Tombstone vigilantes ride shotgun to keep the strangers out
From Chris Ayres in Los Angeles
THEY will arrive today, more than 1,000 in total, at the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper office on Toughnut Street in a corner of the Arizona desert. After being given an “orientation lecture”, the armed men will move south, towards the Mexican border.
President Bush calls them vigilantes. Vicente Fox, the Mexican President, says that they are breaking international law. Civil rights campaigners say that they are supported by white supremacist and other hate organisations.
But the leaders of the so-called Minuteman Project describe themselves as American patriots who can no longer tolerate the number of illegal immigrants who cross the US border every day.
And so, for April, the Minutemen, including at least 40 pilots and 16 private aircraft, will patrol the border all day and all night, reporting illegal immigrants to the federal agents via walkie-talkies.
“Just think of us as a neighbourhood watch group. We are looking for illegal crossings by aliens. When we spot them, we will report them to the proper authorities,” James Gilchrist, the head of the Minutemen Project, said in an interview with a website called V-Dare (named after Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World).
“We will not be confrontational with anyone.”
However, he said “each volunteer will be solely accountable for his or her actions”.
The US Border Patrol caught about 1,260 people a day last year trying to enter the United States illegally along a 260-mile stretch of the Arizona border, known to federal agents as “the Tucson sector”.
Cheap Mexican labour continues to put Americans out of work, but it has also helped American companies to compete with overseas rivals.
Politicians, meanwhile, are keen to avoid upsetting the Hispanic vote. The Minutemen have claimed a limited victory, however, after the Bush Administration said that it would deploy extra border patrol agents to Arizona.
Not since the days of the Gunfight at the OK Corral has Tombstone seen such civil unrest. The town (population: 1,504) was the location of the legendary showdown between the City Marshall, Wyatt Earp, his friend Doc Holliday and a group of cowboys.
The Minutemen’s website tells volunteers that “the main opposition to anything we do here will come out of Tucson”, in Arizona. It goes on to say: “We have about 30,000 Hispanics, mostly Mexican-American, with most of them concentrated in the town of Douglas.
“They’ve been here ever since the US Cavalry sorted out the Apaches and know quite well just how unsuccessful the Spaniards and Mexicans were.”
Meanwhile, members of a Central American gang, MS-13, have reportedly been issued orders to “teach a lesson” to the Minutemen volunteers.
Mr Gilchrist said: “We’re not worried because half of our recruits are retired trained combat soldiers. And those guys are just a bunch of punks.”
Full Article Here
Too bad I don\'t live in Arizona I would sign up. 1000 + people rotating throughout the month should be a sign to the government, especially Bush, deploy the National Guard to secure our southern border because a few extra Border Patrol agents aren\'t gong to be that effective. The Border Patrol lacks the manpower and I can understand them getting upset with the Minutemen, it brings to light the fact they can\'t do their job.
