Thread: County firm helps build 'immigration' fence

County firm helps build 'immigration' fence
Diener Consultants advising Minuteman group in fence project in Arizona.

By JACK BRUBAKER, Staff
Lancaster New Era

Published: Aug 31, 2007 11:24 AM EST

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - A Lancaster County consulting firm quietly is coordinating the building of fencing on private land as part of a project to seal the U.S.-Mexican border.

Diener Consultants, with offices at 1725 Oregon Pike, is advising the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a group with a national membership that aims to reduce illegal immigration.

"Diener is the driving force behind our political consulting, our message of how to respond to the president's inaction (on the immigration issue)," says Chris Simcox, president of the Minutemen.

The Minutemen are patrolling the U.S.-Mexican border, building a demonstration fence to halt illegal crossing of that border and lobbying the federal government to do more to stop illegal immigration.

But not everyone agrees that the MCDC and Diener are going about their border-patrol project in the right way.

President Bush opposes citizen patrols and private fences and has characterized the Minutemen as "vigilantes"

Former Minutemen have left the organization, citing a failure to account for hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, which Diener helped raise. Some defectors have formed a rival border-monitoring operation called Patriots' Border Alliance.

An Arizona man has sued the MCDC and Diener for fraud and breach of contract, alleging that they did not build, as promised, an "Israeli-style border fencing" on a private ranch in Arizona.

MCDC and Diener officials deny the allegations.

"Every penny is accounted for," says Simcox. "It's not about money being misused. It's about people disagreeing about how that money is used."

Says Diener's coordinator for the fence project, Peter Kunz of Lititz, "There's a lot of misinformation out there. A lot of it is coming from one or two sources."

So how did a Lancaster business get involved with this controversial project to patrol and fence an international border more than 2,000 miles away?

Diener is one of the best-connected political consulting groups in the United States. Under the direction of its president, Phil Sheldon, Diener has provided advice on communications and other activities to a variety of conservative and Christian causes and candidates.

Soon after Simcox, a former California elementary school teacher, launched the MCDC in April 2005, he approached Sheldon and asked for help broadcasting the Minuteman message.

"We realized that we could not manage what was going to be a national movement without hiring professional consultants," says Simcox. "Diener has provided wonderful services that have allowed us to become a household name."

Kunz says Diener's work has included fundraising, "but we get involved in communications, direct mailing, whatever the needs of the organization are."

Sheldon declined an interview for this story. Kunz says Sheldon prefers that his clients, not Diener, become the news.

Sheldon has been active in the Lancaster County Republican Party and his business has helped Republicans in county, state and national campaigns, in part by providing lists of political contacts and making mass mailings.

Sheldon helped raise money for Pat Toomey in his 2004 GOP primary challenge of U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter.

Sheldon is perhaps best known for his lobbying efforts on behalf of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman championed by the pro-life movement.

When the MCDC decided the federal government was not doing enough to stop illegal immigration and proposed the fence project in the spring of 2006, Sheldon and Kunz agreed to help with that project, too.

Kunz, who has a background in construction, says he has traveled to Arizona "a couple of times," but primarily works by telephone.

"We basically just help coordinate the effort, making sure the right people are out there," he says. "In the end, the work is done by local ranchers and contractors and volunteers."

One of the Minuteman fences in Arizona, a little less than a mile long, 14 feet high and topped by barbed wire, is described as "an Israeli-style anti-climb steel mesh fence... resistant to being rammed by vehicles." A second layer of that fence contains electronic devices designed to set off alarms.

A lower, 10-mile-long fence, elsewhere along the Arizona border, is designed to stop cattle, which Kunz says can transport disease.

The federal government also has begun erecting fencing and vehicle barriers, and the Senate last month voted to allocate an additional $3 billion for border security.

The Minutemen say the government is still moving too slowly, but if the public effort to seal the border moves into high gear, they will back off.

"The idea is to challenge the government to do their job," says Simcox. "The ultimate goal is to pack up and go home."

Simcox says the government had no intention of building fences until the Minutemen announced they would build their own.

"We drove that issue," he says. "The whole idea was to challenge the government to do their job and serve the American people, and it worked."

Meanwhile, Jim Campbell, a retired home builder in Fountain Hills, Ariz., has sued the MCDC and Diener because, he says, they did not build the fence he expected.

