Posted on 08/28/2005 3:17:13 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The Minutemen aren't scheduled to patrol the streets of Houston for another month, but already they're having an effect among day laborers.
A day labor organizational meeting scheduled for Saturday had to be closed to the media because the workers are afraid, organizers said.
The leaders also say they have noticed that fewer contractors are picking up workers from the corners where day laborers, most of them undocumented immigrants, gather, which they also attribute to fear of the Minutemen.
"They're very scared," Maria Jimenez, a leader of the Coalition Against Intolerance and for Respect, said of the workers.
The coalition organized the meeting Saturday so that day laborers would have the chance to meet with Francisco Pacheco from the National Day Labor Organizing Network, a group based in Los Angeles.
Jimenez said she could not estimate how many day laborers would be able to attend the meeting.
The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, an Arizona group calling for reduced illegal immigration, has announced that it will begin Operation Spotlight in Houston this October. Minuteman volunteers will observe day laborers and write down the license plate numbers of the contractors who pick them up.
"The situation here is becoming more delicate," Pacheco said after touring day-labor sites Friday.
Response to arrival
He said Saturday's talks were to focus on educating workers on their rights, and coaching them on how to respond to the arrival of the Minutemen.
"The correct response, of course, is nonviolent," he said.
Having worked in areas such as Long Island, New York, where conflicts have risen between residents and day laborers, Pacheco said he thinks such tension hurts an area. "It divides a community," he said.
In addition to a drop in contractors, Jimenez said she has noted that some day laborers have abandoned their usual corners, which she thinks is driven by fear. She and other organizers concede that it might encourage the Minutemen even more to hear they're already having an effect.
"This is already starting," Juan Alvarez, another leader of the coalition, said of the fear. "We can't reverse it."
Opponents from Herndon and as far away as Colorado called for stepped-up police enforcement, legislative changes and an end to the hiring of undocumented workers. .................
Supporters cited the biblical exhortation to love thy neighbor and begged the council not to allow the community to turn its back on its less-fortunate members. They said the problem is not immigration but a neighborhood conflict over noise, littering and safety. .....***
Rights groups fearful of vigilante militias***WASHINGTON — A controversial proposal to create civilian militias to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border was greeted with criticism Thursday by immigrant rights groups that said the amateur force of volunteers could lead to vigilantism.
Republican lawmakers in the House, led by Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, filed a bill last month that would use $6.8 billion in homeland security funds to train the militias, which would serve under the command of border state governors.
Militia members would operate as sworn peace officers and be allowed to carry arms, make arrests and "use any means and any force authorized by state law to prevent individuals from unlawfully entering" the country.
"I think this is borne of a frustration that the federal government is unable or unwilling to secure the borders," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, one of 47 lawmakers who co-sponsored the Border Protection Corps Act. ...***
"They're very scared," Maria Jimenez, a leader of the Coalition Against Intolerance and for Respect, said of the workers.
If they are in this country legally they have nothing to be afraid of..right? If they are not..well, they should just go home.
Maybe the Minute men will target the new illegal immigrant labor pick-up center that they're building in Herndon, VA.
The Left has taught the world well. Make up an organization without legal, moral, or regulatory authority---give it a fancy sounding name, and voila! You demand legitimacy.
These people are lawbreakers who are not even US Citizens!
Glad to hear of their fear of the Minutemen. Too bad they don't fear LEO's as well.
CAIR? Hmmm...
Illegals forming unions? Well, that's one way to get people to stop hiring them...
If they're actively helping and assisting illegal immigrants, especially if they're assisting them in avoiding detection by law enforcement, then this is a criminal enterprise to be dismantled under RICO.
I think the RICO laws only apply to pro-life supporters who dare to protest an abortion mill. < / sarcasm>
The Minutemen are proving remarkably effective at deterring illegals... great job to all involved!
Thats right, they shouldn't be here to begin with, imagine if all of the ones that are here already mooching off Americans
were back in their own country and were as aggressive to get things done in their own country maybe things would improve there for them. Instead millions and millions of them are coming here stealing from Americans to give to Foxy which is totally unfair to Americans!!
RICO. I love the sound of it.
Apparently that isn't necessary at all: a few Minutemen "outing" them does the trick. It's just like a preacher patrolling an area in front of a whorehouse---amazing how the Johns stop showing up, or, at least, those whom he might recognize.
Go Minutemen. Now, if the illegals and the law breaking contractors were as afraid of the BP/ICE.
CAIR............we've got one of those already, and it isn't a friend of Americnas either.
A Martha Stewart phrase comes mind.
"And that's a good thing".
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