Group demonstrates near port; Naco expecting minutemen [project]

Sierra Vista Herald ^ | 2 April 2005 | Michael Maresh

[Spiff]

Group demonstrates near port; Naco expecting minutemen

BY MICHAEL MARESH

Saturday, April 2, 2005 12:05 PM MST

HERALD/REVIEW

NACO, Ariz. - The border-crossing point in Naco was blocked for about 30 minutes Friday as a group in Mexico protested near the border.

The demonstration came as the Minuteman Project got under way in Tombstone. The monthlong project is geared at having private citizens help watch the border and report border crossings.

Roger Maier, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol, said a group of 40 to 50 people at about noon Friday blocked southbound traffic at the Naco point of entry.

Northbound traffic was never stopped, and the border never completely closed, Maier said.

The group, which was from Mexicali, Mexico, and called themselves the Bracero Alliance, protesting the Minuteman Project and previous U.S. government actions on the former bracero program, a guest-worker program in the 1940s and 1950s.

Mexican officials and the U.S. Border Patrol asked the group to stop protesting, and their request was granted.

A few residents from Naco, Ariz., said they heard Minutemen Project volunteers were coming to watch the border on Friday, but they had not seen anyone.

Jim Dwyer, a member of the Naco Community Association, said he thinks the winds of 30 mph may have kept the Minutemen volunteers away for a day. In actuality, the volunteers were in Tombstone going through an orientation.

"I have not seen anything yet," he said, adding he saw what was happening on both sides of the border from the roof of his home.

Dwyer is surprised the Minuteman volunteers picked spring to make their point due to the amount of rattlesnakes and scorpions they likely will be encountering.

Dwyer expects to see people watching the border.

"There is not much we can do," he said. "If these people are going to have any credibility they are going to have to show up."

The majority of people in Naco, Ariz., do not want the volunteers down in their community, Dwyer said.

Naco resident Foy Armstrong also said she had not seen anyone other than the Border Patrol watching the border.

The longtime Naco resident said she believes the Mexican government should take more of a role in stopping their residents from crossing illegally.

"I am glad (this project) has brought a spotlight to the problems on the border," she said.

Armstrong said the government needs to support the Border Patrol agents that are trying to watch the border to the best of their abilities, and added more resources need to be given to them.

Many Mexican nationals will not attempt to cross the border while the Minuteman project is under way, she said.

"They are not stupid," Armstrong said. "They will go elsewhere."

HERALD/REVIEW reporter Michael Maresh can be reached at 432-2231.

[Tarantulas]

Many Mexican nationals will not attempt to cross the border while the Minuteman project is under way, she said.

"They are not stupid," Armstrong said. "They will go elsewhere."

So the project is succeeding even without the volunteers taking the field. It has also generated a great press interest in a border so porous that private citizens have to patrol it, and that is another success. Slam dunk!

[gaspar]

The Naco border crossing should be closed. Period. It only serves residents of Bisbee who want to buy cheap booze there. Anyone wanting to cross into Mexico should do so through Douglas. This would take some of the pressure off the San Pedro riparian area which has been trashed by illegals.

[AnimalLover]

PING

[fiftymegaton]

BUMP

[doug from upland]

"They are not stupid," Armstrong said. "They will go elsewhere."
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Maybe they can go down and visit Hugo Chavez.

[Spiff]

>Many Mexican nationals will not attempt to cross the
>border while the Minuteman project is under way, she said.
> "They are not stupid," Armstrong said. "They will go elsewhere."

So the project is succeeding even without the volunteers taking the field. It has also generated a great press interest in a border so porous that private citizens have to patrol it, and that is another success. Slam dunk!

One of the organizers (a now banned FReeper) received word from someone in Mexico that the word is out down there to totally avoid the area. Coyotes are steering their human traffic elsewhere. None of the patrols today spotted a single illegal in an area normally swarming with them. We're definitely seeing success already.