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Sunday, June 12, 2005

LULAC: civilian patrols xenophobic

Darren Meritz
El Paso Times

A Hispanic rights organization on Saturday reaffirmed its opposition to armed civilian patrols along NM Highway 9 by the border watch organization called New Mexico Minutemen, which began operations last week.

Saturday, officials of a Southern New Mexico chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens denounced the Minutemen and similar organizations. The officials said the civilian border monitoring operations exacerbate racial tensions and do not represent the will and sensitivities of most New Mexicans.

"Project Minutemen's intention is a pretext in aiding law enforcement," said Paul Martinez, president of Las Cruces' LULAC council. "However, it is xenophobia at its worst."

New Mexico Minutemen Security Chief Clifford Alford, 50, has said the aim of his organization is not to promote violence or racism, but rather to stop terrorists from entering the United States.

"We're interested in making certain that they don't have much of a chance to come over here and cause trouble," he said. 'We're not racist, and I have friends who are Hispanic and value those friendships."

Saturday, Alford was the only Minuteman evident along NM Highway 9 between Santa Teresa and Columbus. Alford, of Organ, N.M., drove west on Highway 9, identifying observation posts he said would be used later by the group.

Alford said the purpose of Saturday's trip was not so much to look for undocumented immigrants as to find places observers would be stationed when the group began patrolling in earnest. He said about 40 volunteers probably would begin nighttime patrols within the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, questions have arisen about the legitimacy of the New Mexico Minutemen because it is a breakaway organization of the group that operated along the Arizona-Mexico border in April. That group is called the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

The New Mexico Minutemen are taking what Alford calls a more-humanitarian approach than the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps by providing undocumented immigrants with water and aid if necessary, and then calling Border Patrol agents.

Alford said the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is more radical in its approach to border watch operations. "They're running around with assault weapons and stuff, and we're trying to do stuff to help people."

Michael Gaddy, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps director for New Mexico, disputes those accusations. Gaddy described Alford's group as a renegade offshoot organization, which is not providing volunteers with proper training.

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, Gaddy said, distinguishes itself from the New Mexico Minutemen by using stringent background checks, training and professionalism with its volunteers.

The New Mexico Minutemen are "after glory," he said. "They're not after anything else."

Gaddy said the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps plans to begin New Mexico operations in October. A meeting with Minuteman organizers and about 30 New Mexico landowners interested in patrols on their land is scheduled for Monday in Deming, he said.

Gabriel Soto, 64, of Las Cruces, has mixed feelings about the Minutemen. He said he doesn't think citizens should be allowed to patrol the border, but neither does he think that immigration should continue unchecked.

"I think (the government) ought to control it a little bit more," he said. "Right now (immigrants) come over here whenever they want and go back whenever they want."

Ben Armijo, 38, of Las Cruces, said Minutemen patrols could be a positive thing.

"If they have the time, and they want to do it, it's on them," he said. "Everybody knows the Border Patrol is stretched thin."

LULAC's Martinez said that if any situation arose in which immigrants or non-immigrants were harmed by Minutemen in New Mexico, his organization would pursue civil and criminal recourse.

"If we find that they're harming minorities, if we find that there's any citizen of color mistaken for being undocumented, we would like to encourage them to come to us," Martinez said.

Immigration rights groups say they are studying cases in which Minutemen and similar organizations are suspected of inciting violence against or harming would-be immigrants.

Ouisa Davis, executive director of the Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services in El Paso, described a case near Deming in which a man was prosecuted for taking away the shoes of a group of immigrants and then holding them at gunpoint.

"They see themselves as some sort of national guard, which they're not," she said.

The Las Cruces Sun-News contributed to this report.

Darren Meritz may be reached at dmeritz@elpasotimes.com; 546-6127.