http://www.zwire.com

02/01/2006
Editorial: Keep an eye on border patrols
By: KEITH JENSEN , Associate Publisher

We're not sure how many area residents might be familiar with the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC). How about the Social Justice and Peace Pastoral (SJPP) or the Brown Berets (BB)?

You get an "A" in national awareness if you know of all three.

They're three groups in what sounds like a soap opera, but is realistically the first salvo in a continuing national discussion over illegal immigration/drug smuggler/terrorist interdiction in our country.

You may recognize the Minutemen when we tell you they are a privately organized, privately funded group of volunteers who are serving as an ad-hoc Border Patrol on the border with Mexico in an attempt to publicize what they consider a porous border.

If you followed the news last week, you may remember an apparent incursion by the Mexican Army on the U.S. side of the border. According to reports in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, the FBI and the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department confirmed that troops, wearing Mexican Army uniforms and armed with mounted machine guns, accompanied by civilian smugglers, were several hundred yards inside the U.S. near Neely Pass on the Rio Grande.

They were confronted by federal and local law enforcement officers and retreated back across the border, abandoning a Cadillac Escalade (which had been stolen in the U.S.) loaded with 1,400 pounds of marijuana. A second vehicle, which got stuck in the river, was burned by the retreating group. The Mexican government later denied they were soldiers in their army.

Who are the other two groups? The SJPP is a group organizing an anti-Minuteman group in Brownsville, and the BB is a California-born Hispanic civil rights group, also opposing the MCDC.

The latest twists in this tale:

January 23 -- The MCDC held a weekend border watch in Arizona with 100 volunteers, who only observe and report their observations to the U.S. Border Patrol. Their efforts led to the detention of 48 illegal immigrants. The MCDC said the Border Patrol responded quickly and professionally when alerted to the incursions.

January 25 -- The Mexican National Human Rights Commission issued a new map to guide illegal aliens through the Arizona desert. The Minutemen responded by saying they will use the map to determine where to set up their border watch posts.

January 26 -- The Mexican commission announced they were canceling plans to distribute the map guides. A spokesman reported through The Associated Press, "This would be practically like telling the Minutemen where the migrants are going to be. We are going to rethink this..."

All this byplay continues as the debate begins in the Senate on the immigration bill (HR4437, passed by the House).