Posted on 08/24/2006 5:32:50 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
The head of the Border Patrol said Wednesday he doesn’t want members of the Minuteman Project working near his agents when they come to the Laredo area next month.The civilian group, which reports illegal immigrants to immigration authorities, is expected to start patrolling the border in the Laredo area on Sept. 11 and continue through Nov. 7.
Acting Chief Patrol Agent Reynaldo Garza of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Laredo Sector said he can’t prevent the civilians from coming to Laredo, but said they won’t be allowed to interfere with official business.
John Cristian Esquivel, deputy chief, said the agency wants to know where the Minuteman members will be to avoid any problems.
“We’re not going to tell them what they can or can’t do. They are responsible for their own actions,” Esquivel said. “They can be on private property. It’s a matter of who will allow them to occupy their land.”
Texas Minuteman president Shannon McGauley said earlier this week that he expects as many as 2,000 people to participate in the weeks-long patrols. McGauley told the Associated Press that his group will only report illegal immigrant sightings to the Border Patrol and will not approach the immigrants or interfere with law officers.
He declined to say exactly where the members would be patrolling.
Esquivel said that if U.S. citizens should have any trouble with a member of the Minuteman Project, he or she should call the sheriff’s department or other law enforcement authority.
For his part, Garza said members of the project have sought to talk to him to no avail.
“There will be other officials who will hear them,” Garza said.
While Garza has said members of the Minuteman Project have provided information that led to detentions in the past, he emphasized that his agency in no way cedes its responsibility to protect the border.
Mayor Raul Salinas said that if any of the members of the Minuteman Project violate the law, they will be arrested just as any other citizen.
“The Border Patrol forces are professionals and they have maintained peace and safety,” Salinas said. “I think they (Minuteman members) are simply looking for publicity.”
Salinas said Jim Gilchrist, founder of the civilian group, is just looking for media attention to help sell his new book.
State Rep. Richard Raymond deplored the group’s plan to come to Laredo.
“They don’t have anything to do with this community,” Raymond said. “Here, we reject the racism they practice.”
Like Salinas, Raymond believes the group is just seeking publicity. He noted it’s the Border Patrol that is the real authority on the border.
“They are trained and qualified to protect the border,” Raymond said. “If the federal government or the people believe we need more security, then they need to invest in more agents.”
(Miguel Timoshenkov may be reached at (956) 728-2583 or by e-mail at timo1@lmtonline.com)
A lot more than illegal aliens have, Richard.
Therein lies the rub: they arrest CITIZENS, but they don't arrest ILLEGALS....
Operation Sovereignty Ping!
“If the federal government or the people believe we need more security, then they need to invest in more agents.”
Brilliant! Simply brilliant!
This is a lot like a local police department saying they don't want a Neighborhood Watch program reporting on what they see. Makes me wonder what they're up to down there that they don't want seen.
You ever get the impression they're trying to offset good press about the Minutemen like the kind words from the DEA?
Why invest in agents when you have a well armed military. Build the fence! Station the military on this side of it.
No,Salinas, they'll be looking for illegal aliens...
~GCR~
Racism???? Am I missing something here?
exactly my thoughts.
MM are just a bunch of "vigilantes" don't cha know.
And just who do we call about the illegal aliens?
Nobody will handle it. So someone is. And they're upset?
What the hell is going on?
Absolutely friggin' unbelievable.
This is going to get a lot worse before it starts getting better. How in the hell is this happening? It's like a bad dream.
I think somebody better do some looking around down there and find out what's going on. They sound awfully desperate to keep the minutemen away. Sounds like they have something to hide.
If the present situation continues much longer, the Minutemen will be numbering in the ten's of thousands, instead of just thousands. Militia's will be formed and joining them.
Lotsa profit in drug smuggling, enough to be passed around to pay for officials to look the other way.
I'm sick of hearing the word "racist", it's the only argument they have to justify this invasion.
I have an hypothesis about all of this. It is by no means a conclusion, not even a theory, at this point, but a nagging gut-level hunch.
My hypothesis goes like this:
The government will ignore the illegal immigration problem no matter how the public cries for a sound solution.
Incidents will occur that will raise the public outcry to an unthinkable level.
Soemone, somewhere in the private sector, will finally crack and say, "Enough!" and they will initiate a small insurrection of citizens determined to do what the government will not do; using a show of arms to prevent interference from local Law enforcement and BP officials.
At THAT point, then, the government will respond against THEM with military force, and make a huge public showing of how vigilantes get treated, violently put down the insurrection, and simultaneously create the brush with which all future Minuteman-type members and operations will get tarred.
[As a secondary measure, this will be used as an excuse to reinstate and expand the so-called "Assault Weapons Ban" to include nearly everything down to .22 and .177 caliber small arms; including air guns.]
From there, the government will encounter little to no further outcry or resistance as it procedes to erase the borders of the United States, dispose of our National identity, our sovereignty, our heritage, our freedom, our liberty, our rights, and -- finally -- our peace. For, thus weakened, we will stand fully exposed to all in the world who would seek to do us harm, and there will be nothing to bar their entry, and war will again rear its destructive head in this land.
The idea of "government of the people, by the people, and for the people" is on life-support and many hands are grasping to finally pull the plug. IF that happens, it WILL be FOREVER.
Whatever can be done, must be done, and it must be done with all haste.
LOL... The Minute Men will be working on the border so there's slim chance they'll even see a US Border Patrol agent.
/S
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