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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...

A new proposition to strengthen the U.S. border with Mexico is now headed to Congress. U.S. Congressman Michael McCaul was in Austin Monday to promote the new bill. It would create a type of citizen's patrol, much like the controversial Minutemen group that already patrols the border. The difference is the new citizen's patrol will fall directly under the citizen's corp, providing more screening, training, and more supervision. McCaul says that the bill is modeled after what the Coast Guard has been doing for decades.

The Minutemen civilian border patrol group is halfway through its month-long operations along the Texas-Mexico border, and the group says it is getting the attention of would be illegal immigrants in Latin America, and politicians in Washington. "We're getting the politicians on board and they're notifying Bush that this kind of thing is going to happen whether he likes it or not, and that's our goal," said Shannon McGauley of Arlington, a leader of Texas Minutemen, Inc, one of several Minutemen groups active in Texas. He spoke with 1200 WOAI news from a ranch near Ft. Hancock, east of El...

He came to the border to see for himself how bad things really are. A U.S. congressman who has introduced legislation enabling the governors of border states to set up civilian border patrols this morning met with Val Verde County Sheriff A. D’Wayne Jernigan to get a firsthand look at some of the border’s security problems. U.S. Rep. John A. Culberson in July introduced a bill that would enable governors of states on an international border to call up a “citizen militia” to keep people from illegally crossing those borders. Culberson, a Houston Republican, next is expected to travel to...

An activist group working to halt illegal immigration in South Texas claimed victory just a week into its monthlong mission, saying it has dramatically reduced migrant-traffic flow through several ranches under its watch. But challenges also are mounting for the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps of Texas, as the Border Patrol dismissed their calls of triumph and as a nascent local opposition movement seeks to undermine their presence in the area. The Minuteman group is headquartered at a private ranch off U.S. 281 in Falfurrias and is the largest of several similar organizations that have taken up after the original Minuteman...

Every night for the past week, Dave Summers has set up a lawn chair in the South Texas bush and sat for hours on end, listening. Summers is from Mesquite, but he's been in and around Falfurrias since July, setting satellite coordinates and tracking signs of movement - in particular, human movement - in preparation for this month's kickoff of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps' Texas vigil, which began Oct. 1. Now, he's using that information to determine where he's most likely to cross the path of illegal immigrants. That's where he and his fellow minutemen spend their nights waiting...

FALFURRIAS — The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps say they will continue watching borders in 12 states even if the people they help catch are just let back onto the streets. The number of undocumented immigrants the group catches is irrelevant, as is the fact that there are not enough detention beds to put them all in, said Rich Pierce, executive vice president of the U.S. Border Patrol Council, a labor union that represents about 60 percent of the agency. What is important is the volunteers are braving the heat and risking their lives to raise an issue with voters and...

FALFURRIAS — This small town, a welcome highway stop in a no-man's-land of mesquite brush between San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley, hummed along Saturday like it was any other weekend. Families enjoyed chicken fried steaks and fries at the Star of Texas restaurant. The local radio station played rancheras and gave out the weather report. Yet out of sight just 8 miles south on U.S. 281, activity whirled on a private ranch as volunteers from Texas and other states kicked off a monthlong project to combat illegal immigration. The ranch belongs to Michael Vickers, a local veterinarian who...

Volunteers aid in capture of 12 undocumented immigrants FALFURRIAS — Just hours into the official "Secure Our Borders" campaign, which kicked off Saturday and lasts through the end of October, volunteers from the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps were helping federal agents track about 30 illegal immigrants walking through the brush near the Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias. It wasn’t even light yet when the Minutemen heard over U.S. Border Patrol radio frequencies that an apparently foreign group was headed north, said group president and founder Chris Simcox. "He called out the location, and we thought, ‘Damn, that’s right where we...

Editor: It is somewhat disturbing to read the opinions and actions of the mayor, City Commission and Father Michael Seifert regarding the Minuteman campaign. It seems like the ongoing problem of our government is trying to please foreign governments and its people even when it’s not in our best interest. Mayor Eddie Treviño is quoted as saying that no civilian should take the law into his own hands and that law enforcement should be left to those who are trained. By the same fashion Mayor Treviño and the City Commission should reflect on this statement and let law enforcement deal...

There's little doubt that a civilian border-watch effort meant to deter undocumented immigrants will kick off in Texas this weekend. How many volunteers will actually show up, and which faction of the once-united front they'll join, is in question. The original Minuteman Project brought dozens of people from across the country to Arizona in April to become de facto border agents. Pledging to continue the headline-grabbing mission, organizers say thousands will take to the four U.S. southern border states starting Saturday. Just as in Arizona, opponents plan to protest and monitor their activities. The Border Patrol is also sticking to...

Sunday, Updated: 11:06 PM The Minutemen are counting down the hours until they start patrolling. RAYMONDVILLE--Al Garza says he knows some valley residents don't want the Minutemen here but he also says he's on a mission. Garza is the Texas and Arizona Minutemen president. He says his mission is simple. He and his volunteers will travel between Roma and Brownsville to watch the border. Garza says they'll be on the lookout for illegal immigrants and smuggling operations. He says his volunteers will be non-confrontational and non-violent and if they Minutemen see any illegal activity they'll simply call the authorities.

