http://www.americanpatrol.com/GUESTCOLU ... Dwyer.html

Originally published in the May 1, 2005 issue of the Alamance Independent

PATRIOTS UNDER SIEGE (3): Flawed Reason and Moronic Advice

By Mark Andrew Dwyer -- May 6, 2005

This article is a continuation of "Patriots under Siege (From Both Sides of the Border)" and "Patriots under Siege (2): Hypocrisy and Deceit" published here for last two weeks and reposted at:

http://americanpatrol.com/GUESTCOLUMNS/ ... 19MAD.html
and http://americanpatrol.com/GUESTCOLUMNS/ ... 7MAD_.html

The last week's topics included the first part of our brief account of major pitfalls in anti-Minutemen deceitful and hypocritical rhetoric classified into the following categories:

1. Minutemen are "vigilantes" that take the law into their own hands.
2. Minutemen are a bunch of racists, nativists, and xenophobes that are afraid of new emerging Latino majority in the U.S.
3. Minutemen obstruct redistribution of American wealth to Mexicans and other Latinos.
4. Minutemen are violating illegal immigrants, rights.

In this article, we present the second part of this account.

5. Minutemen may bring violence, danger, and lawlessness to the border.

As reported by FOX News (see [2]), ACLU and "some Hispanic organizations are keeping an eye on the Minutemen, fearing they will violate the individuals' human rights." An anti-Minutemen protester was quoted saying that "they're coming into Arizona with guns and they're threatening violence and harming people." Per San Diego Union-Tribune (see [4]), in Tombstone "black-uniformed Arizona rangers, a volunteer group [apparently, no one advised them to leave the matters to trained professionals] that had been deputized by the town marshal, lined the streets. They are part of a large mobilization of local, state and federal officers who are poised to deal with any confrontation." Janet Napolitano, Arizona governor, was a little subtler in her discouragement directed at the Minutemen. She said, as reported by the Ass. Press (see [15]), that "it's a very dangerous area of the state. And she says the border watch effort increases the risks of someone getting injured or killed."

One of the most "concerned" with a possibility of "border violence" was U.S. Congressman Raul Grijalva (Dem - Arizona) who, per Seattle Times (see [16]) sent the attorney general a letter asking Gonzales to send federal agents " FBI, U.S. marshals, whatever " to the Arizona-Mexico border to monitor the Minuteman Project. (Grijalva has been one of the staunchest opponents of sending federal reinforcements to the border in order to stop illegal "immigration", ostensibly, because that would create a war zone there and would be unfair to the "migrants".)

I was appalled.

When illegal aliens are coming there from Mexico, many of them armed to teeth, that's not a problem and they should be extended a warm welcome and encouraged to make themselves at home. But not the Minutemen. Although American citizens who are free to travel in America wherever they please, they should have stayed where they came from instead of "coming into Arizona" as if they were aliens in their own country. And the fact that illegal border crossers are responsible for thousands of killings of Americans (per L.A. County District Attorney office, there are about four thousand of documented cases of suspected murderers fleeing back to Mexico from where they cannot be extradited), never mind their monopoly on illegal drugs trafficking, doesn't concern these devoted defenders of human rights of border jumpers and staunch opponents of crime and violence. Nor do criminal activities of vicious "immigrant" gangs like Mara Salvatrucha that is mostly composed of Latino illegal aliens. Apparently, they don't consider all these a violence, danger, or lawlessness. They would rather protest future violations by the Minutemen, a prognosis that, as we know today, never materialized, than direct their efforts at the root cause of the border violence and lawlessness - a lack of adequate enforcement thereof and mass "migration" from Mexico into the U.S.

6. Minutemen are a nuisance in border zone.

The Minutemen irritated Border Patrol (or so several B.P. spokesmen said) and other authorities. As reported in [17], "U.S. Border Patrol officials [...] have said that they neither need nor want the help of civilians. (This is why the border is completely under control and the population of illegal aliens in the U.S. is decreasing rapidly.) They said the Minuteman Project could put civilians who aren't trained in law enforcement in harm's way." (This is why, as quoted in the paragraph 5 above, "black-uniformed Arizona rangers, a volunteer group [] had been deputized by the Tombstone marshal to confront Minutemen should a need arise.)

San Bernardino Sun (see [18]) quoted a Border Patrol spokesman who said: "These Minutemen are causing a disruption in our normal operating procedures". (Of catch-and-release, I suppose.)

Another spokesperson was quoted by the Houston Chronicle (see [19]) saying: "They know we don't want them out there. [...] They are going to make our job a lot harder." (It must be a lot harder, indeed, to fail the job while being watched by the citizens. It would be much easier if no one saw what a failure the current border policy was.)

