Thread: Texas Minutemen patrols start today

www.borderlandnews.com

Saturday, October 1, 2005

Minutemen patrols start today

Louie Gilot
El Paso Times

The Texas Minutemen begin to patrol a 25-mile stretch between Fabens and Fort Hancock today, a spot group members chose from other locations on the border, in part, because of the welcome they received from Sheriff Leo Samaniego.

"Nowhere have I seen the kind of willingness and welcome we have seen in El Paso County," said Frank George, the spokesman for the group and a veteran Minutemen patroller.

"Usually law enforcement runs away. They don't want to have anything to do with the Minutemen. There's political fallout. They can be called racists if they support us. But Sheriff Samaniego was extremely supportive."

The patrollers, most of whom carry weapons for protection, plan to be in the area throughout October. They sit on public land, and on private land wherever they obtain permission from landowners, and scan the border for undocumented immigrants to report to the Border Patrol.

Samaniego, who met with the group in August, explained his position.

"We're neutral. I can't keep them out of the border. It's between them and the farmers," he said.

Ray Ybarra, an organizer with the American Civil Liberties Union, said being neutral is not enough.

"By not speaking out against hatred, you invite it into your community," he said.

The ACLU will have about 20 observers following Minutemen patrollers today in El Paso and New Mexico.

Volunteers involved with the Minutemen groups said they are not motivated by hatred, but want to show that securing the border would be possible if the government provided more resources.

Split border

After the original Minuteman Project in Arizona in April, which unfolded without major incidents, the group splintered because of personality clashes and other differences.

Now about 20 to 25 groups operate from California to Texas, sharing the border.

In Texas, the Texas Minutemen cover the Fabens area, and a chapter of the Arizona-based Minuteman Civil Defense Corps will target Falfurrias, a southeast Texas town.

In New Mexico, another chapter of that group will focus on Hatchita, and a local group called the New Mexico Border Watch will patrol from Sunland Park to Columbus.

Meet the Minutemen

The leaders of the groups tend to be middle-aged men with a fondness for guns, but with little else in common.

George, the Texas Minutemen spokesman, is an electronics contractor in California and a Cuban immigrant.

"The bigger picture for me is that I was in the U.S. when Cuba was lost to communism, and I believe this country is likewise being lost" to illegal immigration, he explained.

The group's man on the ground, Shannon McGauley, is a private investigator in Dallas.

Al Garza, in charge of the Falfurrias operation, is a private investigator in Arizona and a Vietnam War veteran. To those who are surprised by the fact that he is Mexican-American, he says, "Because my last name is Garza, I should fly a Mexican flag?"

Then there is Clifford Alford, who has been patrolling the Southern New Mexico desert regularly for months with the group he created, New Mexico Border Watch. Alford is a former soldier, a current insurance investigator and an ACLU member. He doesn't like to be called a Minuteman.

"I flat-out hate the Minutemen organizations. They come here for October and they go home. They don't accomplish anything. What has helped and gotten the government's attention is a continuous presence," he said.

How many

Exactly how many patrollers will be on the ground this month is unknown.

The biggest group, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, has signed up 4,000 members for patrols on the southern and northern borders, fewer than their reported goal of 10,000.

The Texas Minutemen signed up 500 people to patrol the Fabens area, and organizers estimated that at least half would show up. But more than 100 volunteers canceled because of the hurricanes, and the remaining patrollers have not all signed up for the entire month. Some are in for only a weekend.

Alford, whose group had 150 members at one time, said there were never more than 16 patrollers on the ground at any time.

In Fabens, the patrollers said they have studied excerpts of the Texas Penal Code photocopied for them by Sheriff Samaniego and were ready to start working. The copied articles pertain to weapons possession and arbitrary detention.

It's shpwing up on Yahoo front page now again today.
Minutemen step up US border patrol; violence feared By Tim Gaynor
Sat Oct 1, 2:58 AM ET



BROWNSVILLE, Texas (Reuters) - A U.S. militia group will launch a month-long sweep for illegal immigrants along the border with Mexico this weekend, stepping up a campaign that has raised fears of violence.

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Volunteers plan to gather at seven sites between San Diego, California, and Brownsville, Texas, throughout October to scour the deserts for illegal immigrants and report them to the U.S. Border Patrol so they can be arrested.

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps began their controversial patrols in Arizona in April and spin-off groups later held similar operations in California.

Now, for the first time, the Minutemen are taking their protest to all four U.S. states along the porous 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border with Mexico beginning on Saturday.

The Minutemen, who take their name from an American Revolution militia, are keeping the specific locations secret for fear they might attract protesters, who clashed with breakaway militia patrols in California.

"It is being very tightly controlled this time because the opposition has blatantly said that they are going to direct violence at our volunteers," Minuteman founder Chris Simcox told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"Our patrols will be held on private ranch land ... Our volunteers have been well-trained and know how to deal with protesters if they do get near us and will report them to local law enforcement," he added.

In July, protesters scuffled with breakaway California Minutemen volunteers in Campo, a border town southeast of San Diego.

Some of the Minutemen were armed. U.S. President George W. Bush has called them "vigilantes" and Mexico's government dubbed the group "migrant hunters."

The Minutemen insist they are simply filling a gap in U.S. law enforcement and drawing attention to the government's failure to secure U.S. land borders.

"We will be going home when the government sends troops or the National Guard to secure the border," Simcox said. "Until then, the patrols will continue."

While most of their attention is focused on the frontier with Mexico, which millions of immigrants cross illegally every year, they also plan vigils in areas on the Canadian border.

GROWING OPPOSITION

The growth of the Minuteman patrols has stirred stiff opposition among Latino activists and many residents in towns and cities along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The California-based Brown Berets, a Mexican-American group that was allied with the revolutionary U.S. Black Panther Party in the 1960s, has vowed to confront the Minuteman volunteers during their October vigil.

An Arizona rights group, the Border Action Network, distributed posters to stores in Naco, Douglas and Nogales on the Mexican border this week, declaring the communities "hate-free zones" and saying "racist vigilantes" are unwelcome.

In Texas earlier this year, 11 state senators urged Gov. Rick Perry to oppose the Minuteman patrols, saying they could "negatively affect tourism and trade along the border" and make law enforcement "more dangerous and difficult."

In the sweltering border city of Brownsville, a court this month passed a resolution opposing the presence of "Minutemen or other vigilante groups" along a stretch of the Rio Grande in Cameron County.

The volunteers range from retired servicemen and off-duty law enforcement officers to businessmen and office workers.