In his complaint, Campbell says he mortgaged his home and donated $100,000 to the project, but it never got off the ground. He says the money was diverted to other MCDC projects. His lawsuit seeks a total of $1,220,846 in damages and reimbursements.

Simcox is perplexed by Campbell's legal action.

"I don't know why Mr. Campbell has decided to renege on his offer," he says, "especially because it was the catalyst to get the government to do what he wanted them to do."

Kunz says Campbell is simply wrong.

"He donated that money for fencing in Arizona," Kunz says, "and if you look at the May issue of National Geographic there are pictures showing the steel that Jim bought in the ground and actually being used to build the Minuteman fence."

But neither the status of the fence nor the destination of donations, and not even security of the border itself, represent the largest issue, according to Kunz.

The issue is whether Americans will continue to tolerate illegal immigration and the impact millions of illegals make on communities throughout the United States.

"Illegal immigration is not just a border story. Illegals don't just reside at the border," he says. "We've been trying to get the message out to most Americans. It's not a human-rights issue: it's a law-and-order issue."

CONTACT US: jbrubaker@LNPnews.com or 291-8781
http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/208866

Related Headlines

How is the MinuteMen any different then NYC commuters? Its OK for us to "see something, say something!" And to be vigilant!



MTA Rolls Out "The Eyes of New York" Ad Campaign

Continued vigilance on everyone's part–from riders to workers to the bomb-sniffing dogs that patrol the system–is helping to keep subways, buses, and commuter rail lines safe.

That's the message in the latest series of ads from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to communicate to customers of MTA New York City Transit, MTA Long Island Rail Road, MTA Long Island Bus, MTA Metro-North Railroad, and MTA Bus Company.

One of the ads in the series, dubbed "The Eyes of New York," features close-up photographs of a dozen sets of eyes with the headline "There are 16 million eyes in the city. We're counting on all of them." The ads remind customers of the need to stay aware of their surrounds and to report anything suspicious. The ad concludes with the MTA tagline, "If you see something, say something."

Other print ads in the series feature members of the MTA Police K-9 Division with the headline "You use your eyes. He'll use his nose."

"We want to reinforce among our customers how important it is that they continue to be aware of their surroundings and to report suspicious activity or packages," said MTA Executive Director Katherine N. Lapp. "As events in Madrid, London, and other cities have demonstrated, the threat of terrorism remains very real, and we need to remind ourselves not to become complacent."

The ads will appear in local newspapers through the end of November and will be featured on subways, buses, and rail cars. A radio version, which talks about the millions of eyes of New Yorkers, has also been developed.

All versions prominently feature the special anti-terrorism hotline telephone number, 1-888-NYC-SAFE.

Customer awareness is a single component of a multi-faceted approach to making the system more secure. Since 2001, the MTA Police Department has grown substantially, increasing its patrols of MTA railroad stations and terminals and building a K-9 unit with bomb-sniffing dogs. MTA Bridges and Tunnels has increased the size of its enforcement division and instituted checkpoints at bridge and tunnel entrances to check for suspicious packages. It has also upgraded its Command and Control Center to allow for faster, more flexible responses to emergencies of all types. And New York City Transit has worked closely with the New York Police Department and various other anti-terrorism agencies to address the needs of the subway system.

According to MTA Deputy Executive Director/Director of Security William A. Morange, the assistance of passengers is critically important to maintaining a high level of security for the regional public transportation system. "It is impossible for the police departments to be everywhere and see everything. Our passengers extend our reach and-by sharing their information-make the system safer."

"The Eyes of New York" was developed at the MTA through its advertising agency, Korey Kay & Partners. The first campaign–launched in March 2003–introduced the concept of "If You See Something, Say Something." It was followed by more specific reminders that helped make riders aware that they could help improve system security by being alert to such objects as unattended packages or luggage; and in 2004 a third generation of ads featured a bomb-removal robot about to lift a suspicious package with one the headline: "Please Take Your Things. Or We Will."

All of the ads continue to feature "If You See Something, Say Something." Since the phrase was introduced by the MTA in 1993, dozens of municipalities in this country and around the world have asked permission to use it in their own anti-terrorism campaigns.