Posted on 08/08/2005 10:10:34 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
By Tim Gaynor
CAMPO, California (Reuters) - U.S. civilian patrols out to spot illegal immigrants from Mexico and angry pro-immigrant activists could be headed for a bloody showdown on the U.S.-Mexico border, police say.
The stage was set in April when hundreds of Minuteman Project volunteers, some of them armed, began tracking immigrants on the Arizona border, upsetting Mexico's 10-million-strong community in the United States.
Tensions rose last week when the Texas chapter of the Brown Berets, a Mexican-American group that was allied to the revolutionary U.S. Black Panther Party in the 1960s, said it would confront the Minutemen when they patrol there in October.
This weekend, some 100 protesters gathered in this sun-baked ranching community southeast of San Diego to see off volunteers from the California Minutemen, which broke away from the Arizona-based Minuteman Project, with chants of "racists go home."
Last month protesters here jostled the volunteers, some of whom are armed with knives, pistols and rifles. This time the border watchers kept a low profile and a clash was avoided.
Police in Campo say they remain concerned that violence could erupt.
"When you have a near-riot situation, you really don't want people having guns," Campo sheriff's station commander Mike Radovich said. "It has real potential for violence."
The patrol in Campo ends on Monday. But next month, another California group called Friends of the Border Patrol plans to deploy people, and in October Minuteman Project volunteers are set to conduct surveillance across all four states flanking the 2,000-mile border with Mexico.
FIREARMS, BASEBALL BATS
President Bush has called the border volunteers "vigilantes," and many in Mexico denounce them as "migrant hunters."
But they are allowed to watch for illegal immigrants and tip off security forces as long as they break no laws.
The Minutemen have chapters in 25 U.S. states and have drawn up a standard operating procedure that they say aims to weed out potential troublemakers and ensures volunteers obey the law.
But the California Minutemen, a splinter group organized by retired postal worker Jim Chase, are not bound by the procedure. The group has sent e-mails to volunteers encouraging them to bring firearms, baseball bats and machetes to the Campo stakeout for self-defense.
A leader of the Minuteman Project, which takes its name from a militia in the American Revolution, says he fears that any violence by rivals could wipe out political gains made by the movement since April.
"We have finally become the 800-pound gorilla in Washington D.C., but all that will be thrown out the window if anyone screws up," Minuteman founder Chris Simcox said in a telephone interview.
Activists in Campo, including the Border Angels migrant welfare group and rights group "Gente Unida," or People United, say they will step up their protests.
"They are racist vigilantes who represent the worst of the American spirit," Border Angels coordinator Enrique Morones said. "We're going to be back and we're going to be bigger."
That always cracks me up....probably putting the finishing touches on the Amnesty Plan at the ranch...
Put selective service stations all along the border and require a security background check and 10 years mandatory service in a US armed service in order to immigrate.
Many segments of our society are committed to migrant, government-subsidized "cheap" labor ("guest" or ILLEGAL, it matters not). Three of the segments are: mainline Republicans, New Democrat Third Way "progressives" (the Davos crowd that wants to redistribute wealth to developing nations), and business.
IMO, it is so important to those segments that the deaths of large numbers of citizens on the border would be a "small" price and would be welcomed in Washington.
End of border watching by "pesky" civilians.
Washington, et al. would get its "guest worker" so-called reform which does little more than forbid calling migrant workers ILLEGAL. End of anti-ILLEGAL immigration "trouble makers."
Am I nuts? Would you believe a government agency attacking a church group -- radical church yes, but the leader could have been arrested in town -- just to show how important that federal agency was? The MSM were invited, communications were ready, and the cameras were rolling: Project Showtime!
Those are OUR home-grown, legal American citizen groups.
This is the same kind of junk they were trying to stip up with the original patrols.
Obviously, I don't trust the feds to ever imprison anyone on the violent end of open-borders lobby. They're in on it, because the strategists think this is how to lock up the so-called Hispanic Vote. You had a better chance of getting the FBI to defend the Waco compound and pay homage to Koresh. The bottom line is that everyone has to be completely in control and to not let these nuts get under your skin.
The real racism going on here is to be found with the political strategists, who are treating Hispanics as if none of them care about anything but letting more illegals in and talking in Spanish. Everyone deserves better than this. Americans with Hispanic ethnic origins deserve to be treated like every other American would expect to be treated. Anything less is an insult.
Keep your heads up, manners kind, and eyes peeled.
LOL!
Fantastic!!!
I still love the little guy who falls down and can't get up. ;o)
BTTT!
It seems as though the law abiding, tax-paying, and GOD-fearing citizens are the only bad guys in this country. As soon as we ask the Government to do what they're supposed to do, the name calling starts.
LOL, cowpoke has more than 9 lives!!
Wonder how many tried to "save" that "One" (3)
It loads much faster like that - but is a pain to do quickly unless you save the codes
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