According to Ass. Press (see [20]), "volunteers who have converged on the Mexican border to watch for illegal immigrants are disrupting U.S. Border Patrol operations by unwittingly tripping sensors [it turned out later that it were ACLU "observers that did it] that alert agents to possible intruders." An agency spokesman, Mr. Maheda, reportedly complained that "the possibility for something going drastically wrong is very high."

As if the Border Patrol was in control of the situation so that the false tripping border sensors, not million+ illegal entrants skipping the border each year, was the biggest problem there, and as if a few hundred of law abiding citizens and not millions of illegal entrants, drug smugglers, and all the crime they bring with them, was creating a potential for something "drastically wrong."

If morons like Mr. Maheda are in charge of our border then, God, have a mercy on America.

But above all complains, one was repeated more often than the others: the Minutemen "shifted [illegal] entry to dangerous West" (quotation from [21]). Oh my! Following this kind of "fear" residents in high crime areas should stop installing bars in the first floor windows of their homes because it would force burglars to seek entry through more dangerous windows on the second floor, and that only would cause more accidents and even deaths.

An irritated smuggler, quoted by Arizona Daily Star (see [21]), aptly summarized all the "nuisance" arguments against Minutemen in one sentence: "I have no idea what their intent is, but it sounds like they'll be getting in the way."

What a nuisance these Minutemen were, indeed. Particularly for all those who profit from a lack of enforcement and illegal traffic.

7. Minutemen Project was a controversial initiative.

Eduardo Sifuentes, a staff writer at North County Times (Calif.) referred to the Minutemen Project (see [17]) as "the controversial border watch", and many other more or less open "migration" sympathizers attached the 'controversy" label to the initiative. Interestingly enough, they never referred to the "migration" itself as "controversial", nor did they called that way any of the open-border groups that push their de facto anti-American agendas in spite of stiff opposition of a vast majority of the American citizens. Even the notorious attempts by California State Senator, Gill Cedillo, to allow issuing driver's licenses to illegal aliens, was never referred to as "controversial", although Gray Davis was ousted by the California voters from his gubernatorial office for signing Cedillo's bill.

8. Border should not be enforced at all (because it's controversial).

The anti-border lobby did not have enough guts to call the American-Mexican border "controversial", although such a calling seems inevitable in the near future. "The border crossed us" is one of the mantras of the "migration" cheerleaders despite a lack of credible evidence of their claims. It's good to remember that in 1848 (when the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo was signed) there were est. 800 non-white Mexicans in entire California that at that time had population of about 300,000 people, and about 9 out of 10 Mexicans that live (legally or otherwise) in the U.S. today are post-1970 immigrants and illegal border crossers or children thereof. (See [22] for an article on that subject; originally published by L.A. Times and written by a Hispanic author, it certainly not underestimates Hispanic presence in pre-1848 American Southwest. See also my earlier commentary [23].)

Also, it's good to remember that controversiality of a border is NOT a reason to not enforce it. Almost every major war in the past begun from a border controversy. If our ancestors subscribed to the don't-enforce-it-if-it's-controversial doctrine then we all would be speaking Japanese or German by now.

9. Border enforcement should be left entirely to professionals.

A Mexican citizen was quoted by L.A. Times (see [1]) saying: "I understand the frustration of the American people but this is not the way to handle it." (As if he really cared to help us with the enforcement of our border.)

Grijalva was quoted by Ruben Navarrette, a notorious supporter of Mexican annexation of the American Southwest, in a Seattle Times editorial (see [16]) saying: "I told the Minutemen to stay home and leave the border monitoring to the professionals. Agents have enough to do without having to keep an eye on a thousand U.S. citizens to make sure they don't get out of control and hurt someone." (Yeah, right, you two are sooooooooooooo scared that the agents may get distracted and few more illegal aliens may skip the border from Mexico into the U.S.)

But the "best advice" came from a prospective illegal alien who said: "I think [the Minutemen] should leave that work to authorities." (Of course! For otherwise how could he and millions of his compatriots hope for crossing the border and remaining in the U.S. without a passport and visa?)

That's right, illegal entrants, impotent federal authorities, and the open border lobby agree: leave the job to professionals.

We would be really stupid if we took that "advice" seriously.

10. Border enforcement is not feasible.

Jorge Ramos, one of the pillars of the Mexican fifth column in the U.S., called the Minutemen Project "meaningless" (see [8]). He wrote that the Minutemen "aren't likely to have any success in stemming [Mexican] migration to the United States." Nevertheless, he didn't spare his venomous rhetoric on polemics with the purpose of that "meaningless" initiative and the "danger" (to the invaders and drug smugglers, I suppose) it poses. Then he brought up the "infeasibility" argument claiming: "To stop the flow of undocumented immigrants like this is comparable to attempting to change the course of a river with a stone; like water, the immigrants will simply find their way around the sides, to the path of least resistance."

