Thread: Long Islander takes post on border

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LIer takes post on border

BY SID CASSESE
STAFF WRITER

November 9, 2005

"If the border is the starting line, Long Island is too often the finish line," Long Beach immigration lawyer Francis X. McQuade said last week about his recent efforts to stop would-be illegal immigrants entering California from Mexico.

McQuade and a buddy spent two nights "patrolling" a mile stretch of the California-Mexican border wall that he said was so crumbled at spots that trucks could be driven through.

"Our big decision was whether to warn people off by lighting up the border as much as possible or to wait in the dark for them to try and sneak over," McQuade said. "We were advised that lying in wait could be dangerous and to go for the light, which we did."

McQuade said they never encountered any crossing attempts, but did hear dogs barking one morning, which meant that someone crossing was passing through neighboring backyards, he was told.

With offices in that Long Beach and Brentwood, McQuade is a socially progressive Republican committeeman who has twice run unsuccessfully for a seat on the Nassau County Legislature. He said he doesn't help many illegal immigrants in his job as a lawyer. He is also a bit torn between siding with those illegally entering the state to escape poverty and those who must bear the weight of that escape.

"I understand their desperation, but I can't condone it. The price is too high - on both sides of the border. It strains this nation's resources and breaks up families, often permanently, on the other side of the border," said McQuade, president of the Long Beach Republican Club.

A Catholic priest from 1981 to 1987 and a former cop on Fire Island from 1976 to 1979, McQuade, 51, has a predominantly Hispanic clientele. His wife, Mercedes, is an Ecuadorean immigrant.

"Look, I understand what it is to be humane, as well as the Statue of Liberty words 'Give me your tired, your poor,' but such a flood of people over our southern borders was not anticipated," he said.

Saying he wanted a clearer picture of border crossings and of the California Minutemen, which he said is a U.S. Border Patrol auxiliary but is compared by others to the Ku Klux Klan, McQuade and his friend flew to San Diego, then drove to Campo, where they soon found Minutemen and then the border.

The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps is a private, volunteer, Arizona-based group operating in several Southwestern states along with similar but usually smaller groups, such as the Friends of the Border Patrol and the California Border Watch.

McQuade said that upon his arrival at the border, the first thing the Minutemen leader did after interviewing them was "to issue us walkie-talkies, high-beam stop lights, infra-red scopes and firearms, a .45 and a Beretta," McQuade said.

Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens in Washington, D.C., said his group opposes the actions of the Minutemen.

"It's a bad idea to have vigilantes enforce any law, and it's especially bad when they're people who come out of the white supremacist movement and are carrying weapons," Wilkes said. "Look, crossing the border without an inspection is a misdemeanor."

Todd Fraser, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman in Washington, D.C., conceded that the civilian volunteers could be armed, as long as they're following the law. But he was ambivalent about the Minutemen's actions, while conceding the group has brought attention to the problem.

"When the Minutemen patrol in our areas, we have to monitor them," Fraser said. "It's an added element to our job. We don't support the civilian volunteer groups, but we don't oppose them, either."

The Border Patrol does not know how many immigrants enter the country illegally, Fraser said. But 9,691 of its 11,129 officers cover the Southwest border, where the patrol made 95.5 percent of its nearly 1.2 million arrests in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has continually faced immigration issues since taking office, has endorsed the Minutemen and compared them to a neighborhood watch group.

McQuade said he admired what the Minutemen were doing.

"Minutemen along the border were prepared to offer food and water to those crossing ... " McQuade said. "But we also would have reported their entry to the Border Patrol."

McQuade, who has met hundreds of Mexican immigrants on Long Island, said he was curious about the border crossings and the Minutemen.

"I saw how easy it would be to cross and I was impressed with the Minutemen," he said. "I never served in the military, but at the border, I felt like I was defending my country. I plan to return there in January."

LULAC--we don't care what you think.

US BORDER PATROL "we don't support them but we don't oppose them either". Grow a Spine.

MINUTEMEN--WE LOVE YOU AND SUPPORT YOU!!