Posted on 04/06/2005 8:25:52 PM PDT by Kokojmudd
By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Border Patrol apprehensions of illegal immigrants have dropped notably in the Naco area since civilian volunteers began gathering there to watch for undocumented migrants and smugglers trying to sneak into the country.
Agency spokesmen credit an increased presence by Mexican authorities south of the border and say it's too soon to tell whether the volunteers are having an impact or causing smugglers to shift elsewhere, but others are reporting such a swing.
Gov. Janet Napolitano said Wednesday that her office has been told by the Border Patrol and others that migrant traffic is surging in areas beyond the roughly 20-mile line formed by volunteers for the Minuteman Project. That includes the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation to the west, a favored crossing point for illegal immigrants.
"The traffic flows through Arizona because they tightened down in California and Texas, and when you pull on the border, it is like a bedsheet, and the traffic moves," Napolitano said. "And until you have operational control of the entire Arizona border, you cannot say that progress has been made. And we don't have it, and the Minutemen can't give it to us."
The volunteers, many of whom were recruited over the Internet, plan to watch the border in shifts 24 hours a day throughout April and report any illegal activity to federal agents. It's an exercise law enforcement officials fear could lead to vigilante violence or an accidental confrontation between armed volunteers and authorities.
Project organizers say they want to draw attention to problems on the Arizona-Mexico border, considered the most vulnerable stretch of the 2,000-mile southern border. Of the 1.1 million illegal immigrants caught by the Border Patrol last year, more than half crossed into the country at Arizona.
Apprehensions in the Naco area began to dip after the volunteers began gathering in southern Arizona last week, fluctuating between 302 on March 30 and a low of 74 on Tuesday.
Andrea Zortman, a Border Patrol spokeswoman, said the dip is being attributed to "the enhanced presence of authorities in Mexico _ military, law enforcement and Grupo Beta," a Mexican organization that aids people stranded in the desert and attempts to discourage them from crossing the border illegally.
"Every time they have an increased presence on the south side, our apprehensions decrease," Zortman said.
Andy Adame, another Border Patrol spokesman, said there haven't been dramatic shifts in apprehensions along other segments of the Arizona border.
For instance, apprehensions at Douglas, east of Naco, ranged from 271 on March 30 and 446 on March 31 to about 260 on Tuesday. Apprehensions have held steady around Nogales. Fluctuations are normal, Adame added.
Border Patrol officials said the volunteers have remained peaceful, though they have continued to unwittingly trip sensors that alert the agency to possible intruders, forcing agents to respond to false alarms.
Adame said volunteer footprints have also made if difficult for agents to track illegal immigrants. "That is our bread and butter in terms of apprehensions," he said, "follow the foot sign and arrest them."
Organizers said more than 1,000 volunteers had signed up and more than 800 were expected to take part over the month of April. As of Tuesday, 517 volunteers "have spent at least one shift on the line," Minuteman spokesman Grey Deacon said.
There is no way to verify the count independently since authorities aren't keeping track of the numbers.
These many people might be considered refugees rather than migrants. As such they are automatically wards of the State as soon as they get here. Bio-property is worth four times more to the State than physical property.
Not citizens, yet part of the State. What part? Workers? How is that different from semi-voluntary slaves?
"Andrea Zortman, a Border Patrol spokeswoman, said the dip is being attributed to "the enhanced presence of authorities in Mexico _ military, law enforcement and Grupo Beta," a Mexican organization that aids people stranded in the desert and attempts to discourage them from crossing the border illegally."
"It's an exercise law enforcement officials fear could lead to vigilante violence or an accidental confrontation between armed volunteers and authorities."
Which authorities? Our border agents or the Mexican military/police? What in the world is this suppose to mean? These media people always like to let the mind wonder. Just spell it out, sheeesh. Stupid media......
Thanks for your trillion-dollar concerns about "Iraqi Security" and the two-cents worth of "concerns" you've given your own country's security.
