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Tombstone at the eye of Minuteman storm
Arizona Daily Star ^ | 04.01.05 | Michael Marizco

Posted on 04/01/2005 9:57:43 PM PST by Coleus

Tombstone at the eye of Minuteman storm

TOMBSTONE - A Minuteman volunteer roams the streets in this town, the Colt .45 on his hip as much for show as anything. His shirt is stenciled, "Undocumented Border Patrol Agent."

At any given moment, reporters descend on him for interviews with an actual Minuteman Project volunteer. He doesn't mind; he's proud of what he's doing, he says.

Protesters in Tucson gather pots and pans to bang in protest of today's 1,000-strong Minuteman Project, a protest of the current state of border enforcement, in a "show of solidarity" with the illegal entrants who cross the border.

Also in Tucson, Robert Fritz is finishing up some lawyer business to come to Tombstone to join the Minuteman Project, while in the Whetstone Mountains northwest of Tombstone, Larry Dempster watches the gathering crowds with a jaundiced eye and wonders who's going to fix the fences illegal entrants cut recently.

State legislators and legal observers are expected to arrive from Phoenix and Tucson, while across the border in Naco, Sonora, Sergio Sanchez received a warning from Grupo Beta, Mexico's border safety force, that protesters may try to thwart his attempt to cross illegally into the United States.

It's an expected gathering that has gotten so much attention that even Presidents Bush and Vicente Fox weighed in, calling the group of protesters "immigrant hunters" and "vigilantes."

Fritz thinks differently.

"My frustrations are with the county and the state and the federal government that anybody who wants to step up as a citizen gets put down as a vigilante," he says.

"The people that are involved with this, they don't want anybody hurt out in the desert."

Tom Dushane, sporting his .45 six-shooter, agrees, saying he's simply tired of illegal entrants coming across the border.

On Monday, Border Patrol agents arrested about 800 people in the Cochise County area, said Tucson Sector spokesman Rob Daniels. Nobody knows how many got away.

"We're mainly trying to get the message to President Bush," Dushane says. "We need to close our borders."

But the message has also gone as far as Santa Cruz County, where Sheriff Tony Estrada says he's received tips the Minuteman Project will have volunteers posted in Nogales, Ariz.

"We're anxiously awaiting their arrival," he says.

Whether they show in Nogales remains to be seen. Organizers Chris Simcox and James Gilchrist weren't available for interviews Thursday.

Earth First activists will participate in a protest outside Schieffelin Hall on Arizona 80 in Tombstone, joining a gathering of people banging wooden spoons on empty pots as Minuteman organizers give speeches inside, says protest organizer Jonathan Shapiro.

The drumming is a show of solidarity with the entrants who'll be running the gantlet of Minuteman volunteers to work in this country, he said.

Other groups like Tucson-based Derechos Humanos plan unity events like a "Women in Black" vigil to protest the Minuteman Project.

If there are already Minuteman volunteers in town, they're keeping a low profile, says Mayor Andree Dejournett. The media sure aren't. There were at least 30 reporters, photographers and camera crews in Tombstone Thursday. At times it's hard to tell who's who with all the tourists. Both wear sophisticated cameras around their necks.

The town is full, though it's hard to tell if it's for the Minuteman Project or the weekend's car show, Dejournett said.

With only 260 rooms available in town, every room is taken, he said.

"We get 500,000 tourists every year. They might boost the number by 500, 1,000, who knows," he said. But right now, he supports their freedom to gather and protest, and if they don't break the law there's nothing more to say, he said. "I'm waiting just like everybody else is."

There's no vacancy at the Larian Motel, and owner Gordon Anderson likes it that way.

Nobody who registered for a room said they were here to protest the open border, he said.

If they are, they're more than welcome, he says. "They're just trying to do something for their country."

Maybe, but their motives still are not known, said Tombstone resident John Dorenzo, working a hot-dog stand on a street corner. "You don't know what their agenda is - are they sick of the government or are they just trying to get some publicity?"

Rancher Dempster wonders the same thing.

"We're going to have observers watching the observers, the Mexican government complaining, the press, legislators with 'Mexican accents' - where do my cows come in? How much feed are all these people going to tromp down?"

Told they won't be anywhere near his property, he chuckled. "That's good because none of it's going to do a bit of good."

But just the news that the Minutemen are coming was enough to make Sergio Sanchez worry about his plans to cross the border on the way to Florida. There's no work in Mexico to feed his two daughters and his wife, he said. But the Minuteman Project scares him because Mexican agents warned him Vietnam vets with an ax to grind would be trying to stop him.

"I'm still going to cross," he says. "What choice do I have? I need to work."


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; US: Arizona
KEYWORDS: aliens; americansvsglobalist; arizona; borderless; citizenaction; constitution; globalism; globalistagenda; illegalimmigration; immigration; immigrationlist; lifeliberyhappiness; minutemen; tombstone
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To: xsrdx
Of course, ultimately our economy is dependent on illegal immigration, and many of the powerful and influential are disinterested in reducing it.

