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Concern that borders on fear
Web Posted: 09/28/2005 12:00 AM CDT

Hernán Rozemberg
Express-News Immigration Writer

A small town in Delaware considers fining undocumented immigrants. A county in Idaho sues companies that hire them. Cops in New Hampshire arrest them for criminal trespass.

And dozens of military retirees calling themselves Minutemen plan to deploy along the U.S.-Mexico border to stop them from crossing.

Immigration enforcement used to be viewed as the sole responsibility of the federal government. Not anymore.

Opposition to illegal immigration and support for restricting levels of legal migration aren't new. But they increasingly are organized and have moved from the edge of the political mainstream to the center of the debate.

The principal catalyst seems uncomplicated: Frustration over the government's inability to halt illegal immigration. Immigration-restriction activists now include politicians, ordinary citizens, even law enforcement officers.

Their tactics are designed in part to grab Washington's attention as part of a battle they say they'd rather not be fighting.

But they're no longer willing to keep waiting for the nation's leaders to get their act together.

"They're screaming out," said Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank in New York City. "They're fed up and they've discovered creative ways to go about venting their frustration."

Controlling illegal immigration has been a long, tough struggle, federal officials admit, although they say recent crackdowns prove it can be done.

Studies now put the undocumented population in the United States at 11 million or more. But more than just skyrocketing numbers is driving grass-roots action against undocumented immigrants.

A shaky economy, fears of terrorist infiltration after 9-11 and the growing presence of immigrants in places not accustomed to them have produced unprecedented tension.

The government's repeated failure to gain control of the nation's 1,989-mile border with Mexico has prompted countless people â€â€