Thread: Minutemen to heighten post-holiday patrolling

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Local news Friday, December 30, 2005

Minutemen to heighten post-holiday patrolling

Louie Gilot
El Paso Times
Friday, December 30, 2005

A local Minuteman group that has been patrolling the Fabens area off and on since October is getting ready for a "push in the next couple of weeks," said Minuteman volunteer Ken Muise, an El Pasoan.

Muise said the increased activity of the group, the Texas Minutemen, will coincide with a traditional increase in crossings of undocumented immigrants returning from Mexico after the holidays.

Shannon McGauley, president of the group and a resident of the Dallas area, is back in El Paso this weekend to organize the operation, investigate new patrol areas and meet with new volunteers, he said.

McGauley said about 15 locals are still on the ground in El Paso since the end of a nationwide operation involving volunteers with several groups along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Volunteers with the American Civil Liberties Union, which has been monitoring the group, put the number of patrollers much lower.

Muise said recruiting is going well and mentioned two Hispanic women who asked to go on patrol with him recently.

"We took them on a tour. They were nice little old ladies in their 60s, all dressed up like for a party, cute as hell. They said they would tell their friends they've got to come out here, too. They were very enthusiastic," Muise said.

The group plans to expand activities in the Big Bend area, McGauley said.

The group is not associated with the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, the Arizona group founded by the men who started the Minuteman phenomenon earlier this year.

Most of the patrollers carry guns for protection, but the group has a policy of not making contact with undocumented immigrants, only to report them to the Border Patrol, group officials said.

Border Patrol officials said patrolling the border was better left to professionals.

Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com, 546-6131.

God Bless the MinuteMen/Women...keep them safe...provide all their needs and supply them with millions upon millions of American Patriot volunteers...

That is my prayer.

RR