Thread: Riding shotgun on border

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Riding shotgun on border

Gung-ho vols draw line in sand to halt Mex. tide

BY MICHELLE CARUSO
DAILY NEWS WEST COAST BUREAU CHIEF


CAMPO, Calif. - A wind-whipped American flag rigged to the roof of a beatup camper marks base camp for the Minutemen volunteers who have come here to guard the rugged U.S.-Mexico border from intruders.
Three thousand feet high in the mountains, 50 miles southeast of San Diego, this is four-wheel-drive territory - vast, harsh, uninhabited, except by rabbits, rattlesnakes and the occasional mountain lion.

But for now, as the battle over illegal immigration rages in Congress and on city streets across America, this windswept 13-mile stretch nicknamed "Brokebutt Mountain" is home to a band of self-appointed border guards who say they only want to enforce the law.

If they spot intruders, the Minutemen say they shine their lights and call the Border Patrol. They say they don't try to apprehend anyone themselves.

"Our government is not doing the job. When I saw how bad it was, I decided to come out here and serve my country again," says T.S. McMullen, a 50-year-old California-bred ex-Marine with a Rambo-style physique and accessories.

With a .44-caliber rifle to the left of the steering wheel in his camouflage-painted Silverado truck and a .45-caliber automatic pistol strapped to his chest, he says the weapons are "no more than self-defense."

"No Minuteman has ever shot anyone, but the druggies fired at us near the Jacumba [Calif.] border post," said McMullen, who has spent the last six months on the border, living out of his truck with a one-burner stove and freeze-dried rations.

In his view, the illegal Mexican immigrants who sneak into the United States to find work are a small fraction of the problem with the nation's broken and largely unmanned border. Druglords and possible terrorists can just as easily slip in, he said.

"This is a way in - with nothing to stop 'em," McMullen said, pointing out a gaping hole in the 8-foot-high corrugated steel fence that is the only barrier between Mexico and California. In some spots, only easily climbable criss-crossed steel girders protect the boundary.

Minutemen bristle at charges they are "racist," insisting they have nothing against the Mexican people. "These poor guys come here to get work. I'd probably try to do the same if I were in their shoes," McMullen said. "But I don't like people who come to my house through the back door."

Using walkie-talkie handles like "Bandit," "Romeo" and "Big Bird," the volunteers patrol the border on foot and in vehicles all through the night. Some, like McMullen, wait until sunrise to sleep in their trucks or tents.

The group has recruited volunteers around the nation, including Long Island, and organizers say up to 8,000 volunteers are expected to patrol the border by the end of this month. But only about 10 were at the Campo site last Thursday. Heavy rains and muddy, sometimes impassable, roads were blamed for the turnout.

Max Kennedy, 52, a cranky Brooklyn native with a long list of complaints about society's ills, says he came to the border from Hyannis, Mass., about two weeks ago "to do what the government should be doing."

"George Bush is selling this country down the drain. Unless the average citizen is willing to stand up and do something, we will not have a country left," he said.

Kennedy said he left Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in 1995 after his car was deliberately rammed by an irate man who was never prosecuted.

"All I want is for people to come here legally. There's no room to rescue these people," he said. He believes illegal immigrants have "driven down wages" and scarfed up cheap housing. He blames "greedy corporations" for exploiting the immigrants as "slave labor."

The Minutemen said they are "dead set against" any guest worker program that would allow illegal immigrants to continue working in the United States. "The people who support that are traitors to our country," McMullen said.

Originally published on April 9, 2006

The MinuteMen...God bless and keep them.

RR