Posted on 09/16/2005 9:18:40 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
A group opposed to illegal immigration will mark Mexican Independence Day today by posting volunteers along the California-Mexico border to report illegal crossers. Meanwhile, migrant-rights advocates plan to respond with street demonstrations in Calexico.
The action is on the border -- from the ocean east to Calexico -- but leaders on both sides of this increasingly angry issue are from the Inland area.
Friends of the Border Patrol, organized by Andy Ramirez, 37, of Chino, begins its monitoring today with an estimated 130 volunteers, he said. They expect to continue the political momentum started by the original Minuteman Project in Arizona in April, with the same goals of deterring illegal entry and embarrassing the government into better securing the border.
Jesse Diaz Jr., 41, of Ontario, is an organizer of La Tierra es de Todos, a coalition of groups formed in Riverside in May to oppose such Minuteman spin-off groups. Coalition members will caravan to the border Saturday for a rally in Calexico and to join an attempt to close the border at Tecate, to deny California retailers business from Mexican shoppers, Diaz said.
Both sides want to sway opinions of the majority of Californians who fret about illegal immigration, and are divided over how the state's political leadership should respond.
While eight in every 10 Californians indicate concern about illegal immigration, 56 percent oppose the idea of private citizens patrolling the California-Mexico border, according to a Sept. 8 survey by The Field Poll. Republicans, non-Hispanic whites, and people over 50 showed the highest concern; Democrats and Latinos and younger residents had less concern.
The poll indicated Californians are split over whether Gov. Schwarzenegger should follow the actions of the governors of Arizona and New Mexico and declare that large-scale illegal immigration constitutes a border emergency requiring federal aid.
Ramirez formed his Friends of the Border Patrol group last year to show support for the federal officers who staff border checkpoints in Temecula.
Ramirez said he chose Mexican Independence Day to kick off the border watch to stress what he sees as the need of the Mexican government and people to free themselves from the wages illegal-immigrant workers send to Mexico from the United States.
California has 11 million Latino residents who compose about 32 percent of the population, including 8.5 million residents of Mexican descent. The state has 2.4 million residents who are undocumented immigrants, most from Mexico, according to a Pew Hispanic Center study.
About 485,000 people enter the U.S. illegally from Mexico each year, the study said. The economy of Mexico was boosted by $16.6 billion sent by U.S. residents last year.
While declining to comment on Ramirez starting the action on Mexico's national holiday, Mexican Consulate Carlos Giralt-Cabrales said binational negotiations are needed about how to resolve the shortage of jobs in Mexico and the U.S. desire for workers.
"Immigration won't be resolved by policing the border," he said. "Immigration will be resolved by talking to your neighbor and finding a way of organizing the labor force."
Friends of the Border Patrol is not the first group to try a Minuteman Project-style border watch in California, but Ramirez said it is likely to be the largest to date.
The California Minutemen, led by Oceanside resident James Chase, has watched the border near Campo, in San Diego County, in modest numbers -- about a few dozen -- since early July. On several weekends, opponents who mounted loud, hostile protests outnumbered the Minutemen.
Diaz said opposition groups would go out at night looking for Minutemen border-watch groups in order to confront them with light and noise and video cameras and to disrupt their efforts at stealthy monitoring.
Another group, the Minuteman Corps of California, led by Tim Donnelly, of Twin Peaks, plans additional patrols in October.
Chase and Donnelly were part of the original Minuteman Project border watch in Arizona, and Donnelly's group is the only California chapter associated with project co-founder Chris Simcox's Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. Chase's group is independent of Simcox.
Unlike the groups led by Chase and Simcox, Friends of the Border Patrol volunteers may not carry visible weapons, Ramirez said. Ramirez said he plans to keep his Calexico headquarters and the group's patrol sites secret and on private property to avoid confrontations with opponents.
The name contains mostly Mexico.
Maybe it should be Califorico?
A Pinko statement if I've ever heard one.
Just WTF is a "non-Hispanic white"?
There are white Hispanics. Go to Miami, and you will see many blonde, white folks speaking Spanish. "Hispanic" is not a race you see.
Some may question my sanity, but I would love to join the FBP and then treat everyone to dinner in Tecate with all of the Tecate beer they can drink.
actually, most Hispanics are classified as "white" on birth certificate (at least on mine which was not THAT long ago) and census.
In fact, I know a very pale red-headed Jewish boy whose last name is Lopez. Neither he, nor his parents speak a word of Spanish. I wonder if his name will get him affirmative action. The kid won't need it, but people do make assumptions about him due to his name. His (wonderful)family is upper-middle class, with lawyer dad and PhD mom.
Yeah....Cameron Diaz also comes to mind.
I would love to join the FBP and then treat everyone to dinner in Tecate with all of the Tecate beer they can drink.
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WooHooo, Tecate beer!
Hey calcowgirl,, BYOB & CYa There! lol
What it really means is, "Su tierra es mi tierra."
"What it really means is, "Su tierra es mi tierra.""
Agreed and any other greedy you know what like the Clintons.
Tecate! That sounds good! But I can't make it.
I'll pop one here, though--with lime and salt, of course.
:-)
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