Tamar Jacoby (see my article [24] on her open-border advocacy), promoted by the L.A. Times to the rank of "immigration expert", was quoted by the Times (see [25]) saying, in complete agreement with Ramos and other objectors of border enforcement: "This project is not going to prove anything. All it will prove is that you can funnel immigration from one place to another."

Jennifer Allen, a well known cheerleader of Mexican invasion and executive director of the Border Action Network (more adequate name of that group would be "Border Abandonment Network") all the sudden became concerned with the efficacy of the border enforcement effort. She said (see [26]): "This project is a horrendously dangerous waste of time." (If it were, she wouldn't have wasting hers to oppose it.)

Well, it's idiotic to insist that the border should not be enforced just because it seems difficult to enforce it with a 100% success rate. It's equally stupid as saying that because it's impossible to completely eradicate influenza and no vaccine gives one a 100% immunity from the virus, we should stop spending money on medical research for preventive remedies and just wait for another outbreak of inevitable flu pandemics. Using similarly flawed logic one can argue that viruses "will simply find their way around and mutate quickly to become immune to all known vaccines. (Those who agree with this sort of "logic may consider moving to Mexico or Southeast Asia and test their pandemic inevitability theories there.)

11. More nonsense.

Per San Diego Union-Tribune (see [27]), Assemblyman Hector De la Torre, a California Democrat, claimed that Minutemen "are outside the law" (which is patently false), as if illegal "migrants" were not outside the law (which he has absolutely no problems with). He also said "we" don't need Austrian Minutemen, which was just short of saying: "Whites go back to Europe". Can you imagine an outrage if a Republican lawmaker told California Democratic Party chairman, Art "Proposition-187-is-the-last-gasp-of-white-America-in-California" Torres that we don't need Mexican nationalists in California?

ACLU on their website (see [12]) claimed that Minutemen engaged in "illegal treatment of immigrants" when the correct phrase should be "treatment of illegal immigrants". (That's what you can expect from ACLU: slick and deceitful twisting of the language).

Ramos insinuated that (quotation from [8]) "xenophobic actions like those of the Minuteman Project won't resolve anything, but will only serve to underscore the great American contradiction: that this country, created by immigrants, is turning its back on them, leaving them to perish in the desert" as if Mexican "migrants" built America. It's good to remember that a vast majority of Mexicans are recent newcomers, and a vast majority of that majority posses no skills or talents necessary to create a country like ours. (If the reader has any doubts about that, he may wish to look what they have "created" in their beloved Mexico).

There is no "contradiction", Mr. Ramos, between being built by talented, ingenious, and industrious immigrants and their America-loving descendents, and not welcoming the invading hordes of your compatriots that perceive the U.S. as an extension of their Mexican breeding grounds. Besides, your own Mexican government "xenophobically" enforces Mexico's Southern border against Guatemalan and South American migrants, and you don't seem to have any problems with that. What a cheap hypocrite you are.

Per Ass. press (see [28]), at a conference on immigration and homeland security hosted by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute an immigration "expert" said that "They [illegals, that is] are staying in the U.S. longer because we've succeeded in making it too costly and dangerous to cross back." Yeah right, all that keeps them here so long is that it's so difficult to jump the border. This is why only million+ of them are actually jumping it in one year. If we only left the border open then they would all be free to go home. (Horse's feather.)

Sierra Vista Herald reported (see [29]) what seemed to me like a paramount of absurdity. Here is an excerpt. In a memo to soldiers assigned to the Network Enterprise Technology Command, Maj. Gen. James Hylton prohibited those assigned to his organization, to include the 11th Signal Brigade, "from participating in any active patrolling, monitoring or other intentional act associated with identifying and/or detaining illegal immigrants." NETCOM spokesman Eric Hortin, said the reason for the memo "boils down to safety." "We don't want to put soldiers in a situation where they could be hurt or killed," Hortin said. "The command does not want soldiers to place themselves in any situation that could pose a danger to themselves or others."

Except when these soldiers are sent to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Hylton forgot add. But the defense of the American border is definitely not worth of putting American soldiers at risk.

Perhaps the most outraging nonsense came from Cochise County Boar of Supervisors. As reported by Sierra Vista Herald (see [30]), County officials gathered around a table in the Board of Supervisors' conference room Monday afternoon to fine-tune strategies for the upcoming Minuteman Project and to set aside $100,000 to cover possible expenses connected with keeping a lid on the volunteer border-control effort. No large-scale camping or gatherings will be allowed on private property or any activity that creates a "substantial nuisance," such as traffic, garbage, raw sewage or gunfire.

"We'll pass on the sanitation costs to the organizers," one official said.

"We're going to enforce all laws, rules and regulations," another official promised.