Organizer: Valley doesn’t understand magnitude of immigration problem FALFURRIAS — Mike Vickers, a Falfurrias veterinarian and landowner, has lived on a ranch for the better part of his life. He was born in a Corpus Christi farming and ranching community and moved to Falfurrias in April 1975. His life experiences, he said, are much different from those living in the Rio Grande Valley, where he feels more citified folk don’t quite understand or want to understand the impact of illegal immigration. His firsthand experiences are why he is one of the key organizers of the Falfurrias Minuteman Civil Defense Corps....

FALFURRIAS, 18 de septiembre, 2005 — They say Don Pedrito Jaramillo healed anyone, from anywhere, at any time, at no charge. The infamous bearded Texas curandero lived near here a hundred years ago; his grave is now a shrine for those with ailing family members who ask for his help. A hundred years after Don Jaramillo’s death, Falfurrias has become the main stage for the national anti-illegal immigration group, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, whose campaign to keep undocumented immigrants out of Texas has formed a rift between those who are either with them or against them. And as the...

Cameron County officials are the latest to reject the group's intent to monitor migrants BROWNSVILLE - As organizers of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps finalize plans with 500 volunteers for next month's border-watching operation in South Texas, local leaders from El Paso to Brownsville are working hard to discourage them. On Tuesday, the Cameron County Commissioners Court unamiously passed a resolution opposing the Minuteman operation, joining governments in El Paso and Laredo that have rejected the group's intent to set up surveillance camps on the Texas-Mexico border. The resolutions call for enforcement strictly by federal officers. ''They're opportunists. ... they...

— The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps was not the first to target illegal immigration on the United States-Mexico border and likely won’t be the last. The Arizona-based group dedicated to reporting illegal activity along the U.S.-Mexico border is kin to the Texas Minutemen, whose four core members participated in the Arizona effort last summer and brought the idea home, said the Texas group’s president Shannon McGauley. The Texas Minutemen are independent of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. and is currently awaiting approval of a nonprofit 501(c) status. “We had already formed this (in Texas), and when we had been solicited...

The first Texas chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps disbanded Monday. "The Goliad chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps was dissolved today," chapter president Kenneth Buelter said in a brief e-mail sent to the Victoria Advocate on Monday evening. The e-mail included no further explanation and directed all comments to either Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of Texas president Al Garza or to a representative of the Falfurrias chapter. Repeated attempts to contact Buelter on Monday evening were unsuccessful. Buelter notified the Texas leader of his resignation and the dissolution of the Goliad-area chapter Monday evening, Garza said in...

The Goliad chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of Texas will not conduct activities in this area as part of a major border observation event scheduled for October. "There won't be anything here in the Goliad area specifically other than what we do just on a daily basis," said Kenneth Buelter, chapter president. Those daily activities amount to the vigilance maintained by any neighborhood watch, he said. In October, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of Texas plans to conduct a massive border observation effort along the U.S.-Mexico border, said Al Garza, president of the organization. Former Texas and Goliad...

Border Patrol deployment prompts premature launch for Civil Defense Corps — The Minutemen are coming. The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of Texas will begin their operation here sooner than expected in response to a deployment of Border Patrol agents to aid in hurricane disaster areas. Minuteman President Al Garza confirmed Wednesday that about 50 of the organization’s volunteers would come to Brownsville this month for early implementation of their operation: Secure Our Borders. Minuteman officials do not publicize when they will arrive or where they will set up camp. Traditionally, they have limited their activities in Texas to private properties...

Majority of City Commission would support resolution against border militia group — Cameron Park church parishioners are organizing a “white ribbon” campaign for dialogue, calling for prayer and reflection in response to the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. of Texas’ plans to mobilize in the Rio Grande Valley. The so-called Minutemen have organized to combat illegal immigration into the United States, posting a militia-like armed watch at various border points and recruiting members from across the country. The group from San Felipe de Jesús Church call themselves Social Justice and Peace Pastoral. “It’s a response to the Minuteman project that offers...

The new president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of Texas said Monday he has investigated accusations of racism in the Goliad-area chapter made by the former chapter and state organization leader, and found them to be baseless. "I found no racism, nothing at all," said Al Garza, who worked as a private investigator for 32 years before retiring. Bill Parmley, the former president of both the state and Goliad-area organizations, resigned both posts in late July citing racist undertones in the local chapter and poor organization in the overall organization. Garza said he interviewed about 12 people and found...

About 25 volunteers from the Permian Basin met on a ranch southeast of Midland Tuesday for an orientation in monitoring the southern Texas border for those attempting illegal entry to the United States. The volunteers sat under a storage eve on the ranch while Chris Simcox, founder and national president of the Tombstone, Ariz.-based Minutemen Civil Defense Corp, outlined methods and technology the group will use when they converge on the Texas-Mexico border in October. Simcox said several hundred volunteers will monitor the southern state border then, acting as extra eyes and ears for the Border Patrol in an effort...

