Posted on 04/06/2005 7:32:35 PM PDT by churchillbuff
PALOMINAS, Ariz. -- Minuteman Project volunteers, during limited weekend patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border here, rescued a tired and thirsty Mexican who had become separated from a group trying to illegally enter the United States.
The volunteers, who formally begin extensive patrols along a 20-mile section of the border today to protest Bush administration immigration-enforcement policies, found the man on land owned by Miracle Valley Bible College, where the Minuteman organization has set up a command post.
The unidentified man was described as dehydrated and emaciated. He was turned over by volunteers to U.S. Border Patrol officials and later was returned to Mexico.
It was one of two weekend encounters by Minuteman volunteers with illegal aliens, neither of which resulted in the violent confrontation predicted by some civil liberties and human rights organizations.
In a separate incident, the volunteers spotted 18 illegal aliens entering the United States here and called the Border Patrol, which responded in minutes and took the aliens into custody.
Ray Ybarra, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Arizona, said there had been no incidents of violence or suspected abuse of the aliens during limited patrols by the volunteers Saturday and yesterday.
Mr. Ybarra, who manned a seven-person ACLU observation site on the border south of Bisbee -- within shouting distance of two Minuteman patrol posts -- said "everything was going very well."
"We're here to protect the civil rights of everyone involved and, so far, everything has gone very nicely," he told The Washington Times during a late-night interview on the U.S.-Mexico border east of Naco, which is separated by a barbed-wire fence that has been cut in numerous spots.
Mexican humanitarian groups, who patrolled their side of the border late into the night, told The Times several people had been spotted huddled in the desert south of the U.S. border -- apparently halted by the presence of the Minuteman volunteers.
Volunteers working a patrol post west of the San Pedro River, south of here, confirmed yesterday that they spotted two separate groups of aliens, totaling about 25 people, heading north who turned back when they saw the Minuteman patrols.
The volunteers, some of whom are armed, have been accused by some civil rights groups and other immigration activists of being racists looking for an excuse to confront illegal aliens.
Border Patrol officials have said the presence of armed volunteers on the border make an already dangerous situation worse, although several field agents said they welcomed them -- as long as they operate within the law.
Minuteman organizers James T. Gilchrist, a retired California certified public accountant, and Chris Simcox, publisher of the Tombstone, Ariz., Tumbleweed, said the volunteers have been warned against any confrontation.
Mr. Gilchrist added that he personally will help prosecute anyone who abuses the aliens or violates their civil rights.
"We mean business, and I assure you we will cooperate fully with federal, state and local law enforcement to identify and prosecute any troublemakers," Mr. Gilchrist said. "We have conducted extensive background investigations and have eliminated a lot of people. We are confident that those who are here to participate are doing so for the very best reasons."
He said the Minuteman Project was "not a call to arms, but a call to voices seeking a peaceful and respectable resolve to the chaotic neglect by members of our local, state and federal governments charged with applying U.S. immigration law."
The targeted patrol areas are the most popular routes into the United States for illegal aliens entering from Mexico. More than 40 percent of the 1.15 million aliens apprehended last year by the Border Patrol were caught in this area.
Minutemen Bump!
I'm just glad the minutemen are showing a little "humbility". LOL
Sorry, tonights edition of the DUmmie FUnnies is chock full of word salad gems I just can't wait to use.
The lead for this story is a bit old, as this happened on Saturday. And the illegal was a Honduran man. But that's okay, it still makes good copy. Score one for the good guys.
IDEA: What if somebody were to take this man and a hundred other illegals just like him and drive them right straight to the White House and let them out on Pennsylania Avenue at high noon with full press coverage. Better yet, get some Congress critters to fork up some tour passes to the White House beforehand and give each illegal a WH tour pass when the leave the truck and point them to the White House as a place they can get some food, water and rest. Then let W have a little talk with Fox.
COMMENTS?
That's funny. I saw the words "emaciate alien" and immediately thought of James Carvile.
This must be really pissin' the ACLU off. You know they were itching for a confrontation. I was worried they would stage something. Glad to see this is going well. We have 1700 acres along the Rio Grande in Texas and it is a frikken superhighway for illegals. We have to lock everything in cargo containers to keep it from walking off. We turn on two big street lights and randomly fire toward the border whenever we are staying overnight at the ranch. Firepower is the international language.
i like it. busloads. dozens of busloads
The ACLU must have been munching on some sour grapes over this.
Everything sounds like it's going well.
We've been visiting our son and his family at Laughlin in Del Rio off and on since December. Driving there from the airport in San Antonio, I see all the land, and hunting ranches on either side of 90, and have wondered about what kind of security must be required to maintain those places. Although, there's so much cactus there, I woudn't want to walk across that land.
pure genius
or we could have the good folks in Brisbee drive them there for us, like this quote from one of the resisdents "I had a Salvadoran work for me for six months, and it's not uncommon for people here to drive a migrant north in their car rather than hand them over to the U.S. Border Patrol," said cafe owner Charles Lewis. from this posting:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1378613/posts
I think Laura should have to cook dinner for a few hundred of them every night at the ranch. She and the girls could pick up the trash they leave, and GWB could personally pay for their medical care and their schooling and their welfare funds. They would get sick of it REAL quick, just like American citizens are sick of it.
Maybe the right folks will see this, or pass it on...
I've been to Bisbee and it is, indeed, San Francisco without the ocean air to take away the stench of leftism. Because Bisbee has a quaint appearance and it's economy is gone, it has been taken over by pinko artists and assorted usual suspects. I can just picture them helping illegals by driving them wherever they want to go in their Volvos and Subarus. Fight the power, Man! Right on brother!
I know that stretch of highway well. We are about an hour on down the road from there near Langtry. The record take is 35 illegals in our barn. We have an outdoor refrigerator that we leave beer in. It is wired into the Border Patrol office in Comstock. When they open the door, it sets off an alarm. The beer keeps 'em around long enough for the troops to arrive. They set up an ambush about half a mile away at the highway crossing. They have yet figured out what keeps getting 'em caught, so they keep on coming. We find navigation markers and trash all over the ranch after full moon nights.
Once I forgot to turn off the alarm and had to give all my buddies in "La Migre" a handfull of Macanudos to make up for the false alarm.
President Bush knows that illegal immigrants keep wages low. This helps small businessmen, and weakens the American labor movement, most of whose members are Dems.
All government employees need this kind of supervision all the time.
Let's expand the Minutemen into Civilian Review Boards for every government agency.
I am totally against this appalling proposal. It shows rank disrespect for President Bush.
Come on guys, the comments here are utterly silly. You guys are starting to sound like Hillary.
Time to sober up, and realize that no matter what reservations we have about President Bush, he is still one of the five best presidents in US History.
'Vote GOP - keep wages low'. A winning campaign slogan.
That kind of thinking gives us all a bad name.
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