Wrongfully dependent when we have the edge on technological innovation in agriculture. Allowing this dependence on neo-slaves is ultimately a disservice to these laborers (who should be doing family farming in their homeland) and American consumers who'd be paying slightly more for a short period of transition while their tax base expense gradually lowers. But that's the real issue - would the politicians hand the savings back to the taxpayers instead of following the Democrat model of perpetuatian and dependency (rechanneling the savings back into failing programs)?

21 posted on 04/02/2005 12:55:59 AM PST by NewRomeTacitus (This MMP thread may be pulled at any time for your own good.)
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To: DoughtyOne

U.S. Constitution Article 4 Section 4:

"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,

and shall protect each of them against Invasion;"


22 posted on 04/02/2005 1:08:48 AM PST by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: Coleus

those guys could use some pizza


23 posted on 04/02/2005 1:31:46 AM PST by drlevy88
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To: NewRomeTacitus

I am interested in facts.

Thank you for the ping and keep me on your list.

Prayers for those working for Constitutional rights and with humble intentions.


24 posted on 04/02/2005 1:37:05 AM PST by oceanperch (LOOKIE LOOKIE WE UPDATED OUR PROFILE PAGE/LINKS!)
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To: Travis McGee

Nobody in government sees this as an invasion because they don't have to live on the same block with them or wait in the same hospital emergency room behind 40 illegal immigrants!


25 posted on 04/02/2005 2:17:20 AM PST by Route101
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To: Frank T

One of the tenets of the marxist protesters is that there are no borders and we are all "Earth citizens". Yeah right.


26 posted on 04/02/2005 3:53:35 AM PST by Sender (Team Infidel USA)
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To: politicalwit

Yeah, great idea...border cams every half mile or so. Leave them up permanently and let all of us with a PC view who is coming across at any time.


27 posted on 04/02/2005 3:55:31 AM PST by Sender (Team Infidel USA)
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To: Coleus

-Protesters in Tucson gather pots and pans to bang in protest-

That's one of the loudest and most annoying sounds ever. I don't think they're going to make any friends doing that.


28 posted on 04/02/2005 4:26:11 AM PST by AmericanChef
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To: xsrdx
Of course, ultimately our economy is dependent on illegal immigration, and many of the powerful and influential are disinterested in reducing it.

Yeah, I'm sure the United States would be on its economic knees if we did not have Mexico on our Southern Border. /sarc

29 posted on 04/02/2005 6:00:03 AM PST by jackbenimble (Import the third world, become the third world)
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To: DoughtyOne
The MM project is over, still born, the MSM vilified it and the alternate media went along. So, it has been established that anyone wishing to enforce immigration laws is a racist at heart. The new world order has successfully eliminated the United States as a sovereign national identity. So we still exist but we've more of a region with a large market then as a sovereign nation.
30 posted on 04/02/2005 6:13:10 AM PST by jpsb
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To: dalereed
i've watched your beloved immigrants totally trash the industry

Beloved? LOL.

You made my point perfectly with your illustration, thanks - as unpleasant and unsavory as it may be, the US economy has become dependent on dirt cheap, unskilled labor.

The "human rights" aspect is a facade - the truth is shareholders have nothing to gain, and much to lose, by any reduction in the availability of alien workers.

We decided as a population that "cheap" is more important than "good" a long time ago, and effectively open borders are part of the impact of that decision.

31 posted on 04/02/2005 6:14:37 AM PST by xsrdx (Diligentia, Vis, Celeritas)
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To: Coleus

Tombstone Bump.....


32 posted on 04/02/2005 6:19:19 AM PST by litehaus
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To: Coleus
But the Minuteman Project scares him because Mexican agents warned him Vietnam vets with an ax to grind would be trying to stop him.

Oh NO! Not the dreaded Vietnam Veterans!
Psycho madmen wielding ground axes?
33 posted on 04/02/2005 6:24:08 AM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: All
The MSM at work.

The Washington Post published a year old story about four ILLEGAL immigrant teenagers' science project beating out MIT's best in a contest.

Why did the Post publish the story and lament the Mexican geniuses' chances for college education because they are not eligible for in-state tuition and other government subsidies? (Don't kids work their way through college anymore?)

The Washington Post featured the year-old story because the four Mexican geniuses who beat MIT are living in Arizona. Hint. Hint. Hint.

Even W-P readers know about the evil white supremacist; KKK; Aryan Nation; hate monger; bigoted; dangerous dope dealing, illegal gun owning, child molesting neo-Davidian; angry white men; immigrant hunting; beer-swilling; gun-happy MMP. So guess who's the target of these.. these.. vigilantes!

wnd.com has the link to The Magazine Reader, "Stinky the Robot, Four Kids And a Brief Whiff of Success," By Peter Carlson Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, March 29, 2005; Page C01. Americans love "a tale of scrappy underdogs triumphing against long odds" such as "last year's Marine Advanced Technology Remotely Operated Vehicle Competition -- an underwater robotics contest sponsored by NASA and the Office of Naval Research -- [the Mexican kids' robot, Stinky] was greeted with barely suppressed snickers. Nobody expected Stinky to compete with the robot from MIT, a handsome machine created by 12 elite engineering and computer science students. . . ."