"If a violation of 'an event of public interest' or other zoning violation occurs on private property, such as a gathering, we will notify the owner or occupant of the property and ask them to cease such activity," an official wrote in a briefing statement. "If they fail to do so, or if we are dealing with a property owner to whom we have already advised of proper zoning requirements, we will cite them into the hearing office."

"If any activity reaches the level of creating a health hazard, the environmental health director, in consultation with the sheriff and county administrator, shall seek an injunction to abate the hazard and cease the activity," he wrote.

Per Tucson Citizen (see [31]), "Cochise County may fine Miracle Valley Bible College up to $750 a day for housing Minuteman Project civilian patrol volunteers without a permit."

This is really something.

Millions of illegal aliens are being illegally housed in the U.S., which constitutes a violation of federal law whether with or without permit, and fining someone for doing so is about as rare as total eclipses of the Moon. But for a group of patriots and U.S. citizens it took just one lawful project to be cracked upon by the authorities with the hefty fine.

Millions of illegal entrants violate our border, various laws (not just the "federal laws") and countless local rules and ordnances, trespass on private property, and trash the environment with their feces and litter they leave behind which poses a serious health hazard for American residents, and Conchise County Board of Supervisors doesn't think it qualifies for an injunction and/or penalty. But a mere possibility that the Minutemen can do something against the rules puts the Board of Supervisors into an alarm mode and a hundred grand budget for their anti-Minutemen action.

And the purpose of this double standard is, I suppose, "making a playing field even".

REFERENCES

[1] http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... pr04.story
A Roadblock, Not a Barrier for Migrants
[2] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,152557,00.html
Groups Decry Renegade Border Guards
[3] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2 ... %2C00.html
Citizens Take Border Patrol in Own Hands
[4] http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexi ... inute.html
Border Volunteers Descend on Tourist Town
[5] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151961,00.html
Armed Civilians to Patrol Mexican Border
[6] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,154069,00.html
Lawmakers Remove Ecuador's President
[7] http://www.sbsun.com/Stories/0%2C1413%2 ... %2C00.html
Border Boycott Shaping Up
[8] http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtri ... ci_2648675
Project Minuteman Is Meaningless
[9] http://www.el-universal.com.mx/pls/impr ... abla=miami
Officials Will Monitor Anti-Migrant Group
[10] http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005 ... 4212.shtml
Mexican Military on Standby in Response to Minutemen
[11] http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/04 ... 212750.txt
Minuteman Day 2: All Quiet along Western Border
[12] http://www.aclu.org/ImmigrantsRights/Im ... 18029&c=22
ACLU Immigrants- Rights Project Staff Travels to Arizona to Support Monitoring Efforts by ACLU of Arizona
[13] http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/041605_nw_minute.html
SF Group Confronts Minutemen in Arizona
[14] http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/regional ... wsmichigan
Army Reservist Who Held Migrants at Gunpoint Won't Be Prosecuted
[15] http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=3149852
AZ Governor Not In Favor Of Minuteman Project
[16] http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/o ... tte31.html
Wait a Minute, Fellas, Before You Hit the Border
[17] http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/04 ... 102125.txt
Border-Crossers in Mexico Undeterred By Minuteman Project
[18] http://www.sbsun.com/Stories/0%2C1413%2 ... %2C00.html
Anti-Illegal-Immigrant Activists Report for Duty in Arizona
[19] http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3112215
Civilian Patrol Makes Some on Border Uneasy
[20] http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... lunteers_4
Border Patrol Complains About Volunteers
[21] http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/71143.php
Migrants shift entry to dangerous west
[22] http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=article&DocID=33
Taking the Oath - Why We Need a Revisionist History of Latinos in America -- L.A. Times, August 20, 2000
(For some reason, this link occasionally fails. If so then try to run Google
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=U ... gle+Search
and then click on the link to this article.)
[23] http://www.americanpatrol.com/GUESTCOLU ... Dwyer.html
WHY ARE MEXICANS POPULATING THE U.S.?
[24] http://www.americanpatrol.com/GUESTCOLU ... 16MAD.html
OUTSOURCE FARMING, NOT HIGH TECH
[25] http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... -headlines
Border Watchers Capture Their Prey
[26] http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N30194755.htm
Foes of illegal immigration to patrol Mexico border
[27] http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib ... 29gov.html
Governor's kudos for Minutemen brings outcry
[28] http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanlui ... 280733.htm
Study says immigration patterns changing with new border security
[29] http://www.svherald.com/articles/2005/0 ... /news1.txt
Minuteman Project: Concern for safety is reason; group
member says military got bad advice
[30] http://svherald.com/articles/2005/03/29 ... /news1.txt
County says it's ready for Minutemen
[31] http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php? ... _minuteman
College facing fines for housing Minutemen without permit