, they launched what they call a 30-day patrol this month with thousands of...