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Residents rally for state border police


By: DEIRDRE NEWMAN - Staff Writer

MURRIETA ---- Signs, American flags and the booming voice of Gayle Nyberg shouting through a megaphone were all used Saturday to get drivers on California Oaks Road to pull over and show their support for the establishment of a state border police.

About 30 supporters of the initiative rallied for four hours in the blazing sun in front of Brunswick Cal Oaks Bowl to get people to sign petitions so the police initiative can meet a December deadline of garnering 600,000 signatures of registered California voters, rally attendee Lupe Moreno said.

The initiative would create a state police force to patrol the border and enforce federal immigration laws, including laws against employers who intentionally hire illegal immigrants. It's sponsored by Assemblyman Ray Haynes, R-Murrieta.


A border police is necessary to stave off the ills caused by illegal immigrants, said Don Shank, who attended the rally with his wife, Alphie.

"Our country is going downhill," he said. "Schools are closing, emergency rooms are closing. To keep them incarcerated costs so much."

Many of the people at the rally are involved with the Minuteman Project, which sent local volunteers to Arizona's border with Mexico, and California's border with a similar group, the California Minutemen. The two groups tried to help the U.S. Border Patrol by watching out for illegal immigrants and reporting them to authorities. While they contended they are helping maintain the laws that the federal government isn't enforcing, their efforts spawned protests at the border by groups accusing them of being vigilantes and racists.

Initiative supporters are simply trying to fill a void created by the federal government's lack of enforcement, said Moreno, of Santa Ana, who formed her own group called Latino Americans for Immigration Reform.

"People think because we're Latino, we don't respect the rule of law," she said. "We do. We're wondering why our government is not doing what it's supposed to be doing."

One driver who was drawn to the cause was Mark Reed of Murrieta. Sitting in the driver's seat of his Ram 2500 truck with a license plate that said "Nevada Redneck" nestled in his front window, he said he'd been looking to sign the petition.

"The problem is (the federal government) doesn't have enough funding," said Reed, a police officer. "I don't think it should fall upon local law enforcement, but like everything else, it does. Anything we can do to stop the influx of illegals (would help)."

To Nyberg, who jokingly calls herself 'the megaphone queen,' the fate of the entire state is at stake.

"It's so important to save our state," she said. "We're losing it. American citizens are losing their rights, their state. Illegals are coming in, taking over. We're losing ground, but we're not giving up without a fight."

Petition gatherers at the rally obtained a little more than 100 signatures Saturday, event organizer Robin Hvidston said. They will be traveling around Southern California with their petitions every Saturday, Shank
said.