Leaders of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, the Tombstone, Ariz.-based outfit that has gained national attention for organizing citizen patrols of the U.S.-Mexico border, are in Midland today to recruit and train volunteers for an October patrol of Texas' southern border. U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Midland also will appear on the Fox News "Hannity & Colmes" show, broadcast live from a ranch southeast of Midland where the Minutemen will meet and train. The Minutemen formed several years ago in response to what group members say is an insufficiently protected national border with Mexico. "We have a thirty minute training DVD...

HOUSTON- The organizer of a volunteer group that has taken up the cause of combatting illegal immigration brought his recruiting efforts to Houston on Sunday, comparing the group's border surveillance to that of a neighborhood watch. Minuteman Civil Defense Corp. President Chris Simcox, who trained about 30 volunteers in Houston late Sunday, said he's looking for people willing to set up a lawn chair, use a pair of binoculars and program Border Patrol's number into their cell phones. "We are the nation's largest neighborhood watch program," Simcox said outside a Houston airport hangar where his members privately trained new volunteers....

Some people might describe Roy Lasley as an exclusionist, a racist or a term even less printable. But the way the retired Midland, Texas truck driver sees it, his volunteer activity with the Minuteman Civil Protection Corps is the obligation of a patriot. Lasley is the president of the Midland/Odessa chapter of the controversial Minuteman organization. He and another member of the group, Tony Faller, were in Del Rio Friday. Lasley said his trip is part of an evaluation the Minuteman group is undertaking to scout locations for an October border watch event in Texas. In an interview Friday, Lasley...

Starting this weekend, the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) will have a series of workshops throughout the Lone Star State to train Minutemen for October missions on the Texas border. "Texas has responded well to the Minutemen Project," said Connie Hair, a MCDC spokesperson, in a telephone interview. "So far, we've had about 1.5 million acres offered by private citizens that want us to patrol." The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps is a nationally organized group of people aiming to stop illegal immigration on U.S. border, born out of the initial Minutemen Project in Arizona last April. Original Minutemen Project co-founder...

Group remains unsure of plans for Brownsville FALFURRIAS — The Minutemen have arrived in South Texas but major operations are still not expected to start until October, group officials said Tuesday. About 20 members of the civilian border patrol group met here last weekend to develop strategies to halt illegal immigration in Brooks and Jim Hogg counties. The group remains unsure whether it plans to patrol near Brownsville. “Right now we are in our reconnaissance and planning stage,” said Minutemen organizer and local ranch owner Michael Vickers. “We are getting our communication equipment together and we’re getting our maps ready.”...

Reviewing a rerun of last weeks City Council meeting, we were attracted to a discussion of the so-called Minutemen Project. It brought flashbacks of earlier readings about Moses Austin, his son, Stephen F. Austin, and a Mexican-Texan named Manuel Becerra. Manuel Becerra was the owner of a substantial piece of property in the Refugio County area, the result of a Mexican land grant in 1832. The land grant of 8,856 acres of choice land passed from Becerra to member of his extended family, including several grandchildren. However, in due time the family was driven off whatever land they managed to...

FALFURRIAS-- The president of the state's Minuteman Project visited Falfurrias on Sunday to map out a plan to protect the South Texas border from illegal immigrants. Al Garza says he was asked by ranchers to help out with the growing problem. Garza traveled all the way from Arizona to answer the call. He's here to help ranchers like Mike Bickers, who's seen the number of illegals on his property double in the past year. "On a nightly basis and a daily basis there's large numbers sometimes one hundred to one hundred and fifty a night coming through my property," said...

The Laredo City Council is planning to revisit several ordinances to remind groups such as the Minutemen Project about the rules that are placed on all city residents and visitors who come to Laredo. The Minutemen Project, a nationally organized group whose goal is to stop illegal immigration on U.S. borders, has two active groups in Texas. One group is planning to make a stop in Laredo and El Cenizo by April 2006. Councilman Jose Valdez Jr. said groups such as the Minutemen Project, who target illegal immigrants, are not welcome in the city. "The situation in the Laredo, Texas...

Minutemen who are planning to come to Laredo may have new guidelines to follow if city officials get their wish. Councilman Jose Valdez Jr., who placed the item on the council agenda, is asking city staff to look into different avenues that would regulate Minutemen from carrying weapons in city parks or prevent the group from approaching individuals on the streets to ask if they are American citizens. The council is scheduled to meet today at 1110 Houston Street at 5:30 p.m. The Minutemen project, a nationally organized group whose goal is stop illegal immigration on the U.S. borders, has...

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps announced a new head for its Texas branch Thursday after the previous leader resigned abruptly earlier this week alleging disorganization and racism in the Goliad County chapter. Al Garza, a retired private investigator and Arizona resident, will serve as supervisor over all Texas chapters. The presidents of the Texas chapters will report to Garza, while he will report to national president Chris Simcox, Garza said in a Thursday afternoon interview. Bill Parmley, who served as president of the Goliad chapter of the organization and the overseer of the entire Texas branch, resigned both positions in...