Thread: High Desert Minuteman stresses activism

http://www.desertdispatch.com/2005/112524534214717.html

APPLE VALLEY -- Luca Zanna will tell you that there is more to being a good American than just paying your taxes and getting to work on time.

It's about being a good citizen, actively participating in democracy -- and obeying the law.

That's why he's so disturbed about illegal immigrants' failure to assimilate and the changing face of the nation.

Zanna's concerns have led him and others to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border, hoping to stop some of the estimated 3 million illegal aliens who try to enter the United States every year. Zanna 37, along with David Longman, 49, have founded High Desert Minuteman. Zanna has performed border patrols with the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, based in Tombstone, Ariz. Longman is planning his first trip to the border in October.

Earlier this year, Longman was listening to a Las Vegas radio talk show. He heard a caller speaking to the show's host and really felt he had shared ideals with the caller. That caller, was Zanna.

But the tiny group is more about political activism at the state level than about preventing illegal immigrants from crossing the border.

Longman and Zanna, a naturalized citizen who immigrated from Italy in 1998, both spend significant amounts of time each week researching voting records and contacting politicians directly to express their concerns.

The two men are in constant communication with other activist groups and organize protest rallies like one Wednesday outside Rep. Jerry Lewis' offices in Redlands.

High Desert Minutemen contend that Lewis has been inactive when it comes to passing effective immigration reform legislation. They feel Lewis is out of touch with the majority of his constituents on the issue.

"Illegal immigrants who come to this country, enjoy the benefits of this country and abuse the system" are part of the reason he became involved in the illegal immigration issue, said Longman.

"I'm pro-immigrant. Luca, is pro-immigrant, obviously. What I am is anti-illegal immigrant, and what a lot of people try to do is blur that together," said Longman. "A lot of what we're trying to do is be constructive, to be well informed and take a look at our representatives, which in this case is Jerry Lewis and look at his voting record, see how he's voting on this issue, write letters, see if he is responsive."

Zanna is a gentle man who is philosophical in his views on the impact illegal immigration has on our state and the rest of the nation. He stresses the importance of recognizing that the negative impact illegal immigration is having now, and how the problem could grow into something that would affect the country for generations to come. Zanna is a big-picture thinker who spends time focusing on solutions as opposed to who is to blame.

He asserts that many of the problems our nation faces are created in part because of Americans' indifference to issues outside the scope of their daily lives. Zanna says that we as individuals need to realize the greatest cause is that of our nation's best interest, not our interests as individuals.

"This is not about me, this is not about you, this is about us," said Zanna. "As Americans we can't close the door to our house and say this is not my problem, this is somebody else's problem. For me illegal immigration is not the problem, it is just the tip of the iceberg.

While Zanna my view the matter of illegal immigration as just piece of a much larger picture, the fact remains that the rate at which people are illegally entering the United States is increasing drastically.

In 2004, U.S. Border Patrol arrested 1,073,468 Mexicans and 65,814 non-Mexicans trying to cross the southern border. In 2003. those numbers were 865,850 and 39,215, respectively, according to the agency's Web site.

The Department of Homeland Security estimates that only about one-third of Mexican nationals who try to illegally cross the border are caught. Among those who applied for legal status in 2004, Mexicans accounted for 18.5 percent or 175,364, of the 946,142 applicants.

The original border watchdogs, Minuteman Civil Defense Corps., was founded by Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox. Minuteman Civil Defense Corps has chapters in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Only a few weeks ago, California started its own chapter of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps headed by Tim Donnelley. The California chapter is known as Minuteman Corps of California.

Margaret Waite, 53, and John Waite, 40, of Apple Valley are members of the newly formed Minuteman Corps of California. They said that seeing the state being overrun by illegal immigrants who financially burden the state is what lead them to join.

"We got involved because of the need to help, the need to do something", said John Waite. "If we stay on the border long enough, eventually the (federal) government is going to have to take over. Until we're relieved, we're going to stay there."

The Waites plan to be on patrol at the border in September.

http://www.firejerrylewis.com/




Luca, Lupe and Frank



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http://www.alipac.us/article670.html