Some see minutemen as best solution to control illegal immigration

FALFURRIAS - As drug violence escalates in the state's large border towns and snakes its way up interstate highways to major cities, south Texas farmers and ranchers are struggling to find a solution to the steady stream of illegal immigrants who trespass on their property, destroy fences and leave behind trash, or worse, the bodies of those who can't keep up on the journey.

Texas' border with Mexico is not the same as it was 25 years ago, when south Texas farmers and ranchers might hire a few of the illegals who crossed it to find seasonal work and support their families.

Today, hundreds are coming across, and many don't want farm jobs anymore, south Texas ranchers told the Arizona-based Minuteman Civil Defense Corps during a visit to the border region south of Falfurrias on Sunday. What some of them do want might be proving bad for Texas and even worse for the nation, they believe.

For the past couple of years, these ranchers have been meeting monthly with U.S. Border Patrol agents who work in the McAllen Sector, said Mike Vickers, a rancher and Falfurrias veterinarian who works in 10 counties. The meetings have convinced him and other ranchers of one thing: the U.S. Border Patrol doesn't have what it needs to secure the border region south of Falfurrias. They're looking at the Minuteman movement to learn what it can do to secure the Texas border.

Chris Simcox will be the first to tell you that his Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is about political activism. Its members are ordinary citizens, some retired military, who are frustrated that America might be undermined by anonymous smugglers crossing the nation's borders with drugs and illegal immigrants from all over the world while they can't board an airplane with a pair of fingernail clippers, he said. Their frustration underscores the double standard created in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, he said.

"This is a political issue, and the people are flexing their political muscle," Simcox said.

Like the residents of Sarco in Goliad County and the ranchers in south Texas, Simcox and his volunteers realized "letter-writing, phone calls and faxes to so-called public servants wasn't getting anywhere."

Arizona for years was considered to have the highest number of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. every year. Like Texas, the influx now includes "other than Mexicans," an immigrant category that in Arizona included 5,000 people from 26 different countries since November 2002, when Simcox organized his citizen-patrol group now called the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. In the absence of a deportation agreement with some of these countries, non-criminal OTM's who are caught in the U.S. can be released with an order to appear before an immigration court later.

Vickers and his ranching friends see these illegals more and more, waiting at the bus station for a ride to their destination. If any fail to appear in court, then what, they wonder.

Simcox's brand of activism in Arizona has made Cochise County, where the Minuteman patrolled in April, safer than it has been in years, Simcox told Texans interested in organizing chapters here. While he admits the citizen-led effort has coincided with beefed up initiatives by U.S. Border Patrol and other reorganized agencies of the Department of Homeland Security, he claims, "They fell into my trap."

By working with local law enforcement, the Minuteman movement was able to focus national attention on the idea that securing the borders requires a static human presence, Simcox said. The Minuteman locked down the Arizona-Mexico border and achieved its goal within 10 days, he said. Before the Minuteman, Arizona had 39,000 illegal immigrants crossing in a typical month. In April, the number dropped to 5,000 and was only 6,000 in May, he said. Military advisers who observed the phenomenon created a report that calls it a model of success, which is now being duplicated in New Mexico and could well expand to every state in the nation, Simcox said.

"We're going to shut down the routes one by one while we send Washington a strong message," he said.

Al Garza is a Vietnam vet born in Raymondville. His grandfather served in World War I and his father was a wounded veteran of World War II. Two of his siblings were killed in the Korean War. After his military service, Garza's dad was a cop, and the family moved to towns all across south Texas, including Pharr, Falfurrias, Robstown, he said. They used to race horses at Goliad, he said.

When he was growing up, Garza said he was sympathetic to illegal immigrants who came to Texas looking for work. The only problems he had then were with white people, because prejudice did exist in those days, he said.

Garza said his attitude began to change, though, when he returned from the war in Vietnam. That's when he began to see that illegal immigrants aren't interested in helping America, only in what they can get from America, he said. The civil rights groups, in particular, rubbed Garza the wrong way.

"I lost respect for them, the way they talked about Vietnam vets. They called us baby killers," Garza said. "I hate them. They think they can have rights, and the people who fought for this country don't have any."

