Thread: April's volunteer border watch project focus of controversy

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/breaking/0 ... uteman.php

April's volunteer border watch project focus of controversy
ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
The Associated Press

TOMBSTONE - David Weik is of a split mind when it comes to a project kicking off Friday that calls for armed civilian volunteers to watch for illegal border crossings and report them to federal officials.
While he thinks the Minuteman Project could help ease the illegal traffic that plagues southern Arizona, he also worries volunteers lacking law enforcement training wouldn't know what to do if fired upon by smugglers bringing illegal immigrants or drugs through the area.

"That could provoke something even worse," said Weik.

He is not alone in his fears.

Project organizers say 800 to 1,000 volunteers will be coming Friday to rally in this one-time silver mining town, which was made notorious by Wyatt Earp's 30-second gunfight with the Clantons and McLaurys.

They will then fan out across 23 miles of the San Pedro Valley - each group in view of another - to watch the border for the entire month and report sightings of illegal activity to Border Patrol agents.

Arizona has been the focal point for illegal entries from Mexico for years, since Border Patrol crackdowns in California and Texas took hold. Cochise County, which includes Tombstone, has been among the most active smuggling corridors and has previously attracted several civilian patrol operations.

Organizers believe their efforts, with volunteers from across the country recruited over the Internet, will finally drive home the point to the American public that the porous southern border is vulnerable to infiltration by illegal immigrants, drug smugglers and potentially terrorists.

Minuteman field operations director Chris Simcox described the project as "the nation's largest neighborhood watch group." It's also a political protest on behalf of citizens frustrated over government inability to end illegal activity despite their "begging, pleading and demanding," he said.

"This is not a call to arms," added Jim Gilchrist, a retired CPA from Aliso Viejo, Calif., who organized the project. "This is not a war."

Gilchrist said some volunteers will pack handguns, allowed under Arizona law, but that observers are being instructed to avoid confrontation, even if shot at.

Still, authorities, Mexican officials and others are worried about the potential for violence.

Some are concerned both about the people the project may attract - at least one white supremacist group has mentioned the project on its Web site - and about smugglers who are known to attack even Border Patrol agents and other law officers.

"I wouldn't anticipate that people of that persuasion would act or react any differently to anybody, citizen or law enforcement alike, if they were confronted and felt like their cargo was in jeopardy," said Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever. "So yeah, I'm real concerned about that."

Dever and Michael Nicley, chief of the Border Patrol's Tucson sector, discounted that the Minutemen's vigilance will help law enforcement. "That's not the kind of help the Border Patrol is asking for," Nicley said.

The sheriff is frankly skeptical that everyone who signed up for the project will show up. Similar efforts in the past have drawn few participants.

Others in this town nearly 30 miles north of the Mexican border don't share authorities' concerns about the volunteers.

"I've met five or six of them, they haven't been too bad so far," said Tombstone Mayor Andree De Journett. "These guys seem upright."

De Journett thinks of the volunteers more as tourists and said they could boost the local economy. "Vigilantism is shooting and hanging them, right? Till they become vigilantes ... they're not. It's tourism," he said, estimating that 500 extra visitors for a month could mean $10,000 or more spent daily in Tombstone and the county.

Marilynn Slade, Tombstone's city clerk, said she thinks the more attention drawn to problems related to illegal immigration, the better.

"The vast majority of the people feel that the feds should be dealing more aggressively with the problem - not just from the crossing standpoint but from the impact to everybody's economy, cleaning up the debris that's left and impacts to the health care systems and schools and everything else," Slade said. "There's a huge, huge cry down here."

Steve Goldstein, owner of Big Nose Kate's Saloon, said there's merit in citizen concern and involvement in neighborhood watches, but he remains troubled that an economic boost could come at the cost of lives.

"The consequences of something like that is what the sheriff is looking at," Goldstein said. "The consequences could be dire. This is not a game."

A network of mostly Hispanic activists is mobilizing in response to the Minuteman plan and will protest and observe their observers.

"They have every right to protest," said Armando Navarro, a University of California-Riverside political science professor and coordinator for the National Alliance for Human Rights. "The issue is the methodology, the paramilitary posture that they have adhered to, in terms of creating a climate that could be construed as a powder keg."

Navarro equated the Minuteman Project and its armed volunteers to a militia. "They are domestic terrorists that represent a danger to the country and could promote a major border conflict that will have serious ramifications and consequences," he said. "Why do they need weapons? Who are they afraid of?"

David Heppler, the Minuteman security coordinator, also acknowledged that he's concerned about volunteers carrying weapons and about the potential for violence.

"If it gets to a situation where someone's life is in danger," he said, "I will end the project."

"Dever and Michael Nicley, chief of the Border Patrol's Tucson sector, discounted that the Minutemen's vigilance will help law enforcement. "That's not the kind of help the Border Patrol is asking for," Nicley said."
Yes, you are doing such a good job of securing the border that
there are hardly any illegals in this country.

"The vast majority of the people feel that the feds should be dealing more aggressively with the problem - not just from the crossing standpoint but from the impact to everybody's economy, cleaning up the debris that's left and impacts to the health care systems and schools and everything else," Slade said. "There's a huge, huge cry down here."
Are the feds listening? Do they care? How many people will it take
to pull the feds heads out of the sand?

"Navarro equated the Minuteman Project and its armed volunteers to a militia. "They are domestic terrorists that represent a danger to the country and could promote a major border conflict that will have serious ramifications and consequences," he said. "Why do they need weapons? Who are they afraid of?"
There will be no ramifications if illegals stay out. "Domestic terrorists?"
Give me a break. They are helping secure our borders from illegal
invaders who have no right to be in the US. If you are not a US citizen,
then why would you be sneaking across the border into Arizona?
Do you have a guilty concience? If you are not a citizen, then stay out.

I'm still waiting for one of the groups opposed to the minutemen to say that they will lobby in Mexico for people to stay home or stay away from the border. They haven't seemed to have seen the web sites that plan on taking pictures of minutemen and posting them on the net as "ugly americans".

That opens up minutemen to being assaulted at home even after this project is over.

Originally Posted by AmITooLiberal

I'm still waiting for one of the groups opposed to the minutemen to say that they will lobby in Mexico for people to stay home or stay away from the border. They haven't seemed to have seen the web sites that plan on taking pictures of minutemen and posting them on the net as "ugly americans".

That opens up minutemen to being assaulted at home even after this project is over.

What sites are those?