I don't think Gunny Highway quite phrased it like that.
Posted on 04/05/2005 8:34:29 AM PDT by Kokojmudd
By Michael Marizco ARIZONA DAILY STAR
NACO, SONORA – A Mexican military Humvee moves across the cow pasture; soldiers nod at federal agents in bright orange shirts roving by on ATVs. An hour later, a Sonora State Preventive Police truck moves through a sandy wash, the officers looking for migrants waiting to sneak across the border.
Across the barbed-wire border in Arizona early Monday, excitement grips Minuteman Project volunteers when they observe a group of six people moving north.
Dan Russell, 62, watches the group walking toward him. "They're getting closer," he says. "They could just be reporters." They are.
In the first few days of the Minuteman Project, volunteers have been slowing illegal immigration into the Naco area.They've accomplished that with the help of an unlikely ally: Mexico.
Eager to avoid confrontations between volunteers and its people, Mexico is sweeping the area south of the Minuteman Project clear of migrants.
Gov. Eduardo Bours Castelo has placed 44 members of the new state police force across the border at La Morita, a cattle ranch that leads directly to the border south of Bisbee, said Diego Padilla the governor's Arizona representative.
The state police are working with Grupo Beta, Mexico's migrant protection force, which is plucking migrants out of the desert and depositing them in nearby Agua Prieta, where they are encouraged to wait before trying to cross.
"We are very crude with them; we tell them they may be shot, that there's rancheros out to stop them and hurt them," said Enrique Enriques Palafox, a Grupo Beta commander in Agua Prieta. The point is to terrify the migrants from the area so they won't cross illegally and encounter Minuteman volunteers, he said.
Sunday, the coordinated efforts of the military, Grupo Beta, and the new police force pulled 22 groups of migrants out of the ranch, Palafox said. By Monday, only a handful of people had to be told to go somewhere else.
Even as the Minuteman Project brought national attention to Cochise County's border woes, volunteers had few encounters with illegal entrants. But their presence has brought Mexican law enforcement to this part of the border, and that has had the effect of slowing illegal immigration.
Organizer James Gilchrist said Sunday that volunteers had reported 118 illegal entrants to the U.S. Border Patrol. There is no way to confirm that, because the agency's Tucson Sector says it doesn't keep track of Minuteman callers separately from normal calls from citizens about illegal border crossers.
Since Friday, when the protest started, there have been 78 citizen call-ins leading to the apprehension of 162 people, said Border Patrol spokesman Andy Adame.
What Minuteman volunteers have succeeded in doing is setting off false alarms by tripping ground sensors on the border, he said.
"We're having to work around them instead of concentrating on the actual border where we need to work," Adame said.
The number of illegal entrant apprehensions at the Naco station has dropped.
U.S. and Mexican officials say it's because of Mexico's efforts.
Minuteman organizers say otherwise. "We're having an impact," Gilchrist said Sunday.
● Contact reporter Michael Marizco at 573-4213 or at mmarizco@azstarnet.com.
U.S. and Mexican officials say it's because of Mexico's efforts.
Give credit where it's due...US and Mexico would have never stepped up efforts if it wasn't for the MMP.
it's odd that the nyt hasn't noticed the hospitals in california that have gone broke due to illegals, or the collapse of the health care system elsewhere.
Should anyone's unpaid medical bills be subtracted from their social security account?
You're unhinged. Check the Border Patrol numbers regarding the numbers of illegals apprehended each year in that sector. And listen to the agents talk about how many they think get through. Read the accounts of the local property owners and view the photos of the trash strewn about the landscape.
But what do you do? Compare them to Maxime Waters. You're despicable.
Intentionally being Deaf, Dumb and Blind is no way to go through life. Are you of the "Open Borders...We Are Citizens of the World" cadre?
Uh "Dude" those canucks are crossing the border legally. and when I worked in the factories I saw illegals pretty much every day.
Bet there are probably that many illegals that cross the border between Ohio and Michigan every day alone.
Dirt, these are union members doing what they can to keep their jobs, increase their overtime and add to the ranks. It's not unlike the fake body count numbers you got from the brass in Vietnam. Numbers lie and liars make up numbers.
I don't think Gunny Highway quite phrased it like that.
Why do you feel the need to classify someone rather than respond to their patricular point?
You're pushing the envelope...
"Intentionally being Deaf, Dumb and Blind is no way to go through life."
BTW, a paraphase from one of my favorite movies, Animal House :)
Basically what the Mexican Govt is saying is, wait until the Minutemen leave, then cross. Hell, they are admitting it in this article.
Our sorry politicians ought to be ashamed of themselves for this, and I include Republicans in that statement.
I'm seriously re-evaluating my support to the Republican party.
162 X 365 = 57,330 not an insignificant number.
The watched pot does not boil over.
But east and west of the portion of the border that was being observed by the "auxillaries", the number of illegal crossings has to be up sharply. It is doubtful that there was any net change in the numbers who cross hourly.
Build the security fences and keep them under constant surveillance from unmanned drone aircraft, in those stretches too long or too rough to patrol effectively from the ground.
Sure, if you include the blue haired grannies smuggling cigarettes back into Michigan :)
Don't be too sure.....imagine a grass roots movement, spurred by local organizations across the country that organizes a coordinated national volunteer effort.
Rotating in people from across the country; snow birds, retirees, patriots, et al.
It doesn't take people with tanks & rocket launchers...spotters seem to be working well!
(We the) People in Action trumps Political Inaction
Watch out for ACLU/Demo lawsuits to try and block the efforts.
Give it up. Your position is untenable and you are plumbing new depths of absurdity to maintain it. You are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.
It's not unlike the fake body count numbers you got from the brass in Vietnam. Numbers lie and liars make up numbers.
And then there is you. The evidence is overwhelming of a major flow of illegals over the border. You can maintain a position that such a flow isn't a big deal. But to deny the flow is absurd, and makes you someone who is not debating the issue in good faith.
You're kidding right?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.