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."
If the Minuteman project wishes to become involved at the border, they must remain unarmed and peaceful. They cannot detain. They must work in an advisory status only.
Turth be told, I think they should be able to aprehend and detain north of the border. The fact is, the border patrol will turn on them like rabid dogs, if they do so.
This will probably get ugly. Perhaps that's a good thing. If the feds get the idea the citizens of this nation have had it, perhaps they'll get off thair fat rumps and do something about this travesty.
Course what they'd probably do is hire 10,000 new agents to guard against U.S. citizens making aprehensions. And they'd probably do it lickety split.
What I find kinda funny...is that the Tucson and Phoenix police departments...have programs where local citizens ride with the cops. It helps out when you have one cop assigned to a car, and sometimes the judgement of two on the scene can make a difference. From all of the programs in the US where private citizens ride with the police...I've never heard a negative word.
Which brings me to the border patrol. They too could use the help of private citizens. And what we see...is a private empire. They want absolute control over the situation. The government needs to take one of two actions. Either they beef up the border patrol...triple the number of officers out there....or they fire them all and go for a military-run operation. I don't see a problem with each state being given $100 million and using its national guard force for guard and patrol. They'd have air assets, recon, and the technology to take on trespassing.
Government is willingly refusing to enforce the law. In that case, citizens ought to do it.
A timely reflection of what was established.These are being
recruited with every good and right intention.The current crop of corrupted politicians will oppose this with every
means at their disposal. Simcox has allready been warned by them.My prayers are with these American patriots--I fear
those who ought support them most will be a bigger threat
than the illegals that now refuse to recognize our borders.
I see this whole situation to get very ugly and out of hand, it's only going to make the border situation worse than it already is.
The Bush Administration (and administrations before it, both Dem and GOP) could have started the chemotheraphy on this CANCER many, many years ago, before the disease spread, to riddle the entire body. But NOOOOOO!!! They had to let it fester like this until our Southwestern US states are like the Balkans and we are totally overwhelmed.
And just how many illegals are in the country now in spite of the best efforts of these "qualified and well-trained" boarder police?
Check the byline -- Lara Jakes Jordan. She's married to Jim Jordan, formerly Kerry's campaign manager during the primaries. IOW, she's a shill for the Demoncrat party, and her bias is quite apparent in her "articles."
In essence, the Minutemen are asked to function as a welcoming committee and tour guides.
I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for pointing this out.
I thought Jim Rob banned the Minute Men from this site. Saying they are from Storm Front
Yes he did.
Absolutely. A few raucous demonstrations at choice border locations would get some action too. Say 5,000 Americans march on a place where the illegals are streaming through. Or disrupt a legal border crossing where semi trucks are trying to pass through, and will lose money with the chaos
He did, because IHO, the Minutemen are vigilantes. StormFront is associated with the KKK. (At least that's the way I remember it.)
Surprising that this thread hasn't been pulled already.
And the weak sister politicians who won't enforce the laws are the exact cause of the problem. They've abdicated their responsibilities until it's become a crisis situation, a real one, not like the "crisis" in education or health care.
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:m40D2g42OSoJ:www.wnd.com/news/article.asp%3FARTICLE_ID%3D32268+%22Lara+Jakes+Jordan%22&hl=en
He was deliberately targeted by a political activist disguised as a reporter – Lara Jakes Jordan.
I invite you to read her original story and see for yourself how it is dripping in venom. It's an editorial camouflaged as a news story. And she wrote it for the largest and most powerful news-gathering operation in the world, ensuring it would get maximum play in newspapers throughout the world.
Who is Lara Jakes Jordan?
For starters, she is married to veteran Democratic Party operative Jim Jordan, the former executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and manager of Sen. John Kerry's presidential bid.
Not surprisingly, the Massachusetts Democrat was among the first to criticize Santorum's remarks, using it as an opportunity to attack the White House. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Kerry got an advance copy of the article given his connections.
But there's more to the Lara Jakes Jordan story.
In January of this year, Mrs. Jordan was one of the signatories on a letter to her bosses at the AP attacking the news organization for "rolling back diversity" by not extending benefits to domestic partners.
In a symbolic move, the signatories to the letter returned key chains AP management gave them to "celebrate" its corporate diversity. The key chains carried the slogan: "AP Diversity: Many Views, One Vision.
It seems Mrs. Jordan's ideological fervor is not reserved only for her private life and her corporate politicking. This woman clearly ambushed Santorum on an issue near and dear to her bleeding heart.
I've been in the daily news business for 25 years. When I got started a quarter century ago, there was an old newsroom saying that went like this: "I don't care if you sleep with elephants as long as you don't cover the circus."
Mrs. Jordan violated that old newsroom ethic. She abdicated her right to cover the circus because she was sleeping with an elephant – or, in this case, a donkey.
That's why I say these catcalls for the head of Rick Santorum are nothing more than a political sideshow. It's not Rick Santorum who should be forced from office for clearly stating views that have been considered mainstream for the last 5,000 years. It's Lara Jakes Jordan who should be drummed out of the news profession for scoring cheap political points under the guise of news reporting.
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