YOU have proven to be nothing but a Globalist shill and fraud.
This was to be expected. They have their own people already on the U.S side of the border directing traffic towards the weak spots of the border.
Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Why I will stand the border ... again
Posted: April 6, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Tod Phillips
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
I already stood the border once before. Been there, done that. For 16 months. Different border, though. I and many of my brother Marines. Against the 324th and 366th NVA Divisions. Tough little monkeys. They kicked out the French and the Japanese. We had a lot of respect for them. They could fight.
On Hill 881 South, the DMZ, 1968
That was war. Then, on that border, the orders were short and sweet. Just three words from the top: "Nobody crosses alive." Many of my brother Marines died doing this job. You can find their names on The Wall. We got sold out.
Now, it's 2005.
I've survived to tell you. Will I stand the border ... again? The Mexican border? The borders of my own country?
You bet.
Why?
All that is necessary for evil to triumph in the world is for good men to do nothing.
Whether you liked him or not, the little guy with the big ears from Texas, Ross Perot, warned us six or seven years ago that this day would come.
We didn't listen. Now it's here.
He said that if we signed these globalist trade agreements, we would lose America. Borders and jobs would evaporate.
They have. Millions of jobs.
They are disappearing.
So are the borders.
You are losing your country!
Research the FTAA – the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which is on the table now! Look it up.
It makes Canada, Mexico and the United States one economic region with no borders. So what happens to American sovereignty?
Fight it!
Some of my fellow Americans don't like this idea of turning people back.
They want to sell us out to a "world community."
No way.
Why does 50 percent of the Mexican population want to come here?
You have papers, a green card? I welcome you to my country, gladly. You can come in, like my ancestors did.
Because you did it legally.
You want to sneak in, bring in drugs, guns to the gangs, get on the dole, drop your three or four ninos on my doorstep and on our dollars, break the health-care system, the welfare rolls? You want to smuggle in biologicals or a suitcase nuke to kill us all one morning?
You gotta get past us on the border first.
You gotta get past me first.
I will tell you "Alto! No permiso! No entrada!" and turn you back.
President Bush called us "vigilantes." That just means "vigilant ones." It doesn't mean hate, KKK or white supremacy.
It just means "vigilance."
Unlike last time, I won't shoot at anybody who doesn't fire on me first.
Whether on the streets of South Central Los Angeles, or Cleveland, Ohio, or on the border, no one who doesn't seek to do me bodily harm or invade my country has anything at all to fear from me.
I am a free man.
As the Founding Fathers intended I always remain.
Not a subject.
I will not be disarmed and made helpless like the "world citizens" of Europe, England, Canada and Australia.
I am not a "citizen of the world."
I am an American.
Cheri and I visited Europe last year for a few weeks.
The sovereign nations of France, Switzerland, Italy. My wife and I crossed five international borders.
We never had our passports stamped once.
That's because there is no longer an Italy, a Switzerland, a France, a Germany, a Belgium, a Holland.
Those borders have been erased. There is only the European Union.
People have no rights – only "privileges" granted by the E.U. government. And privileges can be revoked. Rights cannot.
You are endowed with these rights by your Creator. That's what the Declaration of Independence says.
Read it lately? Why not?
You're an American, aren't you?
Read it.
Know it.
Live it.
Defend it.
That's why the Founders gave us the Bill of Rights.
Because we are free men.
Freedom isn't free.
I will not be shot, mugged, stabbed, stolen from, have my home violated or have my front door kicked in.
The first Law of Nature is self defense. Every species is equipped.
So are we.
Ever been to San Antonio, Texas? Ever stood at the Alamo?
Ever touched that wall?
In 1823, 238 Texans stood that wall. Jim Bowie, David Crockett, Sam Houston, others.
Against Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana.
When some wanted to run before Santa Ana's troops arrived, Col. Bowie took out his saber and made a line in the sand.
"Who stands for Texas may step cross this line and stand with me," he said.
Some 238 men crossed and stood with Col. Bowie. They all died there.