The MSM at work. IMO.

34 posted on 04/02/2005 6:26:10 AM PST by WilliamofCarmichael (MSM Fraudcasters are skid marks on journalism's clean shorts.)
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To: jackbenimble
Yeah, I'm sure the United States would be on its economic knees if we did not have Mexico on our Southern Border. /sarc

If we are employing 30 million illegal immigrants at $1hr to build our houses, pick our vegetables, clean our houses, watch our kids, mow our lawns, clean our pools, cook our food - etc etc etc - and they suddenly vanished back from whence they came, who's going to replace them at that wage? Or should we just, as a nation, decide to do without those services?

Do you honestly believe we can pay Americans the same wages for the same work? Economically, if that were true, we WOULDN'T HAVE THIS PROBLEM.

Migrants migrate because they can find jobs, jobs that Americans either can't or won't do, by definition. If you drive by the day job hiring spots in my part of Northern VA, you won't see many white union guys muscling the brown latinos out of the way to work for $2hr.

I don't like it, at all - I'm more than willing to pay the difference - BUT MOST AMERICANS ARE NOT.

We're not in this fix because Mexicans are just determined to come to the US, we're in this fix because WE KEEP PAYING THEM TO DO IT.

35 posted on 04/02/2005 6:28:35 AM PST by xsrdx (Diligentia, Vis, Celeritas)
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To: All
In the spirit of "follow the money" who stands to gain the most from violence?

Hint: they would have impunity for starting the violence. Hint: they ain't the MMP.

Conspiracy tin-foil hat time? Hey, not every thing that happens is totally random.

The MMP folks are going to need nerves of steel. They'll need the kind of restraint few people have, too -- or at least have their own cameramen to tape what the MSM leave out, remember Rodney King?

IMO.

36 posted on 04/02/2005 6:43:46 AM PST by WilliamofCarmichael (MSM Fraudcasters are skid marks on journalism's clean shorts.)
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To: xsrdx
RE: I don't like it, at all - I'm more than willing to pay the difference - BUT MOST AMERICANS ARE NOT.

I agree and you'd think that we'd never done it.

Well, guess what. We never did.

I remember how it was before they came to "build our houses, pick our vegetables, clean our houses, watch our kids, mow our lawns, clean our pools, cook our food - etc etc etc."

There was nothing. No markets, taxis, buses, nothing.

We just sat aroung our radio in the sun, rain, and snow -- then one morning there was TV in the late 1940s. Took a while to figure it out. There was no one to hire to explain it.

Ya know, things weren't all that bad back then.

37 posted on 04/02/2005 7:04:33 AM PST by WilliamofCarmichael (MSM Fraudcasters are skid marks on journalism's clean shorts.)
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To: NewRomeTacitus
They find it humerous that the media is more concerned with their possession of handguns than handy-cams.

Which is understandably a complete joke, since we (AZ) are an open carry state. It's no big deal here, except to those who are not from around "here."

(Minutemen notwithstanding)

Another example of a neo-socialist crowd masquerading as another (joke) "environmental interest group" is "Earth First".

Banging those pots in protest. Gee...

With all of the documented evidence of damage illegal border crossings do to the desert environment, any reasonable person would think that they'd be out there mending the fences, plants, terrain, picking up trash....

oh wait. There I go again. Thinking rational.

38 posted on 04/02/2005 7:40:19 AM PST by kstewskis ("Tolerance is what happens when one loses their principles"....Fr. A Saenz.)
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To: xsrdx
BUT MOST AMERICANS ARE NOT.

The vast majority of American understand that mass immigration, both legal and illegal, is not in their best interests. Flooding the market with subsidized cheap labor erodes wages and raises taxes for the middle class. Here are a bunch of polls that show how American feel about immigration.

NumbersUSA Public Opinion

If you are going to make assertions about the "vast majority of the American People" I would like to see you cite some evidence.

39 posted on 04/02/2005 7:41:10 AM PST by jackbenimble (Import the third world, become the third world)
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To: xsrdx; Travis McGee; Marine Inspector
We're not in this fix because Mexicans are just determined to come to the US, we're in this fix because WE KEEP PAYING THEM TO DO IT.

I believe you have a good point. There are several fingers to point at the cause of the problem. You listed another, and imho, valid one.

I see it occasionally at one place I work. Those who come in for pre-employment screening, with obvious (to an amateur eye) fake or forged documentation, roll in from time to time.

Is there any way I could anonymously *report* something, if I suspect anything? Is such an idea realistic, with the magnitude of the problem?

40 posted on 04/02/2005 7:50:33 AM PST by kstewskis ("Tolerance is what happens when one loses their principles"....Fr. A Saenz.)
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