Navarro says patrol groups 'threatening;' Spencer, Simcox deny allegation

DOUGLAS -- Armando Navarro, an outspoken critic of what he calls vigilantes and militias, said two Arizona groups and one from Texas "are threatening our people, the Mexicanos."

He identified the Arizona groups as the American Border Patrol headed by Glenn Spencer and the Citizens Border Patrol Militia organized by Chris Simcox. The Texas organization is Ranch Rescue founded by Jack Foote.

The leaders of two of those groups said Saturday that they aren't threatening Mexicans or anyone else crossing the border illegally, but they are providing information to federal law enforcement agencies so the government can take action.

On Saturday, Navarro warned that the border could erupt into violence if action is not taken to stop Spencer, Simcox and Foote.

Saying he knows people and groups in Mexico who will not hesitate to take up arms against vigilantes and militias, Navarro said the time to eliminate violence along the border is becoming shorter.

However, Navarro denied that he intended to have a confrontation with Spencer or any of the civilian patrol groups this weekend. He said he wanted to have a dialogue with Spencer. However, in a press release from the National Alliance for Human Rights, the subject was "Latino delegation travels to Arizona to confront militia activity."

"I rather would call it a cross-fertilization of information," Navarro said as he sat in the lobby of the Gadsden Hotel. "I basically want to obtain information from him (Spencer) and give him information. We need to learn form each other."

While Spencer said Saturday that he would rather not meet with Navarro, "if he called I would talk to him."

Spencer said Navarro, a political scientist at the University of California Riverside's department of ethnic studies, "is straightening up his organization under the guise of attacking us."

Spencer added that Navarro and his supporters twist the facts of what groups such as the American Border Patrol are doing, inciting people against Spencer by calling him a racist and anti-Mexican. The American Border Patrol is based in Sierra Vista.

Spencer's and Navarro's paths crossed in California, where another of Spencer's organizations -- the American Patrol -- was established.

Navarro and his supporters are now coming to Arizona to continue the battle without obtaining the real facts and without getting their hands dirty, leaving the actions to others, Spencer said.

Simcox said Saturday that the actual name of his group is Civil Homeland Defense, which is based in Tombstone. He said he debated Navarro in the past, and sees no problem with what Civil Homeland Defense is doing.

He described his organization as a neighborhood watch group, which in the process of looking for illegal immigrants has "saved quite a few of their lives."

Navarro said he was in Southern Arizona in 2000 on an initial fact-finding mission. His trip that began Thursday in Phoenix is to help establish a network of groups, which he said is ineffectual in making a united stand against the anti-immigration organizations.

In the press release, Navarro said the organizations such as Spencer's, Simcox's and Foote's are armed terrorists.

During the interview in the hotel lobby, he said the United States is on the look out for international terrorists but is doing nothing about the terrorists on the United States side of the border.

Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said he has not had problems with any civilian patrol organizations. He added that the group being developed by Navarro will polarize the border even further.

Although the extremes of both sides are problems, the sheriff said the groups will not get any trouble from his department as long as they stay within the law and only do things that are legal.

If any person or organization makes a criminal action, Dever said he will act, as per his constitutional responsibilities.

Douglas Mayor Ray Borane, who is not a supporter of Spencer, Simcox or Foote, said he cannot support the actions of Navarro either. Both sides are too volatile and use inaccurate information to build up support and "their rhetoric is doing harm," he said.

The possibility the situation will get out of hand cannot be underestimated, the Douglas mayor said. "It is explosive."

Borane said the U.S. and Mexican governments' inaction is to blame for the creation of citizen patrols and their adversaries.

Felipe Aguirre, who came from California as a representative of Pro Uno, a group he described as a self-help organization for immigrants, said that what has to be stopped are the people dying in the deserts.

He and others, including Borane, call for a new guest-worker program, to allow Mexican workers into the United States legally.

"We have to find a humane way to bring in people legally, not illegally," Aguirre said.

Criminals on both sides of the border entice individuals seeking employment and a better way of life to illegally enter the United States, which is the cause of the problems, he said.

Navarro said there is a lack of cohesion among Hispanic leaders, especially those in Congress, when addressing the immigration problem. Recently elected U.S. Rep. Ral Grijalva, D-Ariz., whose district includes a large part of the border, has given some help, Navarro said. Unfortunately, Grijalva "is like Moses in the wilderness and no one is listening to him," Navarro said.

As for the goal of Mexicans to take back the Southwest, as Spencer says, it is the real reason for the migration, Navarro said.

"If the country (the United States) denies us, we have to consider all options," he said.

One of the options is what Spencer has been talking about -- the return of the Southwest to Mexico, Navarro said. In the next quarter of a century, demographics and other political factors will determine what happens, he said.

SENIOR REPORTER Bill Hess can be reached at 458-9440 Ext. 115 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.

As for the goal of Mexicans to take back the Southwest, as Spencer says, it is the real reason for the migration, Navarro said.

"If the country (the United States) denies us, we have to consider all options," he said.

Sounds like inciting treason to me.

Sounds like inciting treason to me.

I sure does. It's hard to believe that gasbags the likes of Navarro, Isabel Garcia, and Raul Grijalva are actually being paid by the taxpayers.

> If these immigrants wanted things to be like in Mexico, they would have never come up here to begin with.

-- That is not how leftists think. They think that by taking space that has prosperity that they will somehow keep that prosperity. What we have now in America would all be theirs if we hadnt taken it from them.

I agree with you about leftists. However, and perhaps I'm naive, but I don't really think that the vast majority of Mexicans coming across the border are looking to re-establish this whole "Aztlan" to Mexico. I really think that most of them just want to work and take care of their families. I think most of them are wholly uniterested in politics and the such.

Most of the instigation about Aztlan is coming from Mexican-American living in the states and sympathizers of the Zapatistas and other left-wing militant groups. I don't think that the average immigrant really spends too much time thinking about this. But like I said, I could be wrong.

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