http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?news ... 9392&rfi=6

Civilian border watchers scout perilous terrain
By ELIZABETH WHITE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
09/17/2006
EL INDIO — Ted Prescott said he should be watching football and drinking beer at home. Instead, the 51-year-old Texas Minutemen member was just beginning his second civilian border watch on a ranch about 20 miles southeast of Eagle Pass near El Indio, slogging through the mud dressed in camouflage while scoping out likely hiding places for illegal immigrants.

“Just every little bit helps,” said Prescott of the Fort Worth area. He said he was just as happy when his presence turns back immigrants to Mexico as when they are apprehended after he alerts U.S. Border Patrol agents.

Prescott was one of about a dozen volunteers from several groups doing “recon” work in the heavy brush Tuesday afternoon ahead of nighttime patrols. Others planned to come out later.

The volunteers are in South Texas for “Operation Sovereignty,” which kicked off Monday in Laredo with a rally featuring Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist.

The aim of the eight-week operation, which began field operations Tuesday under overcast skies and a constant drizzle, is to alert authorities to as many illegal immigrants as possible and act as a deterrent to any would-be crossers who might hear about or see their efforts.

They say their main concern is homeland security, but also the corruption of American culture and economic impact to the U.S. economy.

“Don’t tell me that someone couldn’t drive a bomb into the United States and not get caught,” said Curtis Collier, president of U.S. Border Watch, based in the Houston suburb of Spring. Collier said there is a way to navigate roads near this piece of the Texas-Mexico border so as to avoid Border Patrol checkpoints.

Scott Lykens, 40, of the Las Vegas Minutemen, said culture is lost when people are able to cross without having to learn the customs of the other side.

Volunteers, most wearing camo or khakis and lace-up boots, complained about facilities built for day laborers, corporate support of Latino advocacy groups and those who send money earned in the United States to their out-of-country families.

“It’s just not right that the American people have to pay the price for it,” Lykens said.

LULAC President Rosa Rosales has said the Minuteman efforts carry with them the “perception of racism.”

Some volunteers planned to stay a few days, others the whole week. The operation ends on Election Day, Nov. 7.

The volunteers scouted the thorny mesquite- and prickly-pear covered terrain, spotting several sites they said had been used by illegals. Barbed wire fence a few feet high was cut in some places and apparently marked for later entry with broken branches.

The border watchers marked a couple of spots themselves with pieces of an animal skull jawbone they found so they could stake them out later.

“When you get down like this you can see the doorways,” Collier said, squatting and indicating a pathway under some trees and through some brush.

Collier said the groups provide their own equipment, including heat and motion sensors, binoculars and night vision goggles. Much of the land the volunteers hope to canvass is private, so they have to get permission from ranch owners before entering.

The Laredo sector of the U.S. Border Patrol says it respects their rights but that border security is a job best left to trained law enforcement and that any sightings should be reported to them.

The volunteers abide by a policy of observe and report, meaning they aren’t supposed to confront or try to detain anyone suspected of crossing illegally. But Collier said if immigrants don’t see the volunteers, they’ll “track” the crossers so Border Patrol can better pinpoint their location.

“Come the legal way, do what you’ve got to do to get here,” said Dayton Booker, 30, of U.S. Border Watch. “Come correct.”