Posted on 02/21/2005 2:38:55 AM PST by ajolympian2004
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Intent on securing the vulnerable Arizona border from illegal immigrant crossings, U.S. officials are bracing for what they call a potential new threat this spring: the Minutemen. Nearly 500 volunteers have already joined the Minuteman Project, anointing themselves civilian border patrol agents determined to stop the immigration flow that routinely, and easily, seeps past federal authorities.
They plan to patrol a 40-mile stretch of the southeast Arizona border throughout April when the tide of immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border peaks.
"I felt the only way to get something done was to do it yourself," said Jim Gilchrist, a retired accountant and decorated Vietnam War veteran who is helping recruit Minutemen across the country.
"We've been repeatedly accused of being people who are taking the law into our own hands," said Gilchrist, 56, of Aliso Viejo, Calif. "That is an outright bogus statement. We are going down there to assist law enforcement."
Officials concede the 370-mile Arizona border is the most porous stretch on the U.S.-Mexico line. Moreover, recent intelligence show that al-Qaida terrorists are likely to enter the country through the Mexico border, James Loy, the deputy secretary of the Homeland Security Department, said last week.
"Several al-Qaida leaders believe operatives can pay their way into the country through Mexico, and also believe illegal entry is more advantageous than legal entry for operational security reasons," Loy said in written testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Of the 1.1 million illegal immigrants caught by the U.S. Border Patrol last year, 52 percent crossed into the country at the Arizona border. The agency increased the number of agents in the Tucson sector, which has its largest staff, from 1,700 to 2,100 over the last 18 months.
But that number is going to grow to try to plug the remaining holes, said Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C. Bonner. About 10,000 federal agents now patrol the 2,000-mile southern border, he said.
Officials fear the Minuteman patrols could cause more trouble than they prevent. At least some of the volunteers plan to arm themselves during the 24-hour desert patrols. Many are untrained and have little or no experience in confronting illegal border crossings.
"Any time there are firearms and you're out in the middle of no-man's land in difficult terrain, it's a dangerous setting," said Bonner, whose agency is keeping a close eye on the Minutemen plans.
"The Border Patrol does this every day, and they are qualified and very well-trained to handle the situation," he said. "Ordinary Americans are not. So there's a danger that not just illegal migrants might get hurt, but that American citizens might get hurt in this situation."
Civilian patrols are nothing new along the southern border, where crossing the international line is sometimes as easy as stepping over a few rusty strands of barbed wire. But they usually are limited to small, informal groups, leaving organizers to believe the Minuteman Project is the largest of its kind on the southern border.
It may also prove to be a magnet for what Glenn Spencer, president of the private American Border Patrol, described as camouflage-wearing, weapons-toting hard-liners who might get a little carried away with their assignments.
"How are they going to keep the nutcases out of there? They can't control that," said Spencer, whose 40-volunteer group, based in Hereford, Ariz., has used unmanned aerial vehicles and other high-tech equipment to track and report the number of border crossings for more than two years.
"There's a storm gathering here on the border, and there are conditions ripe for some difficulty," he said.
The border agents agree.
The Minutemen "clearly have every reason to be upset with the federal government for abandoning them," said National Border Patrol Council president T.J. Bonner, no relation to the commissioner.
But "if anything goes wrong, God forbid, someone does injure an agent, this government is going to be turning both barrels on them and come after them with a vengeance," he said.
Gilchrist said the Minutemen are under strict orders to merely identify and follow illegal border crossers and alert federal agents. They should not interact with the immigrants except to offer food, water or medical care. If there's a couple of "bad apples" who turn up in the group, Gilchrist said, they will face prosecution if they step outside the law.
Something dramatic needed to be done to curb the years of crime, property damage and trash dumping caused by the border crossings, Gilchrist said.
"Things are out of control" he said. "And they've been out of control for decades."
Comparing or border situation to the Berlin Wall is ridiculous, each having different functions.
while the US's problem are for the most part peaceful Christians looking to find a job to feed their families
Spare me. These people violate the sovereignty of our country when they enter illegally. They need to follow the rules we've laid out and not cut in line of others who are following the rules.
Do you have some sort of illusion that the coyotes and drug smugglers in these groups are unarmed? If so, why does the border patrol need to be armed? Hell-OOOO!!!
They are NOT the same and "a militarized wall" is NOT "a militarized wall".If you can't see the difference between a living inside a prison and living OUTSIDE a prison I am not sure we're sharing the same globe....BTW, do you have a fence around your property?
WTF!!~~??