Garza believes Mexico is corrupt, and its citizens who break the law to come here have no morals. "They're here for the freebies. They're not here to work. It's a way of life," Garza said.

Remembering the men who fought and died with him, his father and grandfather, Garza becomes angry that the U.S. is being invaded by these people who are taking advantage of it, bankrupting hospitals that cannot refuse them care and schools that can't deny them enrollment.

"They are spitting on the graves of men who have fought and died. This is why I'm involved in the Minuteman Project. America is the smartest, proudest, most generous country in the world, but we're getting gouged," he said.

"They think the system is great, because they know how to outsmart it, and they think Americans are stupid. Their intention is to take this country back from the inside, and Mr. (Vincente) Fox is right in the middle of it."

Talk of activism and invasions leads some to recoil from the Minuteman idea or otherwise label it with politically-charged terms such as "vigilantes," "white supremacists" or, more simply, "anti-immigration."

Simcox shakes his head. These just detract from the fact that America's borders are not secure and get in the way of solving it, he said. He said Minuteman volunteers have provided water to illegals coming from the Arizona desert and have called ambulances for those who collapse from dehydration.

"We are pro-immigrant," Simcox claims. "Because of what we're doing, they're no longer going to be exploited, and they can enter this country with dignity. They are now being exploited in the name of big business, and our president and the government is allowing it."

As more attention is focused on the issue, more facts are coming to light about the affect of illegal immigration on American society. The Web site for Simcox's weekly newspaper, the Tombstone (Ariz.) Tumbleweed, includes a June 13 article from Newsweek by Robert J. Samuelson. Titled "The Hard Truth of Immigration," the piece states, "Being brutally candid means recognizing that the huge and largely uncontrolled inflow of unskilled Latino workers into the United States is increasingly sabotaging the assimilation process." The article cites a 2000 study that shows the children of Mexican immigrants do not advance quickly and that Mexican workers are inevitably crammed into low-wage jobs. "The more who arrive, the harder it will be for existing low-skilled workers to advance," it states.

"You can't deny there are jobs, but right now, we have a glut of cheap labor, and it's creating problems, social problems, for our schools, our hospitals and our communities," Simcox said.

Simcox wants the National Guard or the military stationed on the border to stop illegal immigration and says the U.S. has the ability to bring 36,000 troops in on a rotating basis to augment Border Patrol. More than $1 billion in Homeland Security grants are sitting in Washington unused, he said.

He proposes that employers be responsible for recruiting workers, getting them proper documentation and providing their safe transportation and, possibly, housing.

He also favors comprehensive immigration reform being drafted and due out this summer by Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl and Texas Sen. John Cornyn because it puts border security first, he said.

The Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act by Arizona Sen. John McCain and Massachusetts. Sen. Edward Kennedy doesn't do enough to stop illegal immigration, he said.

"It's a mess. We're doing just what we're supposed to be doing - making noise," said Vincent Heard of Sarco last week. His neighbor, Bill Parmley, sponsored the trip by Simcox, Garza and two other Minuteman organizers to Goliad County and south Texas over the weekend to create the first Texas affiliate of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

Vickers and Presnall Cage both own ranchland along U.S. Highway 281 in southern Brooks County. In the past five years, as illegal immigration has worsened, 18 bodies of suspected illegal immigrants have been discovered on Cage's property. He assumes they died of exposure.

Vickers has encountered countless groups, mostly families trekking across his property. He recalled a 9-year-old girl separated from her group who spent the night out in the open alone.

From what they can tell, the illegal immigrants are being dropped off south of the Border Patrols' Falfurrias check station on U.S. 281. They walk north past the checkpoint until they come to a roadside park.

Vickers showed reporters his game-proof fence that's folded down to half its height. It's right across from the park, which is operated by the Texas Department of Transportation.

Three years ago, Vickers said he contacted state Sen. Ken Armbrister because he sits on the Senate's committee for Homeland Security. Armbrister promised to help get a surveillance camera at the park, where Vickers said 50 to 100 illegal immigrants are coming out of the brush each night. After three years, the only progress is a pole to put the camera on.

