Free Republic

...The vigilantes are back. In the 1850s, they lynched Irishmen. In the 1870s, they terrorized the Chinese. In the first decade of the 20th century, they murdered striking Wobblies. In the 1920s, they organized "Bash a Jap" campaigns, and in the 1930s, they welcomed the Joads and other Dust Bowl refugees with teargas and buckshot... The most publicized of today's vigilantes are the Minutemen, who began their armed patrol of the Arizona-Mexico border on -- appropriately enough - - April Fool's Day. The Tombstone, Ariz., group is the latest incarnation of the anti- immigrant patrols that have plagued the borderlands...