TA-pac: Tancredo: We are all Minutemen Now.
Dear Team America,
Malkin: "As long as the elites in both parties continue to act
like scared monkeys, Americans will be forced to take homeland
security into their own hands. We are all Minutemen now...."
Team, I thought you might enjoy reading the two columns below by
Tom Tancredo. Also see one from WorldNetDaily on Tom and
Michelle Malkin's latest piece, "Border bungling has been a
bipartisan affair."
I had a long chat with Jim Gilchrist [MMP Co-Chairman] today. I
volunteered to give him a hand with anything he might need for
work on his website or just about anything he wants me to do. He
asked me to tell all of our members that he is taking the next
few weeks to get settled down after his five weeks on the border
and will begin organizing the next phase of the MMP soon. He
will keep us updated as things progress. Stand by!
For the Cause, Linda
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The Minutemen: America's Neighborhood Watch
by Congressman Tom Tancredo
The Pueblo Chieftain, Pueblo Colorado
Most people have now heard of the Minutemen, a group of more
than 700 citizens who went to the Arizona-Mexico border in April
to protest the government’s unwillingness to secure our borders
against illegal aliens. They ended their protest on April 20
after achieving their major goal, which was to put a national
media spotlight on the shameful farce called "open borders."
They also demonstrated that a physical presence on the border
effectively curbs unlawful border crossings.
The name "Minutemen" may have been an unfortunate choice, since
these volunteers carried not rifles, but cameras and cell
phones. They came to the Arizona-Mexico border to help the
Border Patrol spot illegal aliens entering our country.
According to Time magazine, over 3 million illegal aliens
slipped past the undermanned Border Patrol last year. Citizens
are perplexed and angry by their government’s refusal to
confront the dangers of open borders.
The Minutemen came to Arizona from 40 states, including over 29
from Colorado. From all the criticism they got from the media,
you would think that, instead of cameras and cell phones, they
were carrying hand grenades.
Last year in the month of April some 65,000 illegal aliens were
caught trying to enter Arizona in the Tucson sector. This year
that number fell considerably in the areas the Minutemen
monitored. Teams of four to six observers watched for illegal
aliens crossing the border along a 23-mile stretch. That’s all.
The volunteers did not try to halt the illegal aliens they
observed - they merely called and reported what they saw to the
Border Patrol.
The Minutemen are worried not only about the numbers; they are
worried about who is coming across our borders by stealth. For
starters, over 76,000 of the captured intruders in 2004 came
from countries other than Mexico. And in February of this year,
the deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
testified before a congressional committee that al-Qaida has
considered using Mexico to infiltrate terrorists into the U.S. -
an assertion that FBI Director Robert Mueller echoed when he
said that hundreds of "special-interest aliens" from countries
known to have terrorist cells may have already used Mexico as a
means to enter the United States.
Despite this mess, in March President Bush invited the president
of Mexico to his Texas ranch and called the citizens who are
alarmed by this insane picture "vigilantes." That makes about as
much sense as your local police chief calling the Neighborhood
Watch program a bunch of vigilantes.
In a perfect world, citizens wouldn’t have to offer help to the
Border Patrol. Unfortunately, however, the agency is simply
spread too thin to fulfill their mission. The Border Patrol has
only 11,000 agents nationwide to guard 5,900 miles of land
border. That’s less than two agents per mile, and it’s not
anywhere close to the number of people we need if we are going
to prevent our northern or southern border from being used as a
welcome mat by a terrorist group like al-Qaida.
The Minutemen have performed a valuable public service by
helping to expose just how dysfunctional our border security
apparatus really is. Now it’s up to Congress and President Bush
to act.
Tom Tancredo, a Republican, represents Colorado’s 6th
Congressional District.
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This Land Is Whose Land?
by Congressman Tom Tancredo
Los Angeles Times
People who say it's racist to want secure borders are insulting
the intelligence of the American people, and such charges betray
an empty arsenal of serious arguments. No wonder the immigration
reform movement is gaining on every front.
Last November's election gave momentum to the movement in a way
not widely reported in the media but very much understood by
political analysts and lawmakers. President Bush increased his
share of the Latino vote from about 32% to 40% in that election
â€â€