I need to write a letter to our president, vIcEnTe fOx, and ask him whose side the gubmint is really ON? Why don't they "turn both barrels" on the invaders who are injuring not ony border patrolmen but hundreds of thousands of others? This kind of attitude by "Evil Powers On high" is EXACTLY why we have a 2nd amendment. It isn't to protect us from foreign invaders, but from tyranical gubmints AT HOME."If anything goes wrong"? 1.2 million invaders a year ISN'T something "going wrong"? What are these people smoking??????
El presidente BOOSH: girlfriend to the despots of the world...
Ho hum. Needless to say, we'll never see you rushing to the border with a weapon to repel the supposed invasion of dishwasher-infantrymen and lawn-clipper-saboteurs.
Robert, the question isn't what school I attended. The question is, have you watched the evening news in the last decade? Have you seen them spin conseervatism into the dirt at every opportunity? Have you seen our elected leaders do the same? How many conservative officials have come forward on this issue? Just about zero.
What you're setting yourself up for, is the media against you, public officials against you, the INS against you and local law enforcement officials against you.
You know what happend to Glenn Spencer down there. Do you think you're going to fair any better?
If it hasn't dawned on you by now, let me explain it to you. THIS IS NOT ABOUT WHAT IS LEGAL OR ILLEGAL? For you and I it is, but who's going to be enforcing the laws down there, you and I? Surely you jest.
This is the start of something big. If we come up the victims, we'll be on the right track. If the media can spin this any way possible, that the poor illegal is the victim, YOU will come off as the problem.
Selling me on your innocense isn't going to be a problem. You've got 279,999,999 more citizens out there. Sad to say, a lot of them won't believe a word you say if you win any skirmish.
Follow the illegal and report them. If the INS doesn't follow through, document it. At then end of the campaign, you guys should have literally thousands of incident reports concerning over 500,000 illegals. If 90% of those reports reveal the I.N.S. couldn't care less about the ones you reported, then you've got them by the juevos.
In case it hasn't dawned on you, that's better than them having you by the neck.
Be sure to buy yourself plenty of stationary before you go down there fella. While you're at it invest in some stamps and some envelopes. If you go down there and shoot "anyone" you'll have a number of years to put them to good use.
Actually, BIG-Mouth, I fully intend to be down there. and you?????
yeah...just as I thought. Armchair "patriot"
Is everybody down there going to be as charming as you are?
If you go down there and shoot "anyone" you'll have a number of years to put them to good use.
Thank you for the tips, D1. Those same ideas were discussed in the basic peace officer academy I completed. Same kind of stuff was discussed in paralegal school. I have no idea here you are but here in the states, and particularly in Az. "Shooting anybody" is not necessarily a crime. It depends on what the "anybody" was doing at the time to get himself shot, but you knew that huh? There is no law in this country mandating that a U.S. citizen submit to murder at the hands of another, unless that "other" is a cop, backed up by his buddies. This is to say that if, while in the commission of a crime, a person puts you in reasonable fear for your life and has the immediate wherewithal to act on that real threat to your life, you have the right to cancel their ticket
Now you a name, badge number, a photo of the intended transfer into government custody, and the name of the local or federal agency to include in your documentation.
You then cut a letter to the agency in question, and after fifty to one hundred letters have received no concrete action, prepare a Writ of Mandamus, include points and authorities - along with your batch of letters and related documentation, and require the court issue an order to the agency to implement the law.
If the court refuses to act, you go up the pipeline, with accompanying publicity (internet that is), bring into the public arena, by legal means and Citizen influence, the failure of the government to protect America and their failure to enforce American law.
Is America ready to step up to the task. Wait and see.
Even if the racialists are armed only with a bigoted tongue, don't expect the media to give them a pass.
Do you think that Israel's wall is a bad idea?
I thought "a militarized wall is a militarized wall".
It is, there is a difference between a border where a lot of people(islamofascists) want to blow you up, and border shared with people, the vast majority of whom are peaceful Christians, who just want to work.
But there is a difference whether the wall is intended to keep one in or out. Gotcha. (I think)
Some Corrections: 1.) They are criminals, and; 2.) MOST of them are catholics, and; 3.)You are ASSuming that they are "peaceful" but 25%-30% of our jail space is taken us by these "peaceful christians". Go figger.....and; 4.) It only took 19 'peaceful' (remember, El presidente BOOSH says it is "a religion of peace") islamofascists to bring down the WTC. How many do you figure have leaked across the border with these "peaceful" "christians"?
No, I won't. Sadly, so true these days.
There will be a presence of some racists. There are some on both sides. The ones on our side will be thinned out soon enough.
To the media though, "Excuse me Mr. Mexican citizen, your shoe's untied." becomes something Martin Luther King "would have fought against."
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