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Lawmakers tour Mexican border
Overnight visitors include members of Minutemen

By Fernando Quintero, Rocky Mountain News
October 5, 2005

COCHISE COUNTY, Ariz. - A short, rusty barbed-wire fence that runs along a dry riverbed is all that separates the United States from Mexico in this remote corner of the desert.

"It's not much of a fence, is it?" said state Rep. David Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs. "Come one, come all."

Schultheis was joined Tuesday by state Reps. Jim Welker, R-Loveland, and Bill Crane, R-Arvada, on the second day of their visit to Arizona, which will include overnight visits to the border with members of the Minuteman Project. Minuteman volunteers observe illegal border crossings and report their findings to federal border patrol officials.

The three Colorado lawmakers are on a fact- finding mission in preparation for a push in the legislature or possibly the voting booth to eliminate or limit services to people in the United States illegally.

Schultheis formed a Republican study committee to examine the costs of illegal immigration to the state, including money spent on health care, education, and prisons. That followed his unsuccessful bid last year to form a bipartisan committee to examine these issues as well as the failure of his other bills aimed at addressing illegal immigration.

Most of Tuesday was spent touring an area known as a drug smuggling route about 25 miles southeast of Sierra Vista in southeastern Arizona.

The lawmakers took handguns, but disarmed when they walked along the fence because federal regulations restrict the use of arms along the border.

The tour was organized by Glenn Spencer, whose home is about 1,000 feet from the border. He recently organized a number of border-watching activities, including a few with the Minuteman group.

Spencer said he had been a military researcher who worked at the Pentagon before moving to Arizona to set up a nonprofit group that investigates illegal immigration.

He showed aerial photographs and videos of immigrants crossing the border illegally near his home. He also showed visitors a miniature reconnaissance plane with a camera attached to it that he spent $40,000 to develop and build.

"We do this to expose the malfeasance of U.S. border patrol officials, who have failed us in protecting our borders," he said. "What can U.S. citizens do to help? A lot."

Spencer also told the Colorado legislators and a group of Republican political candidates from Arizona about a volunteer who crossed the border into Mexico and brought back a "simulated weapon of mass destruction."

"We did it to see if anybody would try to stop us," Spencer said. "This happened supposedly along the most heavily policed border area in the United States."

Welker said seeing the vulnerability of the border firsthand, and listening to stories about the growing number of illegal crossings, demonstrated the severity of problems with U.S. immigration policy and the lack of security.

"Aside from the cost factor, there is the cost to our culture," Welker said.

"It was tradition in America to learn our history, learn English, and become a productive citizen. With so many illegal aliens coming in so fast, we can't assimilate all that. It's become a big mess," he said.