"I've complained to all levels of government out here to no avail," he said. "We're on our own out here."

Fred Schuster's father was a legal immigrant to this country from Austria. His children still work the farm he built, which includes rented land on the banks of the Rio Grande. He showed the Minuteman group a path from the banks used by illegal immigrants who cross his property.

The farm headquarters nearby used to be home to his dad. Since he died, workers routinely see men darting in and out of barns and buildings, he said.

"Usually, the illegals won't bother you when they're passing through," he said. "But the smugglers, they'd just as soon shoot you as look at you."

The violence, the human and drug smuggling aspects of illegal immigration have caused Schuster's sister and his wife to want to move away from the border.

"I'm a farmer and a rancher. My vocation in life is to till the land and to grow food for the nation," Schuster said. "How sovereign is our nation when no one knows where the border is? Right now, it's fluid, it moves, it's where ever you want to cross the river at."

Robin M. Foster is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-275-6319 or cueroadv@vicad.com.

Fred Schuster speaks to reporters on farmland his family rents along the Rio Grande. The location is a frequent crossing for illegal immigrants. He and other south Texas ranchers say illegal immigration is worsening and becoming more dangerous. Behind Schuster is Bill Parmley, a petroleum geologist who lives in Sarco and sponsored a trip to the region by Minuteman Civil Defense Corps founder Chris Simcox, left, and Al Garza.

Let's hope and pray the balance of power within our government rights itself in time to stave off the illegal alien invasion and save and preserve our country and the American way of life.

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Chris Simcox will be the first to tell you that his Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is about political activism. Its members are ordinary citizens, some retired military, who are frustrated that America might be undermined by anonymous smugglers crossing the nation's borders with drugs and illegal immigrants from all over the world while they can't board an airplane with a pair of fingernail clippers, he said. Their frustration underscores the double standard created in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, he said.
"This is a political issue, and the people are flexing their political muscle," Simcox said.

11th Circuit OKs RICO Suit Involving Illegal Aliens

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The judges noted that their decision put the 11th Circuit in conflict with the 7th Circuit's decision last year in Baker v. IBP, 357 F.3d 685, in which that court refused to allow a RICO case to go forward.
The 11th Circuit judges pointed out that "the Supreme Court had yet to delineate the exact boundaries" of some of the RICO tests -- an indication that the case could get attention from the U.S. Supreme Court, which often accepts cases in order to resolve a split among the circuits.

The Minutemen have my full support and encouragement, but I don't see them as the solution to our border security problems. Government needs to do the primary job that was intended for it, and the politicians should not be left off the hook in any way. The Minutemen were organized in order to put pressure on the politicians, not relieve them of it.

The citizens of United States are living under tyranny. Most are so party affiliated that they can't or won't see the damage the Democrats and Republicans are doing to them, their families and to the future of this country by promoting open borders.

Bush is the President - it is up to him to defend the protect country. He is in fact defending and protecting Mexico, while the spineless Republicans sit on their fat arses and don't even make a whine of discontent.

"The article cites a 2000 study that shows the children of Mexican immigrants do not advance quickly . . ."

I've written this before, but think it bears repeating as it is representative of this non-assimilation problem.

I am a volunteer tutor in eastern Nevada working with middle school students who are reading below grade level, sometimes by two or three grades. Most of my kids are Hispanics. I figured they had problems because they were new to this country but, according to the teachers, it is because their fathers won't let them speak, OR READ, English at home. "Spanish is your heritage" they are told.

It seems that when dear ole dad gets such basic amenities as clean water and a sewer system, he gets all teary-eyed for the country that crapped on him so much he had to flee. He doesn't go back, just wallows in a misplaced nostalgia and begins to turn his new home into a replica of the craphole he fled.

Any of these Open Borders types ought to take a look at some of the small farming communities in California (and elsewhere) and see firsthand how they have hardened into Third World barrios. (When they lose their jobs, they don't go back.)

Of course Bush and the rest of the pols will retire behind their gated/guarded communities and live the good insulated life afforded them by the taxpayers. Why should they care?

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