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."
From the locked thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1347991/posts?page=9#9
"One story I heard when I was down there was that there was an area where the smugglers came through frequently. Each time, they had to cut through a rancher's fence. The rancher would then fix it to keep his cattle in, so the next time through the smugglers had to go to the trouble of cutting it again. They finally got tired of this and installed an automatically-closing gate. All they had to do was nudge it open with their vehicle on the way in, and it would swing shut behind them, keeping the cattle from going through."
Why did not the rancher just shoot them? The property must be posted.
The participants are comprised of various religious and ethnic roots, and include four wheel chair bound persons and seven "legal" immigrants from six countries. About one third of the participants are women. Eight per cent are of non-American-European (also referred to as "Whites") ethnicity, specifically: eight American-Mexicans, four American-Armenians, twenty one Native American Indians (Cherokee, Comanche, Sioux, and other tribes), one American-Lebanese, one Russian, and others.At least 48 members of the print and broadcast media will be present to witness and report these activities.
The specific intention of the MMProject is to establish passive observation outposts throughout the San Pedro Valley. MMProject observers will identify and report to the U.S. Border Patrol persons who have illegally trespassed United States territory.
No deliberate confrontation or detention of the illegal alien intruders is planned, or encouraged, by the MMProject. Its purpose is to be strictly a passive observer/reporter, similar to a neighborhood watch group. Any interception and detention of the illegal aliens is specifically the obligation of the U. S. Border Patrol and/or other law enforcement agencies.
The MMProject will chronicle all events relative to the reporting of illegal alien obervations and the response to calls for assistance to the U.S. Border Patrol. These reports will be made available to all media on demand.
Bump for later read.
I honestly don't see the connection between that and citizen volunteer policing.
It's actually not even policing. Please see #82.
Politicians do not enforce immigration laws because politicians want corporations to have an
unlimited supply of cheap labor.
After immigration authorities arrested illegal immigrants at Walmart, the government
decided to try to change immigration policy so that illegal immigrants can stay in the
United States.
Immigration policy has been influenced by corporations.
Corporations want government to provide amnesty to illegal immigrants because corporations
like Walmart just want to have as many immigrants working for them as possible.
Corporations are not interested in stopping illegal immigration. Corporations are
interested in cheap labor.
Immigration laws are intended to provide national security. An illegal immigrant may
try to harm the United States of America.
Corporations are not interested in national security. Corporations are interested in
cheap labor.
The food industry depends heavily on illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants work on farms,
bakeries, mills, food processing plants, slaughterhouses, meat packing plants, restaurants,
and cafes.
The illegal immigrants in the food industry are not only from Mexico. They come from China,
Cambodia, Thailand, Nigeria, Kenya, South Korea, Japan, Russia, Iran, Haiti, Guatemala,
Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and many other countries.
Illegal immigration helps corporations. Illegal immigration helps people who hire domestic
workers.
Many domestic workers are illegal immigrants.
Politicians want certain people to have an unlimited supply of gardeners, housekeepers, and
babysitters. This is another reason that politicians do not enforce immigration laws and
want to provide amnesty to illegal immigrants.
The answer is that of these 10,000 border patrol agents 9900 are administrators. Typical govt. all chiefs no indians!.
>>I NEVER said I agree with him, I was only RESPECTING his right to control his website as he saw fit!<<
Jim and I see eye to eye on probably 75%+ of the issues before America. His right to control his website as he sees fit is certainly something that I agree with about 75%+. Members contribute to FR.com and IMO should have a right to speak their thoughts.
We have been discussing the immigration issue for quite some time now. Jim has his opinion and we (supporters of the Minuteman Project) have ours. As contributers I believe we have the right to discuss and debate the Minuteman Project on FR.
I see nothing wrong that he doesn't want links posted to the Project on his website. I doubt that he would permit links to NAMBLA either. Thank goodness!
Do you think he finds the debates offensive?
I honestly don't think so. It's more a case of him not wanting FR associated with someone he sees as going above the law. A perfectly understandable position.
Personally, I'm heartily sick of the economic drain on our country, the fact that Americans are being exposed to a flood of criminals, and the federal governments lack of adhering to Constitutional duty.
There is no higher law than to protect ourselves and our country.
With or without assistance from government.
Plenty of reasons why.
The only objection I've seen from the other MMP critics is the fact that some of the participants are armed.
That's not what I am objecting to. Matter of fact, I'm not really objecting to any of it. Being concerned is not the same as being objected.
I'm gonna go enjoy me a nice tasty after-lunch cigarette. ;-)
I really don't care if you decide to lick the bottom of a dirty ashtray.
Where were you when Reagan signed off on "amnesty for illegals", and brought up the notion of "Free Trade" across North America to strengthen the North American economy, or as we all now typically know as NAFTA? Please don't tell me you were cheering when Reagan proposed both ideas.
Yep. One of Reagan's few failures. You got it.
Do you think you can secure a 2 to 3 mile section of border by yourself; and when you do apprehend an illegal and have to go process him, who is watching that 2 to 3 miles section of border?
While there are approximately 10,000 BP Agents stationed along the Border with Mexico, not all of those Agents are on duty at 1 time. To man a single 24-hour post takes at the minimum 5 Agents. More is preferable, as Agents get sick, take leave and of course have days off.
So, at best, on any single day, we have 2,000 agents guarding the border. Now, not all Agents are on the border. We have management and support people that come out of that 2,000. Now you’re down another few hundred more.
Each Agent has to cover at least a mile and some places, many miles.
Stormfront is a White supremacist/Neo-Nazi website that promotes racial hatred . The folks running this board are quite within their rights to insist that Neo-Nazi{expletive deleted} not be posted on the board.
"They've cut down her fences, stolen her pickup and even broken into her home — once rampaging into the bedroom and nearly strangling her, sparing her life only after she grabbed a gun. "
"Maybe 20 years ago the illegals were innocent, hard-working people," she said. "Not any more. Now they're extremely dangerous. They mean violence."
This is from a lady joining the Militiamen. Obviously she feels she is not safe in her own country. She's lived there a long time. I hope they do this safely but this is America and our constitution allows for individuals to carry guns purely for this reason. If the government will not protect this lady living alone, then she will amass with the people around her to make her neighborhood safe, it's just a neighborhood watch program. I certainly hope they don't intend to use force but I also hope they get the cooperation they deserve from the authorities to protect themselves, their children and their property.
PS All her dogs were killed illegals (apparently dogs that bark and call attention to them is not a good thing for them).
Oops, her dogs weren't illegals. They were born here or had the necessary papers. Her dogs were killed by illegals.
I hear ya.
I understand your thoughts on this. I agree with them.
The worst case scenario as I see it, is one loose cannon doing something extemely stupid. In that instance, he'll be seeing major prison time. The groups will get painted with his guilt.
Then where are we? Once again, with open borders, three million per year or more headed our way, and not a chance in hell anyone will be allowed to make a statement along the border again.
Then the government would have that sewn up and there'd be no chance at all of moving legislation.
The craftiest thing the government could do, is put one nut-job in the group, to do something wild.
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