Where's your line in the sand?
What do you stand for?
One thing more.
When a Marine earns the rank of corporal, he becomes an NCO – a non-commissioned officer.
As a Fire Team leader, he leads other Marines in combat. This has not changed in over 200 years.
This rank permits him to wear the red "blood stripe" on the outside seam of his dress blue uniform.
The "blood stripe" commemorates the high number of Marine NCO's killed in the storming of Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City during the Mexican War of 1849.
Yes, Marines took that fortress.
This is tradition. If he lives long enough and earns it, the corporal becomes a sergeant and leads a squad of riflemen.
I wore the "blood stripe" on my trousers for three years. Can I now ignore that?
If so, what do I stand for, then?
A nasty Mexican gang in Los Angeles called MS22 (you can see their tags on any freeway underpass in Los Angeles) has vowed to resist, with arms, the Minuteman Militia now on the Arizona border. It is interrupting their drug and arms trafficking. They have contracted with al-Qaida to smuggle in some bad people because, they have assured our Middle Eastern brothers, "we can get them over the border."
Read the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Fight it.
It will destroy America.
Remember, this all started on Bill Clinton's watch. So don't give me the old "anti-neocon" anti-Bush, Republican vs. Democrat point of view.
Janet Reno ordered the killing of those women and children in Waco, Texas.
Janet Reno ordered little Elian Gonzalez body-snatched and returned to Fidel Castro.
Will I stand the border…again?
YES!
What will you do? What do you stand for?
Where is your line in the sand?
Tod Phillips is formerly, and always, Sgt. Phillips, 1st Bn., 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force Pacific.
Why don't the Mexican people abandon their culture of corruption and elect a government that doesn't squander Mexico's abundant resources?
There's no reason for Mexico to be in its persistent state of poverty.
Wow! Following footprints! How high tech!!!
DON'T EVER GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE:
"The Mexican military (patrolling souse of ze border) is causing the dip (in the number of illegals crossing)",
Sure.
TRASH THE MINUTEMEN VOLUNTEERS:
"The volunteers trip sensors, forcing agents to respond to false alarms".
"Volunteers footprints make it difficult for agents to track illegals".
Sure.
LET'S ALL JOIN HANDS AND SING THE FEDS SONG:
"Jealousy, night and day you torture we
"And we wonder
"If the Minutemen aren't pulling our rugs from under"......
Tra La La
Leni
Thanks for a great post.
Tra La La
Probably don't want to use that -- the name of an unattractive character in a book.
Apprehensions in the Naco area began to dip after the volunteers began gathering in southern Arizona last week, fluctuating between 302 on March 30 and a low of 74 on Tuesday.
Andrea Zortman, a Border Patrol spokeswoman, said the dip is being attributed to "the enhanced presence of authorities in Mexico _ military, law enforcement and Grupo Beta," a Mexican organization that aids people stranded in the desert and attempts to discourage them from crossing the border illegally.
Anyone that reads this article and doesn't see the deliberate, conscious effort by "government officials" to minimize any effect from the MMP is blind. In fact, they will even go so far as to credit Mexico with a drop that just happens to be in the area the MMP is patrolling, while acknowledging a surge elsewhere as proof that border enforcement is ineffective.
Every day I get more and more sick of our "government officials" and their intentional disregard for the citizens, laws, and borders of this country.
Colmes just had a Arizona rancher on his radio show and basically shouted him down. The guy was saying he found the volunteers to be decent folk, contrary to his initial fears, and pointed out that approx. 400 illegals cross just his land every day. All Colmes could do was parrot the line that the Border Patrol said it was unhelpful - what do you expect them to say !
Semper Fi, Sarge.
BFLR = bump for later reading
The Minutemen are making a difference! Good job!
They have a culture that doesn't prize individual rights over state rights. They are hard working, moral, religous people--but the state has always been supreme. Until they get that monkey off their back, they're going to be victims of the worst of